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Context Recap / LawAndOrderS1E8PoisonIvy

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1Directed by Creator/EWSwackhamer
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3Written by Creator/JacobBrackman & Creator/JackRichardson
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5Officer Fredo Parisi and his partner Davis interrupt a drug deal between a group of young Black men. The suspects run and one of them, Tommy Richardson, is shot and killed by Fredo. Fredo insists it was self-defense because Tommy pulled out a gun. But Tommy was popular in his community and by all appearances a model citizen; no one who knew him can believe he'd try to shoot someone.
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7The Black community sees Tommy's death as a hate crime by corrupt police, while the police feel Fredo is being unfairly blamed. But Fredo's obvious racism means Greevey and Logan can't discount the possibility of murder. They eventually learn that Tommy intended to buy a gun from his associate Silky during the drug deal; Fredo took the gun and planted it on Tommy's body. Fredo is charged with murder.
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9At trial, Davis testifies against Fredo, and Robinette and Stone cut a deal with Silky - who is prepared to tell the jury that Fredo planted the gun and then intimidated him into keeping quiet. But Fredo commits suicide before Silky can be called as a witness. Stone thinks that if Fredo had just admitted he wrongly thought Tommy was armed, instead of planting the gun, no jury would have convicted him. Greevey apologizes that the case was rough on Stone but says he had to do his best to keep other cops from making the same mistake as Fredo.
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12!!This episode contains examples of:
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14* AteHisGun: Mentioned by Schiff as Fredo's method of suicide.
15* DrivenToSuicide: Fredo ultimately does this rather than be exposed at trial.
16* DrugsAreBad: The pastor of Tommy's church gives a sermon about this at the funeral.
17* JustLikeRobinHood: Stone makes this comparison after learning that Tommy was selling drugs to help others in the impoverished local community.
18* LovedByAll: Everyone in Tommy's community loved him, and they do ''not'' take kindly to the suggestion that he was involved with drugs and guns.
19* OutOfTheFryingPan: Tommy had a friend who wanted to quit sex work, so he hired her as a drug runner, but this just exposed her to a different set of risks.
20* OutlivingOnesOffspring: When Tommy's brother comes into the department for questioning about Tommy's death, their mother comes with him.
21* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Fredo is very racist against African-Americans.
22* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Inspired by the death of Edmund Perry, who was killed by an undercover officer that claimed the deceased had been trying to mug him.
23* RhymesOnADime: The detectives try to question two girls who respond in rhyming freestyle rap.

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