Law & Order, Season 22

Price:
What about the bombing? Was that Rublev's idea? Did he tell Serenko to do that?

Andre:
I don't know. Look, I wasn't in the loop on any of that. I knew Serenko was onto something big, but I just try to mind my own business.

Stabler:
Hold on. People who mind their own business don't get good deals, they go to jail for a very long time. Now.

Andre:
I can't tell you something I don't know.

Stabler:
You're under arrest.

Stabler:
You know what you did. You baited the hook with Serenko to chase a headline. Senior Russian official gets convicted of murder and domestic terror. Does that make you and the frat boys in DC feel all warm and fuzzy?

Price:
Slow down, detective. You don't know me. But that doesn't change the reality of the situation, which is that we are following orders. You understand that? Orders that are coming from the Attorney General of the United States.

Stabler:
Here's the reality. This case cost the life of my undercover, so tell all this to his mother. His name was Vincent, by the way, in case you forgot.

Price:
What about the bombing of the Dunlap Hotel? Did Rublev order you to do that?

Serenko:
Yes.

Price:
Did you have a choice in the matter?

Serenko:
Well, yeah. I could say yes and live, or no, and have two Russian assassins put two shiny bullets in the back of my head. So I said yes.

Lily:
There has to be some way to punish these people so we feel safe.

Cosgrove:
I wish there was, sweetie, I wish there was. But there isn't. It's impossible. There's no magic wand I can wave or speech I can give. So we do the things we can do, like rescuing the victims and helping them feel safe and whole. It's not always easy or possible, but we try, and we do our best to arrest the criminals and predators so they can't hurt anyone else. But there's still a lot of good in this world, so we need to focus on that. All those simple, priceless moments we seem to overlook. Like right now, you and me having lunch. Or watching the sunset or the view of Manhattan at midnight from the 59th Street Bridge. The world isn't perfect, Lily, but it's still beautiful.

Cosgrove:
[while chasing a suspect] Look, buddy, you've only got two options here. One, you come with me. Two... [The suspect jumps off the bridge] Why two?

[The detectives have just found out the murder victim had an abortion]

Cosgrove:
For God's sake, she was only 17! That's the same age as my daughter. Her parents had every right to know what was going on.

Shaw:
Her father ran on an anti-abortion platform.

Cosgrove:
That's not the point. He's still her dad.

Shaw:
You're starting to sound like you have a problem with the fact that she had an abortion at all. Is it a Catholic thing?

Cosgrove:
It's a little more complicated than that.

Hollis:
Miss Richards, you obviously have a problem with my client. So why should the jury believe anything you have to say about them?

Richards:
I don't have a problem with your client. I don't have to. Fortunately, I live in a state where what he thinks about what I do with my body doesn't affect what I can do with my body.

Shaw:
[about Nelson] Are you aware of any history of mental illness?

Jessica:
Is being a mean, nasty son-of-a-bitch a mental illness?

Nelson:
Don't you get it, man? I'm doing you a favor!

Cosgrove:
Put the gun down!

Nelson:
These people are ruining the country. Our country!

Cosgrove:
You drop that gun right now, or I swear to God I'll blow your head off!

Nelson:
They're killing innocent Americans, man!

Cosgrove:
Drop the gun now!

Nelson:
They need to be shipped back to China where they belong!

[Shaw tackles Nelson to the ground]

Shaw:
You're under arrest.

Cosgrove:
That means you're going to Rikers, where you belong.

Price:
The U.S. Attorney wants to take over this prosecution.

Maroun:
What?

Price:
I can't say I appreciate their approach, but their interest in the case is understandable.

Maroun:
That doesn't mean...

Price:
I agree. The NYPD investigated this case. They put in the sweat. They consoled the victims' families. They took the heat from the press. This happened in our city, New York. Hell, I was there. I saw what this man did. There's no way I'm letting this case go.

Maroun:
I'm on board, but there's a few more people you need to convince.

