Continuity Nod: Officer Slater makes his return two years after he was seen in ' Hash'.Wojo: I thought those differences weren't important anymore!īarney: They're not! But they are. note What he was trying to say is that it's wrong to judge someone by race, but they should be aware of the fact that Harris still has to face racism. By 'No', I Mean 'Yes': Barney tries to explain to Wojo that Harris' race gives him a particular set of problems to deal with, after being shot at by fellow cops has (understandably) made Harris angry at the world in general-although here it's not a matter of Insistent Terminology, but Barney grappling with words.At the end of the episode, Dietrich innocently (or possibly not) repeats the punchline, at which Wojo gives him a Death Glare. He tries not to give the punchline, though Wojo wheedles it out of him. This is meant to demonstrate to Wojo (who is of Polish descent) that everyone has buttons that can be insensitively pressed by others who may not truly understand what they're saying. Brick Joke: Earlier on in the episode, to try to explain Harris' feelings (that being the only Black detective in the precinct means that none of them can truly understand on an internal level what he's going through, but can sympathize and give support) to Wojo, he tells the first part of an old 'dimwitted Polish' stereotype joke to Wojo.Barney sips, grimaces, and says it tastes like 'wood'. Being Dietrich, instead of making regular coffee he makes some kind of supposedly healthy coffee substitute out of barley. Bad to the Last Drop: With Yemana away in court (in fact he would never return as Jack Soo was dying of cancer), Dietrich is left to make the coffee.Whittney regards begging as a career and is successful enough with it to support a family and keep a maid. Wojo arrests one Stanford Whittney for panhandling, basically because Wojo was offended that a perfectly able-bodied man is begging on the street.

A nasty argument ensues, which leads to a discussion of structural racism in the police department (in 1978!). Harris is left seething with rage, which is made worse when Slater and Darvec report to the squad room and write the whole thing off as a misunderstanding, and worse still when Barney tells Harris that nothing will happen until the NYPD with its laborious bureaucracy can weigh in. They shot at him, and the real bandit got away. Officers Slater and Darvec took one look at Harris, a black man with a gun, and assumed he was the armed robber.

'The Harris Incident' is the ninth episode of the fifth season of Barney Miller.īarney receives a startling phone call in the office: someone took a shot at Harris! And it was another cop! It seems that Harris was at the scene of an armed robbery, and was in the process of making an arrest, when two beat cops showed up. Guest Starring: Michael Lombard, Ed Peck, Rick Wain, Marilyn Chris

Written by: Wally Dalton, Shelley Zellman, and Reinhold Weege

Barney harris shot