It's a beautiful day in Central Park, and three women are amongst a crowd heading for an immigration rally. Two are Latina and one (gasp!) is white, from Toronto. She laughs as she tells them that her husband was concerned about her coming, while her friend responds that she got a lecture. A helpful family buying popsicles are the exposition fairies of the week (because the words "immigration rally" didn't clue us in) and after they leave, the vendor watches coverage on his tiny TV. Shots ring out, and he looks up to see panicked people all running out of the park. we see that the woman who got a lecture maybe should have listened, as she's now dead. Twenty-seven-year-old Maria Soriano got shot and crawled away near a dumpster to die, and our boys are there to figure things out. Green orders the cop to get his guys to canvas the area, and the cop helpfully complains that after "the riot" the day before, a bunch of his guys called in sick. So, the two points kind of clumsily presented are: this is the day after the rally, and the rally turned into a riot.
Maria's neighbors aren't much of a help, other than to offer that her top was low-cut and her ex-boyfriend had a tight butt, which I find rather hilariously realistic. Lupo's going through her paperwork and finds a letter from her mother in El Salvador -- turns out he can read Spanish. They also find a denied application for a work visa for Maria's younger sister Inez.
Anita asks if Maria's cell phone had a number for Inez, but Lupo tells her they didn't find a phone. On the TV, they pause to watch as Jack assigns ADA Josh Latham to the investigation of the riot, assuring the public that misconduct by civilians and cops alike will be dealt with. Anita thinks it was a police riot, and as they all banter a guy comes in conveniently to let them know Inez was picked up at the rally. She's at a holding center, and tells Lupo and Green how there were troublemakers who started throwing bottles at the cops. Maria was threatened by one of these guys once he saw that she was taping the incident with her cell phone. Then the girls were separated once tear gas was fired. Inez knows that after she helps them out she'll be shipped back to El Salvador, but begs them to keep Maria there since the U.S. was her home and she worked so hard to make it so.
The search for Maria's cell phone takes them to the lost and found, where the guy in charge is helpful and also asks them somewhat timidly not to beat anyone up. I've found that asking politely always is a good way to help avoid a beating -- this guy must have watched too much TV, where people can talk thugs out of killing them, or masterfully work suspects into giving spectacularly detailed accounts of how they committed a crime for which they hadn't even actually yet been found guilty. Hey, wait a second... Anyhow, they find the phone. They take the phone to the CITU Laboratory, where Green flirts with the technician. She's managed to salvage the video, which shows the three women dancing and having fun, and then chaos erupts. A guy threatens Maria to stop recording, the camera falls, and then two gunshots are heard. The boys are able to figure out who the man who threatened her is by the gang tattoos on his arm. You know, this is just like tagging -- I've never understood why, if you're going to do something illegal like paint all over a building, you'd do it by putting your name or some other calling card everywhere. But once again, this is just another reason that I'm not a hardened criminal, gangbanger, or the like. That, as well as my aversion to anything painful that would keep me from ever getting a tattoo. That's me -- being a scaredy wimp keeps me on the straight and narrow.
Ignacio is the guy with the tats, and Green and Lupo grab him while he eats breakfast. When they slam him down to cuff him, his cereal goes everywhere, so he goes through the interview trying to be intimidating with Cheerios stuck to his face. They tell him about the video, but Ignacio corrects him that the cops shot Maria, not him. He shows them a wound on his leg where a bullet grazed him. They take him to the scene of the crime and he points out where he saw Maria fall, and insists that cops with rifles did the shooting, though Green maintains that those were bean bags. Point to Ignacio when one of the techs finds a bullet casing in a tree.
Back at the office, Lupo tells Anita they found no gun belonging to Ignacio, but she tells him to have Ignacio held on assault charges. Green comes in to tell them that the bullet they found had Maria's blood on it, and that it's the same type used by cops. Another point to Ignacio. Anita gets serious -- you can tell because she pulls off her glasses -- and tells them to get Ignacio into protective custody and to be careful who they talk to. "This is gonna get ugly. Real quick."