Price:
We'd all like to make sense of what happened, to chalk it up to mental illness, but the truth is, some people are just evil. John Nelson opened fire in that subway because he is a hateful, rage-filled, evil man.

Baker:
There was a party at the restaurant to celebrate last night.

Cosgrove:
Were you there?

Baker:
No. I had to be at my regular gig at the Flying Hatchet.

Shaw:
What's that?

Baker:
It's a hatchet throwing bar in Williamsburg.

Cosgrove:
Alcohol and sharp objects - what could go wrong?

M.E. Stark:
You were right. Broken hyoid bone confirms manual strangulation, and most of the stab wounds were post-mortem. No obvious indicia of fluids or other DNA sources.

Cosgrove:
I stopped listening after you said, "You were right."

Shaw:
Frank, if you've got something to tell me, tell me now.

Cosgrove:
We got our man, Jalen. That's all you need to know.

Shaw:
[about the victim] He had a lot going for him. Handsome, athletic, the best law school in the country. Who would want to kill a guy like that?

Cosgrove:
Today? Pretty much anybody.

Cosgrove:
[about Ezra's use of a homophobic slur] Right now, he's just a guy who used a word he wasn't supposed to.

Shaw:
Which is depressing enough.

Cosgrove:
Yeah, it's a bad word, no doubt, but...

Shaw:
But what?

Cosgrove:
No one's above having a bad day. The only difference between you or him or anyone else is that he got caught on camera.

Seaver:
It seems that whenever a person of color is on trial, you always bring in some extra evidence to the equation.

Cosgrove:
Are you trying to say that I make things up? Because that's not how it works.

Seaver:
Quite the contrary. It's simple math. And it adds up to you having a racially motivated axe to grind. There's no other way to explain it.

Cosgrove:
I'm pretty sure there is. But I'm not a sociologist. I'm a homicide detective. I follow the evidence, and I arrest bad guys, regardless of their race. That's what I do. And in this case, the evidence points at Michelle Nichols.

Seaver:
A Black woman.

Cosgrove:
No. A murderer.

Maroun:
A man is dead and a family has been destroyed. All because a good man blurted out a stupid, hateful word.

Eddie:
I got lots of stuff in that warehouse. Can't pay attention to every single item.

Shaw:
Come on, Eddie. We're talking about a really expensive watch, not a couple of tubes of toothpaste over here.

Eddie:
I buy in bulk. I'm a legitimate businessman.

Cosgrove:
A legitimate businessman? So you're trying to tell me you have receipts for all those items in your warehouse?

Eddie:
Like I keep saying, I buy in bulk. The people in the neighborhood know that, so they bring me inventory.

Shaw:
Who brought you this watch?

Eddie:
Don't know, like I said...

Cosgrove:
If you say "I buy in bulk" one more time, I swear to God...

Maroun:
I'm so sorry about what happened today. Are you here to fire me?

McCoy:
I know who you are, Miss Maroun.

Maroun:
I'm not sure that's a good thing. I screwed up.

McCoy:
Like everyone else. If you don't screw up, you're not trying hard enough.

Price:
Thank you.

Maroun:
For what?

Price:
Winning the trial. If it weren't for you, Castillo would have walked out of here a free man yet again.

Maroun:
If it weren't for me, Perry Sutton would still be alive.

Lt. Dixon:
Better shine your shoes, fellas. You're about to go to a restaurant that charges $3,700 for dinner.

Shaw:
Pierre Briones, you're under arrest for the murder of Dana Clarkson.

Cosgrove:
Too bad she's gone. You could use a good crisis manager.

Lt. Dixon:
I met my first husband the old-fashioned way: drunk as hell at a biker bar in Queens.

Price:
If you didn't consent to the recording, I can go back in there and ask the judge to suppress it. [Pollard shakes her head] Well, he's not allowed to play the entire tape. It'll be limited in scope...

Pollard:
I am half-naked, Mr. Price, asking a man, asking that man, to take charge of my body. Do you understand how that looks?

