Conduct Unbecoming

The early part of the episode is about a lottery pool at the headquarters which they manage to win $1000 plus a chance for a million.

They are working various ways to try to track down and stop shipments of illegal guns.

Petrie has found a magazine with pictures of gay men. Lacey refuses to even look at the pictures and turns away. One of the pictures is of one of the under-cover men they are working with.

Then there's an attempted robbery at a store and the crook, the clerk, and one of the customers all have guns and start shooting. Cagney and Lacey find that one of the guns relates to a shipment of guns stolen from Kentucky.

Samuels talks to them about the guy they are working with, and notes that the guy's photo was in a nude magazine. Chris doesn't seem to think it's that important, but the look on Lacey's face speaks volumes of what she thinks about gay men and pornography in general. Apparently he's going to be charged with “serious misconduct.”

Then there's a short discussion between Cagney and Lacey and Lacey says whether or not Stevens, the guy they are working with, is gay makes no difference, which seems to contradict her behavior previously.

Stevens and Isbecki get into a physical fight in the office. Although they are close to busting the guy who is selling the guns, Stevens gets suspended. He wants to keep working on the case, though.

Then the episode slows down while Cagney and Samuels have a talk about what they would do if they got a lot of money.

(Now, Stevens is officially suspended. I would think that a defense attorney would really jump on that if anything came to actual trial, that the police department was using a suspended policeman on a case.)

Cagney and Lacey both end up getting official reprimands for letting Stevens be involved in the case. Stevens gets suspended six months without pay.

Overall, it's a rather uneven episode. The anti-gay factor is as strong at the end of the episode as at the beginning, and the problem of a suspended officer taking part in a case and that fact very probably messing up any conviction is not even discussed.

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