6. Poison Ivy
Law & Order‘s eighth episode of season one told the story of a plainclothes veteran cop who shoots a black student who was on the honor roll. The episode was based on the real death of an honors black student named Edmund Perry, who was set to attend Stanford on a scholarship.
Lee Van Houten, the cop, claimed that Perry and his brother attempted to mug him. Racial tensions were high, and Houten was eventually cleared of any charges, much to the public’s dismay.
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