History Headscratchers / LawAndOrder

** The voters might have also been in the mood for an 'outsider' figure, someone not seen to be as part of the establishment system. As we saw in 2016, the candidate with the backing of the political establishment, the wealthy and the big-business community isn't always the candidate that's guaranteed to win the election, and for all his flaws [=McCoy=] certainly has more to recommend him on his side than You-Know-Who did.

** The voters might have also been in the mood for an 'outsider' figure, someone not seen to be as part of the establishment system. As we saw in 2016, the candidate with the establishment backing and the wealthy big-business support isn't always the candidate that's guaranteed to win the election, and [=McCoy=] certainly has more on his side than You-Know-Who did.

*** If anything his [[CowboyCop Cowboy District Attorney]] practices would endear him to a lot of people, sort of like [[Movies/TheDarkKnight Harvey Dent]], someone not afraid to confront criminals as part of the Giuliani-era New York. It's not necessarily what he ''does'' so much as what the people ''see'' him do. He has a high number of convictions and makes some truly good cases, so its not inconceivable that, [[AntiHero personal issues aside]], he could be popular enough to stay on as long as he did.

How exactly did Jack McCoy end up as Manhattan DA, and how did he manage to retain the job, even through an election? Consider: he's been known to have sexual relationships with several of his subordinates, which can at best be considered improper. He's twisted, and nearly broken, the law on several occasions in order to get a conviction (including conspiring with a judge, and blackmailing a witness). He's stepped on the toes of many from the city, county, state and federal governments. He's frequently used his office to engage in personal vendettas outside of his normal duties. And he's gotten on the bad side of many big businesses and rich & powerful people (including the Mulroneys, the "Law & Order" equivalent of the Kennedys). With all this in mind, it's surprising McCoy managed to remain as Executive ADA, much less get a promotion.

There was an episode where a guy was killed and strapped to his bed. This had sexual overtones all over it, so why didn't [[LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit SVU]] get it?

** In Doylist terms, it's so that they could keep around one of the most popular and long-lasting characters on the show as long as the actor was still willing to play him. In Watsonian terms... well, it's definitely very unlikely and probably wouldn't be very easy for him to win an election, but [=McCoy=] was good at his job and could be very convincing (as you'd expect a lawyer to be), and he became DA around about a time where big business and very rich people weren't incredibly popular due to the financial crash, meaning that the voters might have been willing to vote for someone seen as a bit of an iconoclast and relatively anti-establishment figure. Less likely figures have won elections. It also doesn't hurt that he initially became DA as an interim (probably because the person who appointed him decided he was the most qualified person at the time) and the one time we saw him contest an election his opponent ended up being kneecapped by a big scandal, making him look like the better option for the voters by default. All the money and powerful backers in the world won't save an obviously doomed candidate.

In the Skate or Die, Cutter provokes the Bipolar Roller into attacking him so he can give him some anti-psychotics and get him to testify. Nobody calls him on how bad and unprofessional this is not even Olivet who was actually in this episode, despite the fact Elliot did something similar on SVU and was rightfully scolded and threatened for doing so by Huang.

* It should be on the Upper West Side, just north of Central Park. The real life 26th and 28th precincts are next to each other there. 27th was absorbed by those two as part of a consolidation following the widespread introduction of patrol cars; there were more, smaller precincts in the years when patrol was almost entirely by foot. Now, most of the crimes that the detectives on the mothership series actually investigate take place in that area. That's where the territorial aspect comes in; detectives are assigned a case because they're from the detective squad of the precinct where the crime took place. But once they begin investigating, they can actually go anywhere in the city to question suspects/witnesses as needed. The detectives on the case are THE detectives on the case, regardless of how far afield the investigation takes them; they don't hand off the entire case to another squad just because a witness lives in Brooklyn and saw something while visiting their cousin in Manhattan. That said, a) they do play a bit loose with the actually precinct boundaries (which makes sense considering the precinct doesn't actually exist) and b) Law & Order was (and SVU still is) filmed at a studio on Chelsea Piers further downtown. (As a side note, the ''SVU'' detectives are the sex crimes squad for all of Manhattan, even if they work out of the also-fictional 16th precinct on the show, and the Major Case Squad from ''Criminal Intent'' had city-wide jurisdiction for cases that fall under their special purview; they actually do work out of the main headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.)

