Law and Order SVU (I gotta vent)

I am also a big L&O fan, and I watched last night's SVU episode. I was pretty upset, especially since I stayed up late to watch it and all it did was make it harder to fall asleep afterward.

I really didn't understand the purpose of the entire civil hearing though, are prosecuters not able to enter into a plea bargin for what ever reason they see fit as long as the trial judge signs off? It appeared to me the deal was based on the the prosecuter's confidence in the jury, regardless of the specific evidence presented to them.

I can hardly wait until the grabbers start citing this mythical TV study on children & gun violence as "fact" . . .

Anyone waanna start a pool on when the first 'citation' comes up or whether the Brady Bunch will pick it up/co-opt it?

cuchulainn said:

Battlestar Galactica is one of the best shows on the tube. But it's got it's PC elements too. For example, that's why Starbuck is a woman. But at least it doesnt' shove the PC stuff down our throats.

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Yeah, but she smokes cigars and beats people up, so who cares.

Mike in VA:

I can hardly wait until the grabbers start citing this mythical TV study on children & gun violence as "fact" . . .

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It wasn't mythical. You apparently didn't read my previous post nor check the links I provided.

As a general gripe, sometimes it's irritating when someone makes a comment demonstrating they don't read a thread all the way through and thereby can miss a key element of discussion or render their own remark meaningless.

Yeah, but she smokes cigars and beats people up, so who cares.

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Gotta love her.

I saw it too

And I would say it really came out "neutral" regarding gun control and violence...While they try to use a bogus study against guns they also tore apart the argument that seeing gun violence causes gun violence, and placed it upon personal responsibility....

I watch the various L&O shows, and don;tthink they are particularly biased, unlike other shows...

You have to take a step back,and look at someof these shows objectively....

Fastlane said:

I watch PBS. They have some good programs compared to regular TV.

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Their recent multi-part series on President Reagan was very good.

I think that most of the crime anthologies help our cause rather than hinder it. Making people more aware of the indiscriminate brutality in our midst will further the understanding that self defense is a basic human right, not a priviledge.
JH

I used to watch "The Simpsons" until I saw the episode where Homer gets a gun. It was funny but they had a "guns are bad" atmosphere. I used to watch L & O with my parents but they started portraying guns with a similar attitude.

I watch Sanford & Son on DVD now. I have all 6 seasons of it. I also watch other old shows on DVD.

I would also like to mention that SVU has had some of the worst gun handling and police use of force that I have ever seen in a serious show (not like a T.J . Hooker, Miami Vice farce)

There was an episode where the gang was chasing a child molster. For some legal reason said molester gets off but mocks Elliot as being a female sex organ as he couldn't catch him.

Elliot and Olivia go to his house (perhaps without a warrant) and are snooping in his basement for evidence. They hear a commotion upstairs and go up to find the molester with a young kidnapped girl. He says them and starts to strangle her (no weapons visible) and taunts them to shoot him. He tells Elliot if he shoots him, then he (Elliot) will be female organ again and/or Elliot doesn't have the guts to shoot him anyway. Elliot is stunned into a psychological fugue and is probably thinking about that he is truly a female organ. Olivia then shoots the dude in the shoulder. She doesn't shoot him in the noggin as that would depress Elliot as he couldn't pull the trigger.

I was yelling at the screen, shoot him (using the appropriate technique for a close up hostage scene). My wife had to tell me to shut up.

Blah

First, the older episodes of L&O were entertaining. the problem now is that they are more about the entertainment then reality. I love how they do suppression hearings on evidence running down a hallway chasing a judge arguing about what happened, and the judge rules as the elevator door closes. No hearing. No witnesses. No briefs. Just a running debate in a hallway.

The problem is that the jury pool is made up of people who watch these shows, and expect prosecutors to be like Sam Watterson. I even joke about it in my voir dire. But it is true. Hell, I won't even wear a colored shirt to trial since a juror told me that real prosecutors, like on L&O, wear white shirts and dark suits.

That said, I will fully admit that I love the new Battlestar. I was a fan of the old one as a kid, but having watched some reruns on SciFi, I wonder why. The new one has great SFX, better stories, and the entire plot-line is simply better thought out. Add the fun twists (human/Cylons, cylons as montheistic sentient beings, not simply cold, souless machines) and it's more interesting. Though, I've got to wonder, on the episodes where a group goes planetside, why keep sinding the darn pilots to fight on terra firma, when you've got squads of Marines on board, ready and willing.

I've got to wonder, on the episodes where a group goes planetside, why keep sinding the darn pilots to fight on terra firma, when you've got squads of Marines on board, ready and willing.

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For the same reason Kirk/Spock, Picard/Riker went planetside all the time, despite there being squads of Red Shirts willing to go -- the plot revolves around the main characters.

Why am in this red shirt? What am I doing on this planet? Hey, why's that cloud talking to us?

Thefabulousfink said:

Law and Order (aka TNT's entire programming schedual) is a much overrated pile of steaming television garbage. The few times that I have been tempted to sit down and watch it I have either had Hollywood agenda crammed down my throat, or seen gross violations of power on the part of the characters.

If you want a good drama, watch 24 on FOX or the new Battlestar Galactica on SciFi.

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The action was on ABC last night they finally made up for when they bumped us for the Thomas hearings. We are Penn State.!!!!!

We need a team of real prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges
and LEO to tell the public that these TV shows are bilgewater
and more fantasy than sci-fi channel. According to what I hear
on Court TV, today jurors believe that real CSI can solve a crime in
one hour. Reality check please.

I love L&O. They have taken on topics that are highly controversial before, including several episodes where the defendent uses the pressures of racism as a defense for their actions. I have noted that they do bend towards the liberal side when it comes to guns. Perhaps the most ridiculous is when a detective looks a perforated victime and says "looks like a 9MM." Uh, as opposed to a .38 sp or .357 mag.

Regarding the kids exposed to violence study, pathetically poor science. So many other correlating factors can be attributed to the statistical increase that the data is rendered useless. This is a case where simple logic should be your guide - violent kids come from violent surroundings, irregardless of whether or not guns are the tools of that violence.

On an unrelated note, The Gunny got it on at the machine gun shoot in Kentucky last night. Gotta love Mail Call. Long live Ermy!

CAS700850 said:

... Though, I've got to wonder, on the episodes where a group goes planetside, why keep sinding the darn pilots to fight on terra firma, when you've got squads of Marines on board, ready and willing.

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When did they send pilots to actually fight?

Yep, another vote for Mail Call on THC.

Where I work overnight, we have a tv. It's only got an antenna for reception. I try to ignore most of the garbage that comes out of it. My colleague however watches everything, including that L&O episode last night. All I can say is, that's just further evidence that night time television is by and large, pure trash.

I was actually watching 24 until Jack's wife fainted in the first season and came up with amnesia. I thought that was extremely corny. Haven't watched the program since.

Never lose faith in the stupidity of The American Sheeple

That there is a study isn't what erks me though. What dose is many people will take what was on SVU as absolute fact without finding out any information.

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I saw the episode last night and was irritated, but not surprised. As I told my wife, last night there were millions of The American Sheeple sitting in front of their TVs saying, "Yup, yup, that's it, guns are the cause of all violence in the world; only the police and soldiers should have them."

The ignorance and gullibility of The American Sheeple as regards gun issues is both apalling and mind boggling. "I heard it on TV, it has to be so" seems to be their worldview.

Those who would disarm us have demonstrated that they are completely and totally devoid of any shred of integrity and honesty and will stoop to telling any lie to achieve their end.

We can boycott companies who advertise on SVU and write them letters telling them so, and we should. My boycott list is starting to get really long...

OK, Old Dog, I admit I skim some threads, I don't thoroughly read every post and embedded citation, nor vett thier sources and bibliographies. I'll further stipulate that I believe that regular exposure to violence of any sort makes it easier for those exposed to participate or perpetrate violence in the future.

However, I doubt that the TV writers do, either, and I further suspect that they 'cherry pick' snippets from the research that supports their agenda, rather than present the reseach in context with attribution, let alone cite or even refernce their sources. As noted, the show spews a lot of anti-2A/RKBA drek. Further, not having read the actual report, I don't know what the final conculsion really was, and the two articles you cited are less than complete and comprehensive.

All in all, I'll stick with my half-formed opinion that we'll see this crap again, just like the "43X more likely" crap, cited as "fact" by the anti's. People either know Right from Wrong or not, it's not that hard. Those who use "pop/junk science" as an excuse for their behavior are in the "not" group. JMNSHO.

There are plenty of good documentaries and Gunny Ermey on the History channel, Stargate and Galactica on Sci-Fi, spaghetti westerns on AMC, eyeopening evidence on C-SPAN, and documentaries on Travel and Discovery channels. The rest is slop of different varieties.

Okay. Perhaps we need some of the dialogue from last night's slamfest of the "NGA".

The defense attorney cites the "study" which states that firearms violence needs to be treated as an infectious disease. She then cites the numbers which were "twice as likely to commit gun violence; and in some cases three times as likely" once someone witnesses firearms violence. So which is it? Twice or thrice?

She then states that once a person witnesses firearms violence that they become "infected". She states that it is like being infected with a cold and no one can prevent that infection.

In her final slam -- the detective, prosecutor, and defense counsel were all women in this episode -- during this diatribe in her opening remarks, she closes by stating "Violence is the disease and guns are the virus".

Nope -- I did not make that last part up.

I got the episode name and number. It is entitled "Infected" -- what else -- and is episode 12 of season 7. I am downloading an .avi file of it right now, will edit it for the pertinent parts and post it where everyone can see it. No guarantee it will work as my webdrive only has 50M of space and about half of that is used.

For those who missed this diatribe

Here is the link to my secure server. The file size is a bit over 13M. The share is only good for 15 days and 20 downloads.

The audio is skewed so her mouth won't match the words; but there's nothing new about that in the anti-firearms agendist's world.

Secure Link: https://www2.ibackup.com/qmanager/servlet/share?key=ormye65302