The Ledger

Self Defense

Entertaining, straight-forward episode (3.7) in which Adam Arkin stars as George Costas, a jewelry store owner who claims self-defense after shooting two young black men who attempt to hold him up. As Cerreta and Logan investigate, they conclude that Costas fired at the men while they were trapped in a metal security cage between the door and the interior of the store. In other words, although they were armed, they were sitting ducks. The man's claim of self-defense is further called into question when the detectives conclude that after the robbers fled, Costas reloaded and chased after them, killing one of them at close range as he tried to seek cover in his car. While Cerreta is convinced the man was doing what any concerned citizen should do, Logan and Stone are sure he exceeded the definition of "self-defense," if not at first then certainly once he chased the men out of his store, firing.

Schiff seems reluctant to pursue the case, also, and he has a great scene with Stone in which he tells him in a direct manner to drop most of the charges and make a deal. When Stone says he thinks they can win, Schiff asks, "Is that a refusal?" Stone hesitates for a second and says, "Your call." Cut to the courtroom.

The internal disagreement over the charges gets further exacerbated when the defense attorney (played by familiar character actor Ron Rifkin, now on Alias) calls Cerreta as an expert witness on shootings. We are told Cerreta is an expert because he has testified many times before on police-involved shootings. In a move that hurts Stone's case, he testifies that he feels that at least part of the shooting was in fact in self-defense.

The crime is also notable in this episode because it is clearly caught on videotape, a development that occurs surprisingly rarely in the series. It's quite dramatic videotape, too, all captured by the security camera and showing Costas having a relatively extended shootout with the suspects and then chasing after them. References are made to how the videotape is being played over and over again on the news, and ironically, the episode begins to play it over and over, too, making you feel like the people watching it on the local news.

The episode calls to mind the Bernard Goetz incident, and the characters mention it explicitly. There is a lot of civilian-vs.-police tension in the episode ("You're upset because someone did your job for you.") and a lot of racial tension, with lots of implied racisim, including a great exchange between Robinette and an associate of the defendant who says, "You don't understand these people," and Robinette steps closer to him and asks pointedly, "Which people are those?" As is usual for this show, the themes are dealt with in a sophisticated and subtle manner.

Finally, the teaser is a little unusual: it involves an NYPD tow truck driver talking on his radio while driving down the street in search of vehicles to tow. He is talking rapidly to another driver about football and women, I think, and then he pulls over to tow a Ford, which contains the body of one of the robbers.

Posted by adm at January 30, 2004 10:29 PM

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