* It should be on the Upper West Side, just north of Central Park. The real life 26th and 28th precincts are next to each other there. 27th was absorbed by those two as part of a consolidation following the widespread introduction of patrol cars; there were more, smaller precincts in the years when patrol was almost entirely by foot. Now, most of the crimes that the detectives on the mothership series actually investigate take place in that area. That's where the territorial aspect comes in; detectives are assigned a case because they're from the detective squad of the precinct where the crime took place. But once they begin investigating, they can actually go anywhere in the city to question suspects/witnesses as needed. The detectives on the case are THE detectives on the case, regardless of how far afield the investigation takes them; they don't hand off the entire case to another squad just because a witness lives in Brooklyn and saw something while visiting their cousin in Manhattan. That said, a) they do play a bit loose with the actually precinct boundaries (which makes sense considering the precinct doesn't actually exist) and b) Law & Order was (and SVU still is) filmed at a studio on Chelsea Piers further downtown. (As a side note, the ''SVU'm detectives are the sex crimes squad for all of Manhattan, and the Major Case Squad from ''Criminal Intent'' had city-wide jurisdiction for cases that fall under their special purview; they actually do work out of the main headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.)

* It should be on the Upper West Side, just north of Central Park. The real life 26th and 28th precincts are next to each other there. 27th was absorbed by those two as part of a consolidation following the widespread introduction of patrol cars; there were more, smaller precincts in the years when patrol was almost entirely by foot.

Now, most of the crimes that the detectives on the mothership series actually investigate take place in that area. That's where the territorial aspect comes in; detectives are assigned a case because they're from the detective squad of the precinct where the crime took place. But once they begin investigating, they can actually go anywhere in the city to question suspects/witnesses as needed. The detectives on the case are THE detectives on the case, regardless of how far afield the investigation takes them; they don't hand off the entire case to another squad just because a witness lives in Brooklyn and saw something while visiting their cousin in Manhattan. That said, a) they do play a bit loose with the actually precinct boundaries (which makes sense considering the precinct doesn't actually exist) and b) Law & Order was (and SVU still is) filmed at a studio on Chelsea Piers further downtown. (As a side note, the ''SVU'm detectives are the sex crimes squad for all of Manhattan, and the Major Case Squad from ''Criminal Intent'' had city-wide jurisdiction for cases that fall under their special purview; they actually do work out of the main headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.)

* It should be on the Upper West Side, just north of Central Park. The real life 26th and 28th precincts are next to each other there. 27th was absorbed by those two as part of a consolidation following the widespread introduction of patrol cars; there were more, smaller precincts in the years when patrol was almost entirely by foot. Now, most of the crimes that the detectives on the mothership series actually investigate take place in that area. That's where the territorial aspect comes in; which the detectives assigned the case are from the detective squad of the precinct where the crime took place. But once they begin investigating, they can actually go anywhere in the city to question suspects/witnesses as needed. The detectives on the case are THE detectives on the case, regardless of how far afield the investigation takes them; they don't hand off the entire case to another squad just because a witness lives in Brooklyn and saw something while visiting their cousin in Manhattan. That said, a) they do play a bit loose with the actually precinct boundaries (which makes sense considering the precinct doesn't actually exist) and b) Law & Order was (and SVU still is) filmed at a studio on Chelsea Piers further downtown. (As a side note, the ''SVU'm detectives are the sex crimes squad for all of Manhattan, and the Major Case Squad from ''Criminal Intent'' had city-wide jurisdiction for cases that fall under their special purview; they actually do work out of the main headquarters at 1 Police Plaza.)

** In Doylist terms, it's so that they could keep around one of the most popular and long-lasting characters on the show as long as the actor was still willing to play him. In Watsonian terms... well, it's definitely very unlikely and probably wouldn't be very easy for him to win an election, but [=McCoy=] was good at his job and could be very convincing (as you'd expect a lawyer to be), and he became DA around about a time where big business and very rich people weren't incredibly popular due to the financial crash, meaning that the voters might have been willing to vote for someone seen as a bit of an iconoclast and relatively anti-establishment figure. Less likely figures have won elections.

