If you’re searching for grandeur, you’ll do well to skip over the fourth-floor administrative trial room at One Police Plaza in downtown Manhattan. The ornate, imposing courtrooms at the civil courthouse down the street at 60 Centre — where Law & Order regularly films — feel a world away from this dingy, threadbare simulacrum. Fluorescent lights overhead lend a nauseating pall to proceedings. There is one thin line of windows in the room, and it is blocked by what appears to be scaffolding, so even on the sunniest days, it perpetually feels like dusk. Fake wood and false surfaces abound, from the cheap plastic composites of the floor to the thin wood-paneling of the walls, as though someone knew that mahoganies and cherries best convey the seriousness of legal proceedings, but was only given a WalMart budget. More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John Teufel.