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A Ruined City Twilight is a book that is filled with different stories from people who were around during the riots following the Rodney King beating. The book goes into detail on how people felt during the riots and their opinion on what was going on in L.A. The book shows that there is no hope for the future of L.A. In Twilight written by Anna Deavera Smith, the interviews of Mike Davis, Theresa Allison, Maxine Washington, and…, reveals a sense of pessimism for the future for the future of L.A. following the 1992. One example of the sense of pessimism expressed in Twilight is revealed in Mike Davis’ interview titled “Surfers Desert”, describing how youth does not have certain freedoms. Mike explains that he has had a few run ins with …show more content…
law enforcements, but they did not beat him because he is white and they told him he looks like a responsible guy. He states that if he was a African American man he would have been treated differently and been thrown on the ground and beaten by the cops. Mike then says that white kids would be able to go to college for free but that now that all kids were losing privileges even the white kids. Then he goes into explanation that the youth has no freedoms. Mike describes how youth has no freedom. “ I mean, there is no freedom of movement or right of Assembly for Youth.” (31) In this interview, Mike Davis’ shows his shock on how our society can treat someone differently because of their skin color. Davis’ also opens our eyes to see that kids have been affected by the riots and how all they can do is go to the mall and shop. If the youth feels like they do not have freedoms then they are not going to speak up for what they think is right. They are going to feel like they have no say on what is going on around them. Another reason for the sense of pessimism expressed in the book is revealed in Theresa Allison interviewed titled “Lighting but no Rain”, describes why people did not trust the law enforcement.
Theresa states that her nephew, Tiny, was shoot by the police and that it was not an accident. She states how police were after gang members for trying to make peace within their community. Allison witnessed police trying to take her son so they could beat him and she stood up for him and the cops let him go. At the end of her chapter she says that they knew they would her son and the cops did kill him after she decided to move away from that community. Theresa shows why kids in her community grew up to dislike the …show more content…
police. Theresa describes why people did not trust the law enforcement They used to take our kids From one project And drop ‘em into another gang Zone and leave ‘em in there And let those guys kill ‘em And then say it’s a gang related thing.”(38) In this interview, Theresa expresses how police were after people instead of protecting them. She describes her disbelief on how cops would take kids to other projects so undercover cops could beat them and then blame it on gangs. If the cops are willing to go to that extreme people are going to feel unsafe. Theresa’s interview shows how people do not trust law enforcement and how law enforcement is not keeping the streets safe for people. A third example that gives off the sense of pessimism is expressed in Twilight is revealed in Maxine Washington’s interview titled “Washington”, describes how the country is falling apart.
Maxine finds out that she is not invited to a meeting that the president is having and she gets upset because she should be at that meeting. When she gets to the meeting people are shocked to see her there because they know that the President did not invite her. When the President sees her he is shocked too and then Maxine starts to talk about the problems there are in the country at the time. At the meeting they start talking about the riots that are going on and how it is the Justice Departments fault for not controlling the cops and their violent
acts. Maxine describes how the country is being destroyed “This country is falling Apart.”(169) The quote shows how everyone in the country is scared and shocked by the violence that is going on in LA. A major event that happens in a state can affect the whole country. The act alone changed how people saw police officers. People did not see cops as being super heroes anymore they saw them as evil villains that were out to get them. Maxine’s interview shows how LA was in danger and that the cities future looked terrible. The last example of the sense of pessimism in Twilight was in Rudy Salas’ interview titled “My Enemy”, he describes why he hates the law enforcement so much. Rudy describes how his grandpa hated and how he would call them gringos. Rudy started to see why his grandpa hated them when he was little because his white teachers would be rude to him and tell him that he did not belong at school because he was Mexican. When he was a teenager he took a beating from cops. The cops beat him so bad they fractured his eardrums which cause him to lose his hearing. Rudy then describes how his son was beaten by a cop and how that made him hate them now. Rudy describes where his hate for white cops really started. The enemies for Rudy are white cops. Rudy describes where his hate towards cops started. It’s not a hate thing, The insanity that I carried with me started when I took the beating from the police.”(2) Rudy has white friends and says he is not a racist and how he does not see color when it comes to his friends. When he talks about cops he does see the color of their skin and if they are white he instantly feels hate for them because of his beating and the beating of his son. Rudy’s interview shows how cops violent acts affected people and how it caused a person to see a cop differently just by the color of their skin. Twilight had a critical affected on the future of LA and even the country. Mike Davis’ explained how the youth has no say in what happens in their community. Theresa Allison states how trying to come together as a community and stop the violence can get you in trouble with cops and can even leave you died. Maxine Washington expresses how the country is falling apart and the Justice department is to blame. Rudy Salas shows how one accident can affect the way you see people and how it can cause you to hate a certain group of people for the rest of your life. All these interviews show how cops have affected the community and how there is no hope for the city of Los Angeles if the Justice Department does not fix the problem.