How exactly did Jack McCoy end up as Manhattan DA, and how did he manage to retain the job, even through an election? Consider: he's been known to have sexual relationships with several of his subordinates, which can at best be considered improper. He's twisted, and nearly broken, the law on several occasions in order to get a conviction (including conspiring with a judge, and blackmailing a witness). He's stepped on the toes of many from the city, county, state and federal governments. He's frequently used his office to engage in personal vendettas outside of his normal duties. And he's gotten on the bad side of many big businesses and rich & powerful people (including the Mulroneys, the "Law & Order" equivalent of the Kennedys). With all this in mind, it's surprising McCoy managed to remain as Executive ADA, much less get a promotion.

* Of course, in a meta-sense, the real reason it's kept vague is to allow the writers to send the detectives all over the city to investigate crimes and thus open up storytelling possibilities (so they can go to an affluent neighbourhood one week after a run-down one, or look at mob dealings at the docks one week and then a high-society heist-gone-wrong the other) rather than having to limit themselves to a relatively small section of New York. It's just a [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief leap of faith]] we have to make in order to watch the show.

What happened at the end of American Jihad? I just happened to catch the episode on TV, and the ending is weird. Basically a radical muslim kills someone, supposedly out of religious fanaticism. However, it turns out he was a convert and had problems with women. At the end, he says something like "You just laughed." but it isn't explained what she laughed at (obviously at him). Was their something dysfunctional about his genitals? I guess that's what's implied, but its all really ambigious, and nothing is ever directly stated or really even implied that there's something wrong with his junk besides that one, single line at the very end of the episode. Does anyone know specifics? did i miss something?

* I thought it was pretty clearly implied that he had trouble either getting or maintaining an erection.

This show is the longest running Prime Time drama ever yet I had to create both the WildMessyGuess page and the ItJustBugsMe page, which just bugs me.
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* Because "Law and Order" is and established phrase, so calling the show "Order and Law," would sound silly. But, you can't very well show the DA prosecuting the criminal ''before'' the cops investigate the crime.

* It always struck this troper as almost impossible that the case would have been resolved in the manner that it was and that the brass would have acted in the manner that they did. Nobody likes whistleblowers or complainers,that's for sure. But having one of the few (if not the ONLY) black female police Lieutenants being passed over for promotion (and a non-minority given the position) and then treating her poorly as a result of her filing suit seemed to be a recipe for additional lawsuits and poor publicity. Those are things that no police department would need.

What happened at the end of American Jihad? I just happened to catch the episode on TV, and the ending is weird. Basically a radical muslim kills someone, supposedly out of religious fanaticism. However, it turns out he was a convert and had problems with women. At the end, he says something like "You just laughed." but it isn't explained what she laughed at (obviously at him). Was their something dysfunctional about his genitals? I guess that's what's implied, but its all really ambigious, and nothing is ever directly stated or really even implied that there's something wrong with his junk besides that one, single line at the very end of the episode. Does anyone know specifics? did i miss something?

The franchise as a whole is incredibly inconsistent as to fingerprint matching and how many points of similarity it takes to establish a conclusive match. They notably prosecuted a fingerprint examiner after it was discovered she was testifying to false matches and using an extremely low scale to establish matches- six points. However, several episodes after this one use six as a conclusive number, and at least one episode of SVU used ''3'' as a conclusive. Granted, I'm not sure when the SVU episode aired in relation to the one with the crooked examiner, but still.

The last episode of Season 6 features the execution of a CompleteMonster who raped and murdered a girl, then shows everyone's reactions to it. Problem: earlier in the season, a much more sympathetic murderer was convicted and given the death penalty; he was to be the first person executed under the new system. No mention of him is made here, and they act like the CompleteMonster is the first person to be executed under it. Did they seriously rewrite their own canon to make their political views more acceptable?

In the episode Release (17-8) the detectives and the DA office seemed to really push the boundaries of believability by charging a No Celebrities were harmed version of Girl’s Gone Wild founder Joe Francis with rape and murder. In the case they seemed to be targeting him even when He had an airtight alibi for when the murder went down. Later after they found the real killer she claimed he raped her turning it into a he said she said case, it later turned she signed a contract giving consent and there was no footage of her resisting him. They let her off with man 2 and charged him with murder because he sent his friend to sleep with a girl which he had written permutation to do. They later bring in the mother of another girl he sleped with (both were in exchange for footage of the girls striping despite the they fact they had signed consent forms) and killed herself. The main argument against him seemed to be that he was sleazy which might be true, but none of that is a very solid rape case and absolutely in no way is murder. The defendant’s attorney seemed to be the only one to relies it as the judge and jury sided with the DA.