Law & Order
Thursdays 8:00 PM on NBCLaw & Order Season 21 Episode 5: "Free Speech" Quotes
Maroun: Hell of a win. Now maybe people will think twice before spreading venomous lies.
Price: I don't know about that. I just got a particularly venomous death threat.
We're asking the jury to convict someone for murder for spreading lies on the Internet. This could be groundbreaking, like convicting Trump for the murders that took place on January 6. We need something more.
Samantha
Defense attorney: Social media posts are covered under the First Amendment.
Price: Your client cried Fire in a crowded movie theatre and Derek Hoyt got trampled.
Judge: I agree with Mr. Price. There is a case to be made here. I don't know if it's winnable, but it's tryable.
Inventing mythical enemies is part of the defendant's business model. He provides exciting liberal enemies for his followers to hate. He then posts about these dangerous fascists and anti-Americans on his websites, talks about them on his streaming platform and podcasts. But the only thing he really cares about is money. Monetizing the outrage and venom, that's how the defendant builds his million dollar media. In simplest terms, he made Derek Hoyt an enemy of the far right, then offered Manny Lopez, a misguided but intelligent patriotic ex-Marine a financial reward to kill that enemy. And Manny Lopez did.
Price
Samantha: He was lying to you. Hoyt wasn't a pedophile. He was a family man, a decent man who was running for Congress.
Manny: Yeah, that's what the liberal media wants you to believe.
Samantha: No, that's what the facts say.
Judge: Bail is set at 2 million dollars.
Lawyer: That's prohibitive! My client can't afford that.
Judge: I don't know about that.
Lawyer: Excuse me?
Judge: A bunch of so-called patriots set up a GoFundMe fund for Mr. Lopez. It's already raised $900,000
Computer tech: The post was sent an hour ago from a coffee shop called Coffee'n'Smile.
Cosgrove: Why is it mandatory for all coffee shops to have stupid names?
Dixon: That's why I drink tea.
Bernard: So you don't really believe that Democrats eat babies or that Black people's obsession with racism is destroying the country?
Reed: Doesn't matter what I believe. It matters what sells.
Man: I heard he was running for Congress and the power brokers in the Democratic Party were making him out to be the best new thing. Like AOC only with brains. That was a joke. Sorry. Didn't mean to offend your left wing sensibilities.
Bernard: You didn't offend us. It wasn't funny.
Man: Ooh. Tough crowd.
Cosgrove: More like an impatient crowd. We're investigating a murder.
Cosgrove: Got the bus cam footage.
[After watching] Bernard: There's a lot of hate behind that push.
Cosgrove: Yeah. The question is why.
