Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Obscene (2004)

Christopher Meloni: Detective Elliot Stabler

Quotes 

• Detective Elliot Stabler : [listening to BJ Cameron on the radio]  And you wonder why people want that guy to shut up.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : Nobody's forcing them to listen.

  [turns off the radio] 

• Franco Marquez : I know how this works. I write this for a living. I'll give you a DNA sample and so will everyone else on the crew.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : You write this for a living, you should know that you can't compel them to do that.

• Franco Marquez : We've been through enough. I don't need you bitching about how Jessie is playing "inappropriate material."

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Look, pal, basically you got her stripping for money. And sleeping with the teacher?

  Franco Marquez : It's called drama.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : It's called pimping out a 16-year-old to jack up your ratings. Come on.

  Franco Marquez : The average girl loses her virginity by 16. Now what's the responsible thing to do, pretend it doesn't happen? Or show a girl in charge of her sexuality?

  Odafin Tutuola : A 16-year-old girl may be having sex, but she ain't in charge of squat.

• Donald Cragen : Marquez is 40, Jessie is 16. It's legal pedophilia.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : So she had consensual sex. She took a fistful of knockout pills, fell and hit her head.

  Donald Cragen : But the M.E. report says Marquez isn't the only one who had sex with Jessie. The rape kit turned up a pubic hair. DNA doesn't match Jessie, Marquez or anybody on the crew.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Captain, we're going to base a whole rape investigation on a single pube? We don't even know if she was raped here.

  Donald Cragen : It's the best evidence we got, so we're going to run with it.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : She could've picked up that hair during one of her costume changes.

  Donald Cragen : I don't think they change their panties, Elliot.

• Detective Elliot Stabler : [about BJ Cameron]  He's encouraging people to rape. What, "Jessie needs a good banging, go out and give it to her"?

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : This guy knows his law, though. He's protected under "Brandenburg" unless his intent is to go out and produce an imminent and probable lawless act. He could say to you, "Elliot Stabler, I command you to rape Jessie Dawning," you wouldn't have a case against him.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : How is that possible?

  John Munch : Elliot, he doesn't really mean for you to do it. It's a joke.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Except this time, someone really went out and did it.

  John Munch : Yeah, well, there's your bad guy, not BJ.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : They're both just as bad.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : Elliot, you're 0-for-3.

• BJ Cameron : [to Fin and Stabler]  Did you get a big happy when the anti-smut crusaders yanked my show off the air this morning?

  Odafin Tutuola : You were humiliating a rape victim.

  BJ Cameron : Great, take me off the air. You know what I find offensive? "Catcher in the Rye." Let's find every copy and burn it.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Give me a break here. You're pissed off because your show got pulled.

  BJ Cameron : I'm pissed off because a couple of hundred crackpots want to decide what's appropriate for two million people to listen to and you're letting them win.

  Odafin Tutuola : We're not trying to shut you down. We're trying to catch a rapist.

  BJ Cameron : And I'm exercising my right not to speak.

• Detective Elliot Stabler : [about BJ]  Son of a bitch wants to turn himself into a martyr for free speech.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : Didn't the producer hear Danny admit to raping Jessie?

  Odafin Tutuola : BJ told him that later and the station doesn't record unless they're broadcasting.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : So we can't use the confession unless BJ gives it up.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : We subpoena him, he's going to turn that trial into a free speech circus.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : BJ likes whining about his freedom of speech? Let's give him something to really cry about. I'll take a page out of Carolyn Spencer's playbook. How do you hurt Howard Stern? Go after Clear Channel.

  Odafin Tutuola : So you gonna put the screws to Entropy Broadcasting?

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : And their sponsors and their advertisers. Ask them how they feel about Entropy's star personality hindering the prosecution of a rapist.

• Detective Elliot Stabler : [about Carolyn Spencer]  She's all about morals and decency until it becomes inconvenient.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : I can bully BJ onto the stand, I can present all the evidence that I want, but without Jessie, I got nothing.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : Any chance of talking to Danny without Carolyn running interference?

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : Yeah, and saying what, "Ignore your mom, listen to me and go to jail"?

• A.D.A. Casey Novak : How do you deadlock with a mountain of evidence in front of you?

  Detective Elliot Stabler : The jury thought BJ deserved what he got.

  A.D.A. Casey Novak : He flapped his mouth on the radio. She picked up a gun and shot him. There's no question who broke the law here.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : No, but after hearing BJ on the stand, half the jury would've done what Carolyn did.

• Detective Elliot Stabler : [to Franco]  You knew Jessie was taking pills. Why'd you lie?

  Franco Marquez : Well, it's been a tough season. How Jessie gets through it is between her and her doctor.

  Detective Elliot Stabler : [while looking at the storyboards in Franco's office]  Jessie goes undercover as a stripper, as a lifeguard, as a lingerie model. You know, maybe the kid wouldn't have such a hard time if you didn't make her run around half-naked every week.

• Detective Elliot Stabler : [while reading a poem from BJ Cameron's fan mail]  Roses are red, violets are blue, when Jessie's dead, her corpse, I will... you get the rest.