Rene Balcer's brush with law and disorder

In the crosswalk justice system, the pickets are represented by two separate, yet equally unenthusiastic groups: The police who investigate the hotheads, and the security guards who have to be dragged into taking action. This is Rene Balcer's story.

"Law & Order" exec producer Rene Balcer got into a scuffle with a Fox employee on Wednesday morning  while he was on a picket shift outside the Galaxy gate at Avenue of the Stars. Balcer wasn't hurt, but he was rattled. And he was really steamed by what he sees as intransigence (sound familiar?) on the part of a few Fox security guards who were barely a few feet away but didn't move a muscle until nearly an hour after the fact when officers from the LAPD's West L.A. station showed up to investigate.

"Those guys weren't doing anything," Balcer said. "Other writers were trying to get their attention while it was going on. It was only when the cops showed up an hour later that they moved."

Ch-ching

The incident began around 10:15 a.m. Wednesday when Balcer was walking with a picket sign in the crosswalk in front of the Galaxy entryway to the Fox Plaza building. A hybrid SUV crept up on the crosswalk and to Balcer's surprise, was so impatient as to begin bumping him.

"At some point then he got offended that my body had touched his car. He jumped out of the car and got in my face," Balcer said.

Other witnesses told Balcer that the man clearly took a swing at him, but didn't connect. In the heat of the confrontation, Balcer doesn't remember specifically but at some point the man did brush against him, at which point Balcer "shoved him back pretty hard into his car." By this time, other pickets recognized the man as someone who'd been belligerent with other strikers in recent weeks.

Balcer could be forgiven for sounding a bit gleeful in recounting that the man "had a startled look on his face. I guess he's not used to writers pushing back."

Ch-ching

As other writers rushed to Balcer's defense, the perp scrambled back into his car and drove into the parking garage. Of course, plenty of strikers by then had jotted down his license plate number, which came in handy when the LAPD officers arrived about an hour later. The cops and Fox security went into the Fox Plaza and questioned the man, whose name Balcer declines to divulge.

"At this point it's in my lap as to whether or not I decide to press charges and pursue other remedies," he said. (A process he's pretty familiar with after toiling many a season on "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent.") Balcer had to snicker later when he was told that the man gave the excuse to police that he'd been under pressure to improve his track record for getting to work on time.

Ch-ching

Balcer contrasts his experience with Fox security with a story that made the rounds early on after the strike about how security at Sony Pictures Entertainment came to the aid of a picket who was caught up in a similar situation.

"We get instructed by our strike captains on how to behave on the picket line, how we have to observe traffic rules and pedestrian rules," Balcer observed. "Apparently, Fox doesn't do the same with its employees."

--Cynthia Littleton

Comments

[Crew Member]

This type of thing would not happen if everyone would get back to the tables and settle this strike !

Please!!!

[Mike Scully]

While chronic tardiness is certainly a valid legal reason for punching an innocent stranger in the face, I say press charges. This kind of stuff has been going on since the beginning of the strike, but hasn't got the attention it deserves. My wife was bumped by a car at the Pico gate in November and Fox security did nothing then, either.

Don't walk away, Rene. (Sorry, Rene, I've been out of the writers' room too long.)

Mike Scully

[Mike Scully]

PS If you sue him, Rene, he'll probably be late to court, punch the judge, and you'll win big!

Scully

[Stuart Creque]

Mike, you are dating yourself with the "don't walk away, Rene" comment. And a married man shouldn't be dating in the first place. *rim shot*

But I absolutely agree -- the SUV driver has some serious issues and needs a little intervention from the criminal justice system. The only justification for using a motor vehicle as a weapon against a pedestrian is if the pedestrian is threatening to use lethal force against the occupants of the vehicle. This schmuck could have addressed his chronic tardiness problem by coming to work earlier or parking off-lot and using a pedestrian gate. What he, in fact, did is criminally stupid -- and I do mean criminally.

[Keith Birchfiel]

I Agree press charges if you don't this clown might really hurt somebody. GO FOR IT !!!!

God Bless Crew Member

[Sidelined gal]

Grownups don't act this way. Press charges. The strikers are legally following the rules - when they have the light and are crossing, you have to wait. Over at the Sony lot a little old man who was picketing with his walker almost got clipped by a driver and a woman was almost hit too. All the impatient folks were in personal SUVs. Guess you are what you dive, huh. The studio vans obeyed the law and waited for people to cross.

Someone is going to get hurt. And I don't think crew would be trying to run over Teamsters, do you? Easier to pick on writers. Grow up.

Press charges, take this guy off the streets for everyones sake.

[anon]

the LAPD strike task force was there that morning and spoke to both parties involved. if someone used their car as a weapon, they would have been charged. Instead, both sides were re-educated about what they can and cannot do. According to strike captains, Picketers are not supposed to engage employees, funny to see Rene Balcer standing (not walking) taking pictures of "driver" with his I-Phone seconds before he was involved in the fracus. Scully you're an idiot. and not funny. stay out of work longer please. much longer.