"Law & Order" was a one-hour television series which ran on the NBC television network from 1990 to 2010. It has been restarted in 2021 and continues to appear.
New York City police detectives investigate a crime and then attorneys participate in a trial. This episode is titled "Promote This" and was originally broadcast on April 29, 2009. Suburban white teenagers want to broadcast an anti-immigrant message by heating a Mexican coin and using it to assault and "brand" two Hispanic men. The program shows the coin and photographs of it being used.

The New York City police are called to a crime scene.

At the site where immigrants congregate looking for work, the police find an unconscious seriously injured Honduran illegal immigrant named Oswaldo Morales and take him to a hospital. At the hospital, the doctors notice an unusual burn mark on his cheek which appears to be the design of a Mexican coin. The police detectives Lupo and Barnard find a pattern of broken glass and conclude that the man was inside a car and was thrown or pushed out a car window. Some more evidence and interviews send the detectives to the suburb of Peconic and to three white high school basketball players as suspects. The detectives head to the house of suspect Tony Stratton.

The detectives talk to the woman who answers the door and who they believe is a Hispanic maid. They later find out that the lady is Mrs. Stratton, the boy's mother, who is originally from Argentina. The police turn their evidence over to District Attorneys Michael Cutter and Connie Rubirosa.

The three teenagers are charged with assault. A second Hispanic victim, Ray Alvarez, is found by the police.

Ray Alvarez, a US citizen from Detroit, is found deceased with a similar Mexican coin burn mark. The three boys are now charged with assault and murder. One of the boys, Kyle Chase makes a deal with prosecutors to testify against the other two boys and claims not to have been along when the second man was killed.

Prosecutor Cutter shows the "branding" device, a metal pipe with a coin inserted in it. Kyle states that the coin belonged to another boy who got it from his sister who brought it back from the Cancun Resort in Mexico. He then describes how the boys would use a cigarette lighter to heat up the coin.

An expert witness shows pictures of the burn marks.

The coin is a Mexican 50 centavos coin.

Copper-nickel, 25 mm, 6.5 gm
Obverse: Aztec King Cuauhtemoc facing left, CINCUENTA CENTAVOS, Mo mint, date
Reverse: Mexico national emblem, ESTADOS UNIDOS MEXICANOS
These coins were minted from 1964 to 1969.

The trial continues for the two remaining boys.

During her testimony she lets slip that she taught her son that, although he was Hispanic, he is not a "peasant" like the illegal immigrants in the area..

The two boys are acquitted of the murder of Alvarez and convicted of assault of Morales. Oswaldo Morales is still in the hospital in a coma and his mother comes from Honduras to visit him. The doctors tell her that he will not recover and she files a "do not resuscitate" order to allow her son to die.

The prosecutor charges the two boys with the murder of Oswaldo Morales.

Jeremy Sisto as Detective Cyrus Lupo
Anthony Anderson as Detective Kevin Bernard
S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
Linus Roache as Assistant District Attorney Michael Cutter
Alana De La Garza as Assistant District Attorney Connie Rubirosa
Sam Waterston as District Attorney Jack McCoy
Rosa Arredondo as Juanita Stratton
Michael Drayer as Kyle Chase
Director: Michael W. Watkins
Writers: Dick Wolf, Richard Sweren, Christopher Ambrose