  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | Hey, you know what's gonna get me through, Star? Replaying everything Coleman did to you. | „ |
| ~ Ackerman taunting Dana Lewis. |
Brian Ackerman is a supporting antagonist in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, appearing in the episodes "Raw" and "Penetration". He is the leader of a white supremacist group called Revolutionary Aryan Warriors (RAW), and the mastermind of a school shooting that kills a young Black boy and the rape of FBI Agent Dana Lewis.
He was portrayed by J.C. MacKenzie.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Ackerman is a white supremacist who leads the neo-Nazi group Revolutionary Aryan Warriors (RAW). Through RAW, he disseminates racist, anti-Semitic propaganda and supplies firearms to other white supremacist groups through his armorer business, Gun Ho. His chief lieutenants are his teenage son, Kyle, and a woman named Star Morrison - who, unbeknownst to him, is in fact FBI Agent Dana Lewis, who has infiltrated RAW in order to dismantle it.
"Raw"[]
When Mark and Janice Whitlock hire one of RAW's members, Brannon Lee Redding, to kill their adopted son Jeffrey so they can collect on his life insurance policy, Ackerman gives him a sniper rifle that he uses to kill Jeffrey, who is Black, and wound two other children who "look Jewish".
Detectives John Munch and Fin Tutuola of the NYPD's Special Victims Unit arrest Kyle after linking the rifle to Gun Ho. Ackerman goes to SVU's station house to bail Kyle out and berates everyone in the unit with racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs; he also chastises Kyle for his supposed failure to "defend the perimeter".
When the SVU detectives arrest Redding for murder, Ackerman hires Jewish attorney Heshi Horowitz to defend him; despite his anti-Semitism, Ackerman believes that a "Jew lawyer" will get Redding a better deal from Assistant District Attorney Casey Novak. Horowitz ably represents Redding and makes a deal to serve 25 years in prison in return for pleading guilty, but Judge T. Schulyer throws out the plea deal, forcing Redding to agree to testify that Ackerman orchestrated the shooting in a desperate attempt to avoid a life sentence.
Detectives Olivia Benson and Elliot Stabler arrest Ackerman for his part in the murder, and he is represented by Novak's mentor Barry Moredock, who defends him and RAW on free speech grounds, reasoning that his racist speech, while morally repugnant, is protected under the First Amendment.
At Ackerman's trial, Novak calls Redding to testify that he gave him the gun for the shooting over Moredock's objections. Redding testifies that Ackerman met him after he was released from prison and gave him the address and photo of Jeffrey Whitlock (which is later revealed to be a lie, as the Whitlocks did it themselves), only for Kyle and another member of RAW, who have managed to smuggle guns into the courtroom, to open fire and kill Redding, Judge Schulyer and one of the court officers before being gunned down. Ackerman later says he is proud of Kyle for killing a race traitor.
However, in the meantime Lewis manages to pull off a sting operation which catches high-ranking members of RAW buying components for a bomb. Now freed to reveal her identity as a Federal agent, she hands Benson financial records showing that the Whitlocks offered to pay RAW one-third of their life insurance policy on Jeffrey, listing it as a future insurance payment. The Whitlocks soon confess that they paid RAW to assassinate their son so they could claim his life insurance policy, giving enough evidence that Ackerman is able to be convicted of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy and sentenced to life without parole by the time of his next appearance.
"Penetration"[]
Over the next five years, Ackerman runs RAW from his cell in Attica, recruiting new members from his fellow prisoners, especially ones who belong to the Aryan Nation prison gang, and smuggling his writing to his minions on the outside to publish online.
He also grows obsessed with getting revenge against Lewis, whom he blames for Kyle's death. Finally, he comes up with a plan to ruin her life and career; he contracts petty criminal and Aryan Brotherhood member Seth Coleman to attack and rape her, knowing that she will take matters into her own hands and break FBI protocol, thus getting her fired. After she is assaulted, she enlists the help of Benson and Stabler to arrest Coleman, and of Assistant District Attorney Gillian Hardwicke to convict him of rape. In return for a reduced sentence, Coleman incriminates Ackerman in planning the rape.
Stabler, Benson, and Lewis meets with Ackerman in prison and tells him that she knows that he ordered her rape. He gloats over having gotten the better of her - until Stabler reveals that, as punishment for confessing to ordering her rape, he will be put in solitary confinement for the rest of his life. Ackerman defiantly states that he will still have the pleasure of knowing what Coleman did to her, but she replies by revealing her true name and with the help of her husband and children, she will move on from her rape and, unlike him, have a full, happy life. She then leaves the cell with Benson and Stabler, leaving Ackerman sitting alone.
External links[]
- Brian Ackerman on the Law & Order Wiki
