As usual, I missed the party of the season. Many of you know, on April 27th there was a soiree for Julie Hyatt Steele at James Carville’s place, West 24, but like all of the countless Cinderellas who couldn’t make it, I’ve attempted to read any and all reports of what happened at the event. Several reports mentioned the speech Julie gave, and something she said has taken root in my awareness and doesn’t seem to want to let go. (Julie’s a smart gal and I’m sure that’s what she intended.) Let me explain. One of the main topics of discussion last week that completely overshadowed most of the interest stories, especially the small blip of JulieFest2002-DC, was the ten-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots. You could hardly escape it. Every news station either on television or radio, even the major newspapers had something on it.

Reflecting on that spring a decade ago, I kept thinking back to the comment Julie made…“— but those things, … aren't going to happen. They're too extreme for most Americans.” Too Extreme. Justice for high crimes being too extreme. If she’s right, then that is a very sad state that we, as a community and a people, are in. Wasn’t the lack of justice itself the final straw that set off the rage that sparked the riots themselves? Isn’t the inequality of extreme justice for petty criminals vs. the non-justice for white-collar crimes one of the seeds of resentment in the first place? A mother gets pulled over because one of her children wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, then gets arrested and taken into custody, while the executives in the Oval Office can get away with refusing to be accountable to Congress for any of their actions, no matter how destructive.

I think what the American people can’t handle is something far worse, and I think the L.A. riots are proof of that. In spring of ’92, I was there. Well, not exactly at the Florence and Normandie flashpoint in terms of seeing first hand Bobby Green’s courageous act of helping Reginald Denny back into his rig, and driving him to a hospital after the latter got his head bashed in on national television by a brick largely for just being a white guy. (A white guy who was more than likely just as outraged by the verdicts.) I was at home, just over the hill in the San Fernando Valley, a mere 15 miles north, watching it all unfold on my television. I sat for three days, in fear of going to work or the supermarket, and saw as it grew like a dry fall Southern California brushfire in a Santa Ana wind, and move from neighborhood to neighborhood until it seemed like the entire county had been engulfed by it’s madness. Everyone knows what happened. Those who don’t live here in Los Angeles may not know some of the details like how there was a curfew in effect for all residents, or how for most of us, the sheer disbelief we felt when the verdicts were announced was almost like experiencing vertigo, nor the fear generated by just living in the vicinity.

Three days, over 50 dead, hundreds injured, buildings burned, billions of dollars in damage, businesses and livelihoods destroyed. All because a jury from a largely conservative white neighborhood that had no idea of the way of life for a black man, let four brutal men off with an acquittal. Four men who succumbed to a mob mentality and savagely beat a man for a routine traffic violation that turned into a 15-minute high-speed chase, yet in the end, Mr. King ended up in a hospital without being charged for even the traffic stop. Men who were sworn to “Serve and Protect” the people of the community, but who too many times had been able to get away with racial profiling and brutal treatment to the point it conditioned a man’s response for flight. Four men, the only four out of a group of twenty-four on the scene who had been charged with excessive force.

That spring, what many citizens of Los Angeles couldn’t handle was simple. The justice of these four men getting dragged through a seven-week nationally reported trial, and having their reputations as law enforcement officers called into question was not extreme enough. Most of us did not act on our outrage, but some, overwhelmed with the gross inequity of it all, had had enough and snapped. Oh sure, there were those who weren’t bothered either way about it and jumped on the bandwagon of opportunity, and wanted to get themselves a free television. But for most, it was the simple inequality of justice for those in positions of authority and those who are just average citizens. The fact that these men were white merely added insult to injury.

What I really believe deep down, is that we can’t handle injustice. Gross injustice. What happened to Rodney King was unjust. I am not a police officer, so I cannot stand in their shoes, but I am grateful for the good ones, who put their lives on the line to make my life a whole lot safer, and for far too little pay. I think that one of the reasons this happened in the first place is they are grossly underpaid, and there was an underlying outrage of inequity happening on their part as well, but it is no excuse for where this all ended up. I don’t care if he did lead police on a fifteen-minute high-speed chase; there were twenty-four officers on the scene when he was stopped. You can’t reason that twenty-four highly trained police officers could not subdue and handcuff one man, no matter the situation. Gravity and the laws of physics far outweigh any lame explanation of PCP-induced superhuman strength. The poundage ratio alone doesn’t wash. Excessive force is an understatement. It was savage and criminal.

What the current illegally appointed administration has been doing since it has taken office is also blatantly criminal. From allowing lobbyists to make cabinet appointments, allