with lawsuits and all the other things that are associated with it.”
Indelible Substance
Josie Morales Clerk-typist, city of Los Angeles uncalled witness to Rodney King beating, Simi Valley trial
(In a conference room at her workplace, downtown Los Angeles)
We lived in Apartment A6,
right next to A8,
which is where George Holliday lived.
And, um,
the next thing we know is, um,
ten or twelve officers made a circle around him
and they started to hit him.
I remember
that they just not only hit him with sticks,
they also kicked him,
and one guy,
one police officer, even pummeled his fist
into his face,
and they were kicking him.
And then we were like “Oh, my goodness,”
and I was just watching.
I felt like “Oh, my goodness”
’cause it was really like
he was in danger there,
it was such
an oppressive atmosphere.
I knew it was wrong—
whatever he did—
I knew it was wrong,
I just knew in my heart
this is wrong—
you know they can’t do that.
And even my husband was petrified.
My husband said, “Let’s go inside.”
He was trying to get me to come inside
and away from the scene,
but I said, “No.”
I said, “We have to stay here
and watch
because this is wrong.”
And he was just petrified—
he grew up in another country where this is prevalent,
police abuse is prevalent in Mexico—
so we stayed and we watched the whole thing.
And
I was scheduled to testify
and I was kind of upset at the outcome,
because I had a lot to say
and during the trial I kept in touch with the
prosecutor,
Terry White,
and I was just very upset
and I, um,
I had received a subpoena
and I told him, “When do you want me to go?”
He says, “I’ll call you later and I’ll give you a time.”
And the time came and went and he never called me,
so I started calling him.
I said, “Well, are you going to call me or not?”
And he says, “I can’t really talk to you
and I don’t think we’re going to be using you because
it contradicts what Melanie Singer said.”
And I faxed him a letter
and I told him that those officers were going to be acquitted
and one by one I explained these things to him in this letter
and I told him, “If you do not put witnesses,
if you don’t put one resident and testify to say what they saw,”
And I told him in the letter
that those officers were going to be acquitted.
But I really believe that he was dead set
on that video
and that the video would tell all,
but, you see, the video doesn’t show you where those officers went
and assaulted Rodney King at the beginning.
You see that?
And I was so upset. I told my co-worker, I said, “I had a terrible dream
that those guys were acquitted.”
And she goes, “Oh no, they’re not gonna be acquitted.”
She goes, “You, you,
you know, don’t think like that.”
I said, “I wasn’t thinking I had a dream!”
I said, “Look at this,
they were,
they were acquitted.”
Yeah, I do have dreams
that come true,
but not as vivid as that one.
I just had this dream and in my heart felt …
and I saw the
men
and it was in the courtroom and I just
had it in my heart …
something is happening
and I heard they were acquitted,
because dreams are made of some kind of indelible substance.
And my co-worker said, “You shouldn’t think like this,”
and I said, “I wasn’t thinking
it was a dream.”
And that’s all,
and it came to pass.
Your Heads in Shame
Anonymous Man Juror in Simi Valley trial
(A house in Simi Valley. Fall. Halloween decorations are up. Dusk. Low lamplight. A slender, soft-spoken man in glasses. His young daughter and wife greeted me as well. Quietness.)
As soon as we went
into the courtroom with the verdicts
there were
plainclothes policemen everywhere.
You know, I knew that
there would be people unhappy with the verdict,
but I didn’t expect near
what happened.
If I had known
what was going to happen,
I mean, it’s not,
it’s not fair to say I would have voted a different
way.
I wouldn’t have—
that’s not our justice system—
but I would have written a note to the judge saying,
“I can’t do this,”
because of
what it put my family through.
Excuse me.
(Crying)
So anyway,
we started going out to the bus
and the police said
right away,
“If there’s rocks and bottles, don’t worry
the glass on the bus is bulletproof.”
And then I noticed a huge mob scene,
and it’s a sheriff’s bus that they lock prisoners in.
We got to the hotel and there were some obnoxious reporters out
there
already, trying to get interviews.
And, you know, the police were trying to get us into the bus and cover
our faces,
and,
and this reporter said,
“Why are you hiding your heads in shame? Do you know that buildings
are burning
and people are dying in South LA
because of you?”
And twenty minutes later I got home
and the same obnoxious reporter was at the door
and my wife was saying, “He doesn’t want to talk to anybody,”
and she kept saying,
“The people wanna know,
the people wanna know,”
and trying to get her foot in the door.
And I said, “Listen, I don’t wanna talk to anybody. My wife has made
that clear.”
And I,
you know, slammed the door in her face.
And so she pulled two houses down
and started
filming our house.
And watching on the TV
and seeing all the political leaders,
Mayor Bradley
and President Bush,
condemning our verdicts.
I mean, the jurors as a group, we tossed around:
was this a setup of some sort?
We just feel like we were pawns that were thrown away by the
system.
I mean,
the judge,
most of the jurors
feel like when he was reading the verdicts
he …
we thought we could sense a look of disdain on his face,
and he also had said
beforehand
that after the verdicts came out
he would like to come up and talk to us,
but after we gave the verdicts
he sent someone up and said he didn’t really want to
do that then.
And plus, he had the right and power to
withhold our names for a period of time
and he did not do that,
he released them right away.
I think it was apparent that we would be harassed
and I got quite a few threats.
I got threatening letters and threatening phone calls.
I think he just wanted to separate himself …
A lot of newspapers published our addresses too.
The New York Times published the values of our homes.
They were released in papers all across the country.
We didn’t answer the phone,
because it was just every three minutes …
We’ve been portrayed as white racists.
One of the most disturbing things, and a lot of the jurors
said that
the thing that bothered them that they received in the mail
more
than anything else,
more than the threats, was a letter from the KKK
saying,
“We support you, and if you need our help, if you want to join
our organization,
we’d welcome you into our fold.”
And we all just were:
No, oh!
God!
Magic
Gil Garcetti District attorney
(Gil Garcetti came into office as district attorney of Los Angeles in 1992. He followed Ira Reiner, who had been in office during the unrest. He is a very handsome man with prematurely white hair and a lot of energy. He is in very good physical shape. We met one morning in his office. It is a large, brightly lit, immaculately kept office with a good view. The seal of the state of California is behind his desk as well as an American flag and the flag of the state of California. He is wearing a bright-colored tie. The head of public relations, Suzanne Childs, sat in on the interview. She was an elegant, simply dressed attractive blond woman. Both she and Mr. Garcetti were very upbeat, friendly people. We met in the spring of 1993.)
It goes back to what I said about jurors.
Much to most people’s surprise,
they really very seriously take their oath.
For the most part
thee [sic]
the burden of proof in most criminal cases
is really extremely high,
and if you take it seriously, your oath seriously,
you really have to look at it.
I mean, you really have to look carefully at the evidence.
For the most part people have a respect for police,
even people who are annoyed by police.
At least in a courtroom setting
that magic comes in.
You want to believe the officers,
because they are there to help you,
the law-abiding citizen,
because most jurors have not had contacts
with police—
if they have
it’s a traffic ticket
or they did a sloppy job
investigating their burglary
but not enough that it sours them on the police.
They are still there to help
and to protect you.
That’s what we’ve been sold all our lives,
so when an officer comes in
and tells you
something from the witness stand
there is something magic
that comes over that individual
as opposed to you or Suzanne or me,
uh, going to testify.
And perhaps—
this is my trial experience …
seen it …
and it can be dispelled very easily.
I mean, if a cop, for example, comes in with a raid jacket
and guns bulging out
he’ll wipe himself out very quickly,
because he’ll look like he’s a cowboy.
But if you have a man coming in
or a woman coming in—
you know, professionally dressed,
polite
with everyone—
the magic
is there
and it’s a …
it’s an aura,
it’s aye [sic] feeling
that is conveyed to the jury:
“I am telling the truth
and I’m here to help you,
to protect you,”
and they want to believe that,
especially today they want to believe it,
because everyone is living
in a state of fear,
everyone.
I think you’re seeing across the country
the credibility of the police
is
more uncertain,
but still for the most part
people want to believe the police officers
and do believe the police officers
unless the police officer
himself
or herself
gives ’em reason not to.
But you walk in with magic
and only you can destroy that magic.
Hammer
Stanley K. Sheinbaum Former president, Los Angeles Police Commission
(A beautiful house in Brentwood. There is art on all the walls. The art has a real spirit to it. It is the art of his wife, Betty Sheinbaum. There is a large living room, an office off the living room which you can see. It is mostly made of wood, lots of papers and books. The office of a writer. There are glass windows that look out on a pool, a garden, a view. Behind us is a kitchen where his wife, Betty, was, but she eventually left. Stanley is sitting at a round wooden table with a cup of coffee. He is in a striped shirt and khaki pants and loafers. He has a beard. He is tall, and about seventy-three years old. He seems gruff, but when he smiles or laughs, his face lights up the room. It’s very unusual. He has the smile and laugh of a highly spiritual, joyous old woman, like a grandmother who has really been around. There is a bird inside the house who occasionally chirps.),
Is this on on?
Is this tape on now?
Uh.
In the middle of the afternoon
I was at a lawyer’s office in West LA.
Uh.
Then when I heard about the verdict—
which was not until about five-thirty,
’cause I was just,
y’know, wasn’t a radio or TV—
I immediately headed downtown.
When
I got down to Parker Center,
and I had one interesting mini-experience
that told me there was gonna be trouble—
very simple thing.
As I was driving down the Santa Monica Freeway
there was a,
uh,
nice black recent BMW,
small car,
in good shape,
and there was an Afro-ican,
uh,
African-American woman
driving it,
and a man
next to her,
also African-American,
and she …
her window was open.
As she was driving,
she had a hammer in her hand,
and this was a very
dramatic thing,
in a minor way,
and it said to me:
trouble.
As I pulled into the garage—
and it’s now
close to
six-thirty—
there’s Daryl Gates
getting into his car,
and I ask him,
“Where you goin’?”
“I got something I gotta do.”
&
nbsp; That was the only answer I got.
As you may have heard,
turned out
that he was
on his way to a fund-raiser
up here,
two blocks over from here,
where he was lobbying,
campaigning against Prop.
F,
which I assume I don’t have to give you the details.
The heart of Prop. F
is that it limits the chief’s terms to five years,
with one renewable.
Under the old charter
the chief was in for perpetuity.
In the meantime,
after he heads out,
I get through with that
wondering what the hell
was going on with him.
He’s the chief and this thing
very well
may be falling apart.
I start drifting around the department
and I heard screams down the hall.
Now, we have a bunch of people
working for the commission,
mainly women,
and it’s seven o’clock already,
and a scream:
“They’re coming in!”
I don’t know if you want this kind of detail.
So I then went out toward the front
and there are plate-glass panes up above,
maybe seven or ten feet high,
and a rock comes through …
Characters
“Twilight Bey”
“Reginald Denny”
“Big Al”
“Stanley Sheinbaum”
“Katie Miller”
“Theresa Alison”
“Angela King”
“Anonymous Man #2” (Hollywood Agent)
“Sergeant Charles Duke”
“Elaine Brown”
“Mrs. Young-Soon Han”
War Zone
Riot
Chung Lee President of the Korean-American Victims Association
(A conference room in an office in Korea town. A man in his sixties. His son translates. Afternoon. The following is a phonetic transcription.*)
guda-ume o, uri,
gage ne-ibohant’e jonhwaha nikkani,
o, uri gugagega da t’olligo
guyangbanhanun, gusaramhanun yegiga
(And next I called my neighbor’s store
and the gentleman—uh, the man told me,
“Your store’s been completely looted!)
nohi mulgoni gilgonnos’o p’uraja-e jonbuda,
ap’e p’urajande p’urajallo jonbuda
gonnowa itta hanun jonhwarul badas’ o,