Consolidated with authentic research, Twilight provides an important examination of the hidden reasons for the Los Angeles riots. A more drawn out chronicled see additionally uncovers the bigger class strains and the gigantic change of ethnic structure of Los Angeles from 1970 to 1990 that added to the atmosphere that could deliver such a huge scale riot.
Justice is among the most significant moral and political concepts. The word originates from the Latin jus, meaning “right or law”. All throughout history, injustice has been an issue each individual has experienced during his or her daily life. Even today we are still experiencing riots and protests from African-Americans in order to attain justice. In Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith, readers see an example of injustice through the Rodney King case and the shooting of Latasha Harlins. Rodney-King and Latasha Harlins experienced racial injustice, which can be described as the denial of rights based on an individual’s race or racial background. Both two victims were mistreated for the color of their skin and were stripped
Two of the greatest stories told about the city of Los Angeles come from different art forms, but both tell just as equally thought-provoking tales. Twilight: Los Angeles, written and performed by Anna Deavere Smith, is a one woman play that recalls several interviews of LA community members that talk about their experiences during the 1992 Rodney King trial verdict. Crash, directed by Paul Haggis, is a story about racial tensions amongst citizens of Los Angeles. Although both stories tackle similar issues, they differ in terms of critical race theory, feminist views, and their narrative structures.
Through the film “In the Heat of the Night” racial tensions are high, but one character, the Chief of Police, Gillespie overcomes racial discrimination to solve a murder. The attitudes that he portrays in the film help us understand the challenges in changing attitudes of Southern white town towards the African Americans living there.
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
A traffic stop made at Foothill Boulevard in Los Angeles, California would change completely the way police officers treated individuals from minority groups. In March 3, 1991 a twenty five year old African American would cause the entire nation to see how police officers treated individuals from minority groups. Around midnight an officer decided to pull over a Hyundai that was driving over the speed limit. The driver of the Hyundai refused to stop which led several patrol cars to pursue the individual for almost eight miles. The driver decided to exit the freeway and stop in front of a residential area. Rodney King who was driving the Hyundai was ordered to exit the car and laydown in the pavement. Once
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
This is a verse of lyrics from a popular song, written by Sublime, shortly after the Rodney King verdicts, and ensuing riots in Los Angeles. These words would portray the streets of Los Angeles around midnight on the night of April 29, 1992. The people of Los Angeles become enraged over a jury verdict just hours before. Rodney King, a middle-aged African-American had been severely beaten by four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers in March, and the four officers had just been found not guilty, igniting the blacks in Los Angeles into a revenged riot against the city and its system.
On the morning of March 3rd, 1991 an African-American man led police on a high-speed chase through the city of Los Angeles. Approximately eight miles later police swarmed around the car and confronted the driver, who went by the name Rodney King. During the confrontation, officers tortured King until the point he was forced to seek medical care. A case was opened and the police officers were acquitted. This angered many people, specifically Blacks and led to the historical “L.A. Riots’’ , where they felt race had something to do with the case.