It gets ugly right away, in fact, in Jack's office, when she shows the video to Jack, Josh, and two police mucky-mucks. She then brings them up to speed on all the details -- the mucky-mucks aren't happy that the only witness is a thug. Susan, the woman from Toronto, high-tailed it back there for an extended stay, so they can't speak to her. Oh, those squirrelly Canadians! Anita leaves, Jack orders all the officers that were there to be interviewed, and Josh tells him it was already done and reiterates what the mucky-mucks said about no officer having fired a weapon. Jack tells them that with all this evidence it's now a new ballgame, but Muck #1 clearly doesn't want this, and throws in his face that the very guy Jack appointed to lead the investigation just gave him a finding. Jack tells him that they'll have findings after they have an investigation, so Muck #2 says IAB will take over, as they handle all officer-involved shootings. Jack proves his mastery by asking if now they're conceding that this was, in fact, an officer-involved shooting. Jack also asserts that he wants Anita left on the case, which they don't like; Muck #1 tells Jack he's just a placeholder who isn't living up to expectations, and he responds by promising to make everyone's lives hell in trying to get to the bottom of it.
Once they're gone, Jack warns Josh not to take a position without all the facts, and Josh smarms that he doesn't think cops are the enemy. Jack says he doesn't either, and reminds Josh that Anita is an independent party who will give them good info they might not get from IAB findings. Josh chuckles, "Six weeks on the job, Jack. I bet you're sorry now, huh?" I'd been feeling like maybe the episodes this season were being shown in a different order from how they were shot, and unless all these guys have been working all these cases without a single day off, I think that comment just proved it.
Anita's seriously kicking ass this week, doing much more than her usual Captain Obvious duties. She tells Lupo and Green how IAB did testing and the bullets didn't match up to any of the officer's weapons. Green thinks IAB is taking the case, but she tells them that each of them is just doing their own "thing." The guys mumble about taking crap for the investigation, and she asks if they're begging off. They assure her no, but Lupo does turn back to ask if he's the best guy for the case. Apparently he fell asleep, hung over, while his partner went to get him coffee and his partner ended up shot. She tells him she's got faith in him, adding, "I can take the heat. Can you?" She then orders him back to work, not unkindly.
The boys are back at the lab, where the tech tells them she doesn't have a cop firing a weapon on the tape, adding that she's putting all of it together for IAB the day. So, IAB is inadequate, especially compared to our fearless team, it seems. The tech plays some news video which shows the same reporter seen on the TV in the first scene get clubbed by a police officer as she's reporting. This episode isn't really an advertisement for trusting your police force, that's for sure. But they notice something more important in the video, which is another cop running away while stuffing something, possibly a weapon, into his pocket. They can't see his name, but they go interview the guy who clubbed the reporter. He didn't know the mystery cop but did see him come running out of a wooded area, and he asks the boys what the guy did. When they tell him there was a shooting, he scoffs at the idea that it was Mystery Cop, as he was only an auxiliary cop, and they aren't allowed to carry weapons.
No, they only thing they're allowed to carry is a healthy dose of martyrdom. The auxiliary captain complains about them only just getting bulletproof vests when they're all amazing people with fantastic civic duty and blah blah snore. He did, however, help one guy get a gun permit, and that would be an Officer Rodchenko. And yes, I'm certain that I'm spelling that wrong. Rodchenko is out doing traffic control, which I know is important and I wouldn't want to do it...but I can't help but giggle at the strange little dance he's essentially doing in the intersection as they pull him away to talk. They ask about his gun, and he lies badly about losing it three weeks before, so they turn him around and cuff and arrest him. He protests that he has nothing against immigrants, being a Bosnian immigrant himself, but he still gets tossed into the back of a squad car.
