Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TV Series)

Debt (2004)

Christopher Meloni: Detective Elliot Stabler

Quotes 

• Elliot Stabler : Li Mei, you gotta trust me.

  Li Mei : I am afraid.

  Elliot Stabler : I understand that you're afraid, but I can't help you, your sister, or her daughter unless you do trust me. You've gotta tell me everything. Now let's start with Ping. How old is she?

  Li Mei : Fifteen. Ping was only a baby when Jiao and her husband came here. They couldn't take her on the boat. We saved every penny to bring her to America. And then Jiao's husband left and took all our money.

  Elliot Stabler : Where's Ping now?

  Li Mei : I don't know.

  Elliot Stabler : Come on, Hannah told you Jiao paid the man to bring her over here from China.

  Li Mei : Yes, but I don't know if Ping is here.

  Elliot Stabler : And the wedding money is for the smugglers, right?

  Li Mei : These snakeheads charge $50,000 and until you pay off the debt, they own you.

  Elliot Stabler : Now, these snakeheads, I need names.

  Li Mei : I don't know.

  Elliot Stabler : Li Mei, these are the people who have your sister. Now, every second you waste keeps us from finding her.

  Li Mei : Please, you must believe me. I don't know. I begged her not to go. I told her that these people kill if you don't pay them back.

  Elliot Stabler : Your sister took a huge risk.

  Li Mei : Do you have children, Mr. Stabler?

  Elliot Stabler : Yeah, I've got four.

  Li Mei : Then wouldn't you deal with murderers to get your baby back?

• Elliot Stabler : [to Li Mei's boss]  Look, pal, I got two women missing already. You don't wanna piss me off today.

• Elliot Stabler : Well, Tommy, you're a smart kid. What do you think will happen when Ricky Yao finds out you led us to him?

  Tommy : You're setting me up to be killed.

  Elliot Stabler : After what you did to Li Mei, I don't give a crap what Ricky does to you.

• Elliot Stabler : [to Tommy]  Where were you born?

  Tommy : Here.

  Elliot Stabler : Your parents?

  Tommy : They're from Fujin. Little village, middle of nowhere.

  Elliot Stabler : Coming to America, they took a lot of risks for a chance at a better life, huh?

  Tommy : Some life. My dad was a teacher in China. Here, he's nothing but a delivery man. Riding around on a stupid bicycle, shoving menus under doors. "Beef fried rice, 2 dollars."

  Elliot Stabler : You ever ask yourself why he does it?

  Tommy : He tells me all the time. For me, so I could have a better life. Well, that's what I'm trying to do.

  Elliot Stabler : By working for Ricky Yao?

  Tommy : I earn more in a week than my dad makes in a month.

  Elliot Stabler : You shake people down.

  Tommy : I pick up the money. I don't hurt anyone.

  Elliot Stabler : You muscle working people like your dad for their last dimes and hand it over to Ricky Yao. You're ripping off poor folks to make that dirt bag rich? Tommy, talk to me.

  Tommy : I can't betray my people.

  Elliot Stabler : Ricky Yao's not your people, don't you get it? He preys on your people! He beat up Li Mei in that alley! Be a man. You stand up for her.

• Ricky Yao : [about Ping]  Too bad about the kid. I hear she's a real nice piece of ass.

  Elliot Stabler : Ping's gotta be alive if he's using her as a bargaining chip.

  Olivia Benson : Or maybe he's playing us.

  Elliot Stabler : I think he's sweating over her. Maybe she saw Ricky murder her mother. Ping was at that brothel.

  Olivia Benson : He can't let her testify against him. Second he gets to Central Booking, he makes a phone call, she's dead.

• Roger Baker : I don't know what that hooker told you, but I didn't kill anyone.

  Elliot Stabler : Yeah, you're just a saint with a law degree.

  Roger Baker : I'm just trying to help these people, okay?

  Elliot Stabler : Your big house in the Hamptons, your power boat, the Porsche, your Chinese clients help you pay for that?

  Roger Baker : The market's been good to me.

  Elliot Stabler : You buy your toys with blood money.

  Roger Baker : I never hurt anyone, okay?

  Elliot Stabler : [as he grabs Baker]  Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?

  Roger Baker : These people are gonna be deported. I'm helping them stay in this country!

  Elliot Stabler : By being Ricky Yao's sex slaves, huh? To be used up and buried when he's done with them!

• Customs Officer : We use to raid sweatshops every week for making phony handbags, designer jeans, even T-shirts, but since 9/11, we put all our manpower into DVDs.

  Olivia Benson : Bootlegged movies pose a threat to national security?

  Customs Officer : When Al-Qaeda's selling them. Interpol raided a sleeper cell. Found 20,000 copies of "The Lion King." Cheap to make, the profit margin's higher than drugs and a hell of a lot less risky.

  Elliot Stabler : Using Mickey Mouse to fund terrorist attacks on America. What next?

  Customs Officer : Baby formula, brake pads. Hell, even double-A batteries.