Maroun:
It looks like a woman engaged in a consensual act, making a choice.

Pollard:
It will be my undoing.

Maroun:
The jury will see right through his charade.

Pollard:
I've seen thousands of women torn to shreds on the stand. It always comes down to one thing: sex. You can do this.

Maroun:
You've made a career out of encouraging women to stand up for themselves. Now that it's your turn, what, you're just going to try to look the other way? You can do this.

Lt. Dixon:
[about the victim] You know, he was awfully dressed up for a midnight smoke under the stars.

Cosgrove:
[spotting a suspect going into a military funeral] Oh, we've gotta grab him now.

Shaw:
Hey, Frank, no, no, no. You and I can go in there and keep eyes on Martinez, and then wait for a discreet moment to approach after.

Cosgrove:
"Discreet"? This guy's murder suspect number one. We don't know if he's armed, whether he's going in there to shoot up the place...

Shaw:
He's not gonna shoot up the place. It's a veteran's funeral.

Cosgrove:
So?

Shaw:
"So"? Frank, my brother's in the military. My father was. These funerals matter, so let's try to show them some respect, huh?

[pause]

Cosgrove:
Discreet.

Shaw:
Discreet.

Maroun:
Don't you think it's a little too convenient that this perfect piece of evidence just fell from the sky at exactly the right moment?

McCoy:
Gift horses, Ms. Maroun.

Maroun:
You were right. Alexander Lockett tried to protect his men, but chose to follow the chain of command, and he ended up dying for it.

Price:
He was a soldier, and he was following orders.

Maroun:
Still not sure that makes it right.

Price:
No one ever said it did.

Shaw:
I want you to listen to me closely. You need to let these hostages go. If you do that, there's still a way out of this. There's some good news. The corrections officer that you shot is still alive. We've got the video, so we know that you two were wrestling over the weapon, and that he is the one who actually pulled the trigger. That's good news, too. But you've got to let these people go, Troy. You do that, you'll be able to tell your side of the story.

Booker:
I've been trying to explain myself for 18 months! I didn't kill him! I saw the real killer. I was there at the scene. I was trying to help the dude who got shot. That's why I had blood on my clothes. I tried to save his ass, but no one wants to hear any of that!

Shaw:
Tell it to the jury. That's what trials are for, Troy. You have to believe in the system.

Booker:
Believe in the system? Are you serious? The system is the thing that's trying to kill me!

Price:
Booker never intended to kill anybody. He and Foster were fighting to gain control of the gun. The actual bullet wound wasn't even life-threatening. The CO ultimately died of a secondary infection.

McCoy:
Irrelevant.

Price:
Legally, yes, but morally, ethically ... shouldn't we at least consider Man 1?

McCoy:
We can't reward Booker because he tried to escape, regardless of his innocence. He should have waited for the process to play itself out.

Price:
I get it, but...

McCoy:
But what?

Price:
The system failed him, over and over again. So why on Earth should we punish him for not believing in something that he had no credible basis to believe in?

McCoy:
You did nothing wrong, Nolan. The truth would have come out eventually.

Price:
You're right, but "eventually" took too damn long, and now Randall Foster is dead.

McCoy:
I understand. Elements of this case are highly unusual, and troubling. We act on the facts as presented, and Randall Foster is dead because the defendant tried to escape. That's felony murder, all day long. So make peace with the past, and get your head into the game, understand?

Price:
This jury wants to let Booker go free and send me to Rikers in his place.

Shaw:
You know, I thought I could help people by going to law school, fight the system that way. It didn't work out for me the way I thought. So I joined the Police Academy. I thought I could do more good on the streets, have more of a direct impact. I became a cop to keep innocent Black men out of prison, not put them in there.

Price:
No matter how hard we all try, every once in a while we get it wrong. It's just the way it is.

Shaw:
That's a hell of a speech, unless your name is Troy Booker.