On August 9th, 2014, 18 year old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking protests, riots, and widespread debate on police use of force. Numerous questions arose as to whether Michael Brown was armed or unarmed, if he had his hands in the air or was attacking Officer Wilson, and whether Officer Wilson was justified in firing his weapon that resulted in the death of Michael Brown (Itkowitz). Twenty-two years have passed since the riots in Los Angeles after the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King were acquitted on charges of excessive force, and it left many to wonder, including myself, as to why this happened again. Why were there so many questions surrounding the incident and how this could
Twilight: Los Angeles also utilizes race in a metaphoric way, which can be seen clearly in the characters portrayed by Smith. Smith herself does not put on makeup to portray a certain race deliberately to show the commonalities that can be found in differences, however, it is easy for the viewer to distinguish which character is which race and class. This can be seen not only through the specific values and ideals that are revealed by the characters’ verbal language and body language, but also through the way that they discuss the Rodney King event; it speaks to how race metaphorically translates into other aspects. The contrast Morrison speaks about with whiteness correlating with power and purity and blackness with disorder and darkness can be seen clearly in the interviewees. A specific instance of this can be seen when comparing Deveare Smith as she’s portraying the LA police chief, who utilizes language that further dehumanizes Rodney Smith and causes the officers to be the victims of the situation, and as she’s portraying Rodney King’s aunt, who utilizes language that victimizes her nephew. The difference in values attached with the stereotypes that race metaphorically speaks to can be seen clearly in the video when discussing the differences in rooms between Reginald, the white truck driver who was severely beaten—who says that he wants to have a room with the cards and notes and fame he has a received as a result—and Paul Parker, a black local activist —who says that he wants to have a room to remember the injustice that was faced in the black community. This huge contrast shows the difference in ideals and values that result from living in a racially, metaphorically oriented
While the L.A. riots were far larger, and the effects are still being felt, I still feel that the Watts riots had more of an impact. I had known about the riots previously, as I had been interested and looked into it on my own, but I had not looked into the economic at the time. Seeing that there were not any real economic effects from the riot, and in-fact some things may have gotten even worse, changes how I think of riots reported on in the media. Although there has been little in empirical studies done on the impact of the Watts riots, which is odd due to their importance in recent American history, especially now, it is clear that the riots started a trend of misguided racial tension that continues to this day, one that has prolonged the suffering and disenfranchisement of Blacks in the United States. While I do not believe another riot is the answer, researching this riot has shown me that while the riots can be considered important, the reality is that their effects on society are quite minimal, and only the political discussion of the riots is what has lasted to today. The failure of any real reform since then of the treatment of Blacks in general, let alone in the criminal justice world, shows to me a real lack of justice in the United
The tension between the black community and the Los Angeles Police Department caused eyes to be on the true intentions of the police on the case. Only three years before the Simpson trial, Rodney King had a trial of his own. King was pulled over by four police officers then beat. The four police officers were found not guilty. The colored community was enraged. “After almost a week of rioting, the city was still rebuilding when the Simpson trial began” (Bates). The fact that a wide
In the article, “‘Violence’ in Cincinnati,” Thomas A. Dutton brings up a conversation about the urban area of Over-The-Rhine. He speaks out about how this downtown area has extremely too much violence and there needs to be something done about it. He speaks to the age group of twenty-five and up and to all citizens of Cincinnati. This article was published in 2001 in “Nation” magazine. At this time in Cincinnati, there were many disputes about race. A white officer shot an unarmed black man in April in 2001 that had many offenses against him at the time and was killed shortly after. Riots broke out and curfews were set in to place. This is a major event that happened in Cincinnati’s history and still today has hurt the citizens and the Over-The-Rhine district. Violence has been fought against people of color for a very long time and it affects the people and various cities around us.
The 1992 Los Angeles Riots was a series of riots and civil disturbances that include lootings, arsons, and racial attacks. The acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Deparment officers who excessively beat an African-American male on film and the murder of a teenage African-American girl ignited the riots. The aftermath of the Los Angeles Riots resulted in 55 deaths and approximately $1 billion in property damage.1