Re: Law and Order "Facade" 3/21/2024

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

"Facade" is massively stupid in different ways. The episode opens like
a horror movie with a young pretty female victim willingly going into
scary situations to meet her fate, except she hasn't first had hot sex
with a teenage boy. She enters an empty subway station with no one on
the platform except maybe a homeless guy. I thought she'd find a corpse.
On the train, some tallish guy in distress falls against her; she
apologizes. Cut to the crime scene in which he's the murder victim.

Turns out he's a comedian. Riley also thinks he's a comedian but cannot
pull off the gallows humor like Greevey, Cerreta, and especially
Briscoe.

They find evidence that he'd gotten into an altercation with an older
comedian. That was a red herring. It leads to the dead guy's boyfriend.

Then there's this, well, it's not exactly a dojo. It claims to be MMA,
but it's this weird training academy for men that, later in the episode,
we learn is being investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (do
they literally do investigations or coordinate investigations being done
by member law enforcement agencies?)

They have members from various state, local, and federal agencies, and
yes, they do their own investigations. I was on the FBI-JTTF in Austin
for three years and worked about a dozen cases.

Thanks

That being said, the case on the show was not a JTTF case. It was an
NYPD Counter-Terrorism case,

I think I forgot whose logo was on the wall of the room Baxter had the
meeting in.

which raises a whole lot of other questions
in light of what they said about this group having 'cells' in both other
states and in Canadia. If all that's true, this absolutely is FBI
jurisdiction and the NYPD is going to be in some hot water if there's an
attack and they hadn't bothered to tell anyone about this group and
their investigation of it.

Don't I recall Frank once claiming that their counterterrorism unit had
worldwide jurisdiction? I'm not sure who has broader jurisdiction versus
Five-Oh.

Also of note, the Commissioner on all these L&O shows is a smarmy pol
who throws his people under the bus and/or steals their glory when they
solve cases. He's not worthy of carrying Magnum's jock strap.

Heh

All along, the defendant claimed he acted because a woman was attacked.
Finally, just as the defense is about to put on its case (I think she
was a defense witness and not called as a rebuttal witness) she makes
herself known.

Price objects to the surprise witness. If she weren't a rebuttal
witness, then defense had to give notice to the prosecution, right? She
should have at least been interviewed. Denied.

The defense claimed they should be forgiven for not notifying the
prosecution about her because "we just became of aware of her today".
Okay, but it's not like you only became aware of her 10 seconds ago. You
could still have notified Price about her before the judge called court
into session for the day instead of waiting until literally the moment
she's called to the stand.

And instead of arguing that, Price puts on his usual hang-dog look and
sits down defeated.

But was she a regular defense witness or rebuttal witness? I thought
with the latter, prior notice to the other side isn't required.
 

Price tells her to investigate. She talks to an instructor, who reveals
himself to be an undercover cop. He explains that the training is based
on Navy SEALS training. In the armed forces, you are taught OFFENSIVE
fighting techniques. You are being taught to kill. The cop is teaching
recruits into a neo-Nazi movement how to kill.

Baxter goes to see the JTTF and agrees not to blow their operation.
Price is upset that he cannot call the undercover cop as a witness.

At this point, the prosecution rested (I think) so how was he going to
call him anyway?

No, at that point he called the owner of the gym.

But that guy offered no evidence in favor of the state! I'm confused as
to why he was a prosecution witness.

I'm thinking, DON'T call this guy because... he's committing felonies as
part of a conspiracy before the fact! He's helping to teach newly
indoctrinated neo-Nazis how to kill!

Undercovers are allowed to commit crimes up to a point to maintain their
cover. Drug dealers and mobsters found out early on that the way to weed
out undercover cops was to put everyone through a litmus test-- make
them do drugs, fuck prostitutes, rob stores, etc.-- knowing that a cop
was not allowed to commit crimes. So the police along with state
officials developed policies which allow for the commission of certain
crimes by undercovers to maintain their cover. Obviously there's a limit
to it. A UC can't murder someone to prove his bona fides, or rape
someone, so there's still a litmus test to be had for the more hardcore
crime bosses out there.

I'm thinking a course of instruction in how to kill should have been one
of those bright lines! If he's a good instructor, he's made a bad
situation worse!