Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

In the criminal justice system,

sexually based offenses

are considered especially heinous.

In New York City, the dedicated detectives

who investigate these vicious felonies

are members of an elite squad

known as the Special Victims Unit.

These are their stories.

Noah, call the police.

I was with my son, and a gang came after me with a machete.

You all right?

I will be once I get my hands on Oscar Papa.

Well, I got a call under Bronx Gangs.

You call Duarte.

He's our expert on BX9.

Are you saying you wanna liaise with me?

If you think that you can separate

the gang problem from the rape problem up there,

I would like to see you try.

SVU Bronx needs a new squad now.

I don't have the authority to hire anybody.

You and Bruno should be vetting them.

While you go after Oscar Papa?

It's the reason that I came up here.

The kid that I shot just got out of surgery.

Remember me?

You're that white lady who shot me.

You're lucky it wasn't your head.

Would have been doing me a favor.

If you're worried about retaliation...

We have armed guards in the hall.

I don't care what happens to me.

My whole life's a mess.

So why don't you let us help you clean it up?

What do you want from me?

I want confirmation that Oscar Papa is the one

who put the hit out on me.

You know I can't do that.

You're protecting a guy that thinks you're disposable.

Is he talking smack about me?

What'd he say?

Nothing bad.

How old are you?

I'm 15.

Oh.

How did you get involved in BX9?

I came up on La Bestia.

The beast.

Train from Chiapas.

I walked from El Salvador,

climbed up on the train one night.

We rode the roof for thousands of miles.

We?

It was so cold.

Me and some stranger huddled together.

He taught me to look up at the stars.

I liked those three little ones all in a row.

Orion's Belt.

That makes sense.

Why'd you come to New York?

I was looking for my mom.

She came to New York when I was ten to work.

Did you find her?

She didn't want nothing to do with my ass.

And why is that?

Why do you think?

BX9.

They raped her, threatened to do it again

if I didn't soldier up.

I told you, you should have just shot me in the head.

The kid give you anything? Not yet.

We're working him.

Working him.

Just a little bit of empathy, Duarte?

You wanna hug that kid in there, fine,

but do it after I solve my case.

Your case? Yeah.

The one McGrath told me to solve.

All due respect, you're still the victim here.

Little bastard did try and chop you up, Captain.

Imagine if you hadn't been packing extra heat

in those designer shoes of yours.

Okay, look, I'm flattered that you two wanna protect me

from what seems like self-sabotaging denial,

but my first order of business here

is to reconnect Fugazi with his mother.

If you want, Captain, I can take Muncy and go find her.

That's exactly what I want.

I see what you're doing, your little ploy to flip that kid.

That boy needs his mother. If you say so.

BX9 raped his mother to force him into that gang.

He is a victim just like his mother,

and she needs to know that.

I told you.

This gang stuff is a lot more complicated than you think.

Is this about the apology that you think I owe you?

I don't want your apology.

Not yet. No, you wanna savor it.

With a nice glass of Cabernet.

That's still your drink, isn't it?

That's not happening, Duarte.

That's not happening until whoever

greenlit me is behind bars.

Well, that might happen sooner than you think.

Let's take a drive.

I wanna show you something.

I should have worn my hiking boots.

We're almost there.

Oh, God.

Enough, Duarte.

Please tell me this is not what I think it is.

Not the first time rape has been used as a weapon of war.

Just happens to be a gang war.

BX9 put this here.

Kids like Fugazi, Sabo, Ricky, Sleep,

they come up from South and Central America

thinking they escaped the gang problem.

But they didn't.

The first day of school in New York, they're approached.

And they say no once.

But no one ever says no to BX9 a second time.

Because this is what happens to their mothers if they do.

We got Ronnie Samuels for the murder of Renee Perry.

It's about 12 rape cases clear.

Don't get ahead of yourself.

Ronnie still has to go to trial.

Well, for now, let's just pretend

this little stack is cleared.

That mean you guys are leaving now?

It's gonna take a lot more than that to get rid of us.

It's gonna take a lot more than me, a D-3,

and a white shield to get these cases cleared.

Well, as part of our federal mandate,

we've been given broad latitude to hire new detectives.

A full squad's worth.

That's great, but who's gonna vet them?

According to McGrath, that's what Benson's here to do.

Speaking of which, where the hell is she?

She'll be back.

Well, until then, you're an SVU sergeant.

Over two decades under your belt?

I wouldn't even know where to start.

Start here.

Don't look at me.

Who is she, some kind of velvet house cat?

Hardly.

Churlish may be low on the totem,

but she's got her sights set high.

Guys around here used to call her the Mayor.

She's gonna be both our bosses one day.

I'll keep that in mind.

I want every single pair of underwear cataloged

and processed for DNA.

There's gotta be over 100 pairs.

And every one of them is evidence.

A rape tree?

I prefer to call it what it is, a recruitment tool.

How long did you know about this?

A year, year and a half.

Oh, you knew about this for a year?

You knew about this the whole time,

and you didn't tell me? Hey, hey, hey, hey!

The whole time I was working with you?

What, do you not trust me? Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

I don't trust anyone. Calm down. Muncy, calm down.

Take a second.

Are you kidding me, Duarte?

You knew about this. Listen...

Duarte, she worked with the women from this neighborhood.

You've been sitting on this for a year and a half?

I don't even know how you're standing here,

but I gotta tell you, this makes you just as bad

as the men who use this to recruit.

I was trying to get a surveillance op off the ground.

It's not like Bronx SVU was any help.

Oh, yeah, well, now everybody's gonna know.

‘cos neighborhoods like this,

gossip travels at the speed of sound.

He's right... there goes your surveillance op.

Well, now that you're here, we don't need it anymore.

You were attacked by the only witness that matters.

Who, Fugazi?

He was shown this tree, brought here by the recruiters.

He can ID them.

So you wanna bring him back here

so we can traumatize him a second time?

If putting him back in touch with his mother

doesn't do it first, yeah.

Thank you, Captain Duarte, but your presence

in what is now a sprawling sexual assault case

is no longer needed or wanted.

You're the victim in a gang crime, which,

might I remind you, has its roots in my borough.

I'll get McGrath involved in this if I have to.

But let me assure you that from here on out,

we're doing this my way.

Which means what?

Reading bedtime stories to the kid that tried to chop you up?

We're gonna try to ID as many rape victims as we can