It's a party outside his interview room, and our cops and DAs are there. Josh, however, shrugs off the news that they found matching ammo but didn't find Rodchenko's gun, saying that's not evidence that he didn't lose it. He's really going above and beyond with his level of suave douchebaggery. Lupo suggests, "Well, I guess we could sit around with our thumbs up our asses and wait for this guy to fess up..." and with that, he's finally got a permanent place in my heart. Anita steps in to cool everyone down and have Rodchenko taken back to holding. Connie goes to start paperwork for an arraignment but Josh tells her he wants an indictment first -- meaning they have to present to the grand jury the morning. It makes no sense, but he asserts that he doesn't want to arraign Rodchenko unless he knows he can get an indictment. He then insults Anita for putting Lupo on the case.
In case we didn't hate him enough already, he then complains to Connie about not feeling good about their witness, since he's just a "street thug." Jack then comes in to question Josh's decision about the arraignment/indictment, and learns about his reservations about Ignacio being a felon twice over, which the grand jury might not like. Jack tells Josh it's immaterial and he doesn't have to bring it up, so Josh chuckles, says he'll put Ignacio on last, and they'll be in and out in an hour. Look, I'm hopped up on cold medication and it's the middle of the night and I can tell this guy's trying to sabotage Jack -- it's frustrating that Jack either doesn't see it or doesn't want to do anything about it.
The day in the grand jury, the auxiliary chief testifies that he helped Rodchenko get the permit, and let him do target practice at his house in the Catskills, but that he knew Rodchenko wouldn't bring it to work. Josh then allows him to make an extra statement about what a good guy he is who wouldn't break any rules. Ignacio then comes up and tells his story, and Josh makes sure that Ignacio brings up his own history of felonies -- basically it's a right mess. Connie points out drily outside that he was right, they were in and out in an hour, and she isn't surprised when Josh tells her the grand jury didn't put the case through.
Jack is understandably pissed after reading the transcripts, and lays into Josh. Josh only tells him that he used the facts he had, insulting Anita in the process, and Jack takes him off the case. He looked into Josh's record and found that in 20 years he's never worked a police misconduct case, adding that cops need to be able to stand up to provocation, and that sometimes someone needs to protect people against the protectors. And then the real bottom line comes out -- Josh insults Jack for being a liberal and says that the Attorney General had wanted Josh, not Jack, for the position when Arthur left. Jack replies that he was in line, so that way everyone's hands were clean. But Josh is a little prick who is pissed that he got passed over, and he tells Jack it's too much power and he can't be trusted. That's enough for Jack, who tells him to quit or be fired. He then heads into Cutter's office to give him the case. Cutter says that to re-present to the grand jury they'll need new evidence, so Jack orders him to find it.
Mucks 1 and 2 find Jack eating dinner and ask him when they'll see his report on the riot now that this case is over. Jack calmly tells them they'll see it when it's ready and that he's not actually done with the case, but Muck #2 tells him Rodchenko's been fired. It's all just political, however, since in exchange they want a favorable report. Jack won't bite and goes back to his dinner, adding two more enemies to his collection.
Cutter and Connie are looking for new evidence when Cutter realizes that the auxiliary chief, Brody, said that Rodchenko did target practice at Brody's place; that might mean that there are bullet casings there. And sure enough, Lupo then drops two bags full in front of a bored-looking technician to see if they have a match to the one used in the murder. While they wait, Cutter notices Lupo reading a law book, and Lupo explains he's taking a night law class -- which I wondered about in an earlier episode but kind of passed over, so again I think this episode probably came sooner in the original order. On cue, the tech calls over that they have a match.
Cutter is able to use the evidence to get a new grand jury, over the best efforts of Rodchenko's attorney; however, she adds that Rodchenko would like to testify as well that he shot on the orders of a commanding officer. And man, nobody gapes with disbelief like Cutter -- never play poker with that guy. The other attorney, Sanders, says she won't say from whom, so the judge denies the motion until they'll say who the officer was.
Back at the CITU lab, the technician who was working on the cell video tells Cutter and Connie that she called in a couple of guys to help with some tapes -- a news feed, a cell phone call, and one other. The guys were able to pull out some audio of an officer shouting first, "Red light, Red light!", and then, after some commotion, "Green light!" Presumably, as the shots came , that was an order to fire.
They listen to the tapes with Jack, who orders them to do what it takes to find who gave the order. Cutter argues that either way, he's sure it meant just to fire bean bags and tear gas, not live ammunition, but Jack tells him that the jury will read whatever they want into it and that Rodchenko's lawyer can tear it all to bits.
They found the guy who gave the order, who testifies that it was an order to fire non-lethal weapons and that his guys knew that from his tactical briefing. Sanders then points out that Rodchenko wasn't under this guy's command, and in the confusion might not have known that he meant non-lethal; she gets him to admit that the command is the same for both. Cutter quickly has him explain that circumstances can easily distinguish between what is needed. Rodchenko is up there , talking about the cops getting hit with rocks and bottles. He claims that Ignacio threw the bottle, he was being attacked, and so when he heard "green light," he fired his weapon twice. He tells the jury he didn't mean for Maria to have died, but maintains he was in danger and within his rights to fire. Cutter takes his turn and establishes that Rodchenko is careful to always follow regulations. The one he didn't follow, however, was the one stating that auxiliary officers don't carry weapons. After pointed questioning, Rodchenko's inferiority complex is uncovered, and he yells that auxiliary cops are "real" cops. Cutter pushes all of Rodchenko's buttons until he blows up and agrees that the thugs in the crowd were going to respect him even if the other cops didn't -- however, Maria wasn't a thug. And I'd say that his accidental shooting of an innocent woman kind of confirms that the rent-a-cops should stay gun-free.
Sanders then calls a sidebar to call Josh as an expert witness. Though Cutter points out that he knows confidential details of the case, the judge allows it as long as he doesn't reveal anything and promises to keep him on a tight leash. Cutter tells Jack about it and offers to file a motion to exclude him, but Jack doesn't seem worried and doesn't want them to look like they have something to hide. He adds, "Now I know why Adam Schiff was so grumpy." ["That particular line was mentioned in reviews of the new season, so apparently critics got this episode on screeners, but it's airing out of order. So, you're right." -- Sars]
Josh walks through everything, painting Jack as the bad guy for firing Josh just because he didn't like how Josh handled Ignacio as a witness. He then tells them that Jack's biased against police officers, pointing out that he had a past of prosecuting officers. He's extremely pleased with himself until Cutter points out that Josh has the opposite tendency -- that he won't ever assist in prosecuting police officers.
Connie shows Jack the papers and says that no one believes Josh since it's "sour grapes from a fired employee." Jack points out, however, that people will believe him if they lose the case. Jack then gets angry, wondering how he could have thought he could stay above the politics of it all when he took this job.
Cutter then calls Jack as a witness, who again explains everything that went on, sounding much more level-headed about it all. He explains that he fired Josh because Josh said he didn't trust Jack, and he couldn't have that in an employee; it wasn't because Josh didn't get an indictment. Sanders tries to get Jack to admit he hates cops and goes after them pointedly, as well as being a crazy liberal hippie who takes on every crazy liberal hippie case that comes across his desk. She goes after him with claws a-flying, but with swelling music Jack declares that what he does is enforce the law and speak out for victims. If he could have been holding a tiny rescued puppy as he said this, he probably would have -- it's a good scene, but not, how do I put it...subtle. And it all works -- Rodchenko is found guilty on both counts.
Back in the office, Jack hands Cutter and Connie copies of his 700-page report on the riots. She asks what his verdict was, and he tells them both sides will be angry with him. Cutter tells him that sounds like he got it right, and as he picks up his copy and leaves, he leaves something on the desk. Jack asks about it, and Cutter tells him it's a tie pin from "Bobby Kennedy's campaign in '68. I found it on eBay." Aw, so liberals do get love too! And at that, we come to a close with Dick Wolf's executive producer credit -- somewhere at this very moment, I'm sure he's off having a custom suit made of money.