The episode begins with Sarah Walsh, a college-aged music student coming back to her apartment with groceries. She is on the elevator on the way up to her apartment, with her hands full of groceries and encounters an African American male riding along in the elevator with her. She makes it to her floor and exits the elevator, not without the unidentified African American male following her to her apartment. He forces her with a gun inside her apartment and proceeds to rape her. This is a scene that the audience sees and is important that the actual events were made known. The episode continues when the SVU team try to find answers about this case. The detectives drive by with Sarah and she points out her accused rapist , Benson and Amaro Question him. The suspect proceeds to run from them into his apartment where his family lives. The suspect pulls out a gun and is then tackled to the by Amaro. Detective Benson pulls out her gun and urges the family in the apartment to stay quiet and to calm down and the suspect is then arrested and taken into custody. The trail for Sarah's rape begins and the suspects has hired a top defense attorney, Bayard Ellis, who is committed to racial justice. The evidence works against Sarah and the suspect, Michael is found not guilty for rape or criminal possession of a weapon.
There is a lot to be said about the symbolism in this episode and the purpose of this blog post is to discuss those symbolic elements. There is something controversial about the crime that an African American committed against a white woman. Early history of the United States saw this crime being committed time and time again. However, the context of this crime that was committed in the episode was seen by the audience which allowed for a third person perspective. After slavery was abolished, crimes were committed against African Americans as a form of justice, known as the practices of lynching. Lynching was a justification for crimes that black men would commit, often framed as a black man raping a white woman. However, these were often cases of "he said, she said" with no third person perspective to know the actual story. Lynching was a very violent form of justice and those being lynched were black people, which can conclude that these were acts of hatred and racism. Any story of a black person committing a crime would almost undoubtedly become a means for punishment after slavery was abolished. In the book, Lynching to Belong, taking place around 1890, Jim Riddick, a black man was incarcerated for being accused of raping a white Italian woman named Fannie Palazzo. He was not immediately lynched for this accusation because Fannie's Palazzo's story lacked sufficient evidence. He was later lynched with two other black man by a group of whites displaying hatred and racism. Jim Riddick may not have ever committed the crime he was accused of but he was killed regardless. This episode of Law and Order SVU presented the exact narrative of the black man raping the white woman and even though the audience was given a clear visual of what actually happened, the episode was symbolic of a crime that would result in the historical racist practices of lynching.