History Series / StreetJustice

* LastNameBasis: Pretty much everyone--Adam, Grady, recurring characters, guest characters--has this with Malloy, since she never goes by a first name. According to her, this was because her parents could never agree on a name for her during ''her first 12 years'', so she just stuck with using her surname. This goes UpToEleven when one episode reveals that not even her entry on the DMV's local online registry has a first name for her.

* ColdSniper: Harden, the villain of the pilot two-parter, is skilled with a sniper-rifle.

* ProfessionalKiller: Harden was a Vietnam War veteran, and at the time of the pilot two-parter he was a hitman for the mob.

* WouldHurtAChild: Harden holds a little boy hostage in an effort to escape from Grady, and succeeds (the kid comes out unharmed, thankfully).

* YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:Harden was playing both sides of the Vietnam War during his tour of duty, and he gave the Viet Cong information to suggest that Grady's parents were in fact spies, leading to the village where they were staying being torched]].

* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: In "Tables Turned," this trope is the reason Malloy has no sympathy for a female lawyer who's being stalked by a man [[{{Irony}} she had gotten cleared of a rape charge]].

--> '''Malloy:''' Look, I sell drinks. But if I see someone's had too many, I won't sell them anymore, even if it's bad for business.

* PrisonRape: In the pilot two-parter, Grady hints that part of his learning how to fight came from fighting off attacks from other prisoners while he was incarcerated during the 20 years he and Adam were separated.

* UndersideRide: One episode has Grady infiltrate a compound by hitching a ride on the underside of a moving truck.

* XanatosGambit: One episode has one of these that's instigated by the police's top brass, when they pair Adam with a female cop in an undercover operation as an arms-dealing married couple to lure out a wanted gun-runner. [[spoiler:The female cop is actually an Internal Affairs agent who's checking to find out if Adam's a DirtyCop. The idea is that, in addition to nabbing the players in the gun-running operation, the agent will bait Adam to say something that'll reveal him to be corrupted, leading to him being arrested by Internal Affairs, or Adam will prove to be clean after all--however the whole thing turns out, top brass gets what it wants]]. For his part, though, Adam is ''not'' happy when he finds out, especially when he learns the gambit had Lt. Pine's sanction, and [[BrokenPedestal the incident leads to him losing some trust in his fellow officers, including Pine]].

* ShootHimHeHasAWallet: What kicks off the plot of "Friendly Fire." Adam and an older detective head to the scene of a burglary and get shot at by the crook, who escapes shortly after. Moments later, the burglar's partner-in-crime comes out of the building and attempts to flee, but stops when the cops order him to; from the way he is positioned, the other detective thinks he's going for a gun, and when the guy turns around to face them, the detective shoots him--despite Adam telling him to stay his hand mere seconds earlier. As it turns out, the guy wasn't armed at all, but the cop refuses to accept responsibility (as doing so would potentially cost him his pension) and he pins the blame on Adam instead, which Adam has to spend the rest of the episode [[ClearMyName clearing up]].

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [=S01E05=], "Tables Turned," has the good guys protect a female lawyer from her StalkerWithACrush, a rapist she'd previously gotten acquitted. At the end of the episode, the lawyer lets them know she's still going to continue representing clients like him, since they're considered innocent till proven guilty. Prompting Adam to ask: "If you had a daughter in your position, what would you tell her to do?"
--> '''Lawyer:''' ...I don't know.

* TurnInYourBadge: Adam has had to do this at least twice. The first time, he was under investigation for a shooting in which he'd been blamed for misconduct; the second time, it was either this trope or to have Grady cooperate with the Feds in an undercover investigation against Grady's love interest of the episode.

--> '''Grady:''' And your dad was killed in the ''([[OhCrap suddenly realizes]]) ...line of duty.

* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:Kelsey blames herself for Schuham getting killed while trying to save her at the start of "Cross Fire," because the perp they were chasing got the drop on her in a parking garage]].

In an effort to give Grady a sense of discipline and help him get back on his feet, Adam puts the younger man to work at a bar he co-owns with Malloy (Charlene Fernetz), the daughter of Adam's deceased police partner. Yet despite their clashing views on the law, Adam and Grady [[TheyFightCrime fight crime]] together, with Grady's street-savvy working in places where Adam's badge can't successfully go.

* AllAbusersAreMale: The husband of Malloy's friend Lisa in "Self Defense" is a particularly manipulative example. Then there's the father in "Kid Stuff" who is shown to be a big JerkAss and is particularly hard on his adopted son, in addition to the other kids he coaches in basketball [[spoiler:but who is revealed to be a subversion, as while he's initially suspected of abusing the boy due to his general jerkassery, he's in fact innocent--it's ''his wife'' who's hurting the kid]].
* AmoralAttorney: The JerkAss ADA Specter. In the pilot episode, Adam reveals she had once tried to persuade him to perjure himself in court in an effort to convict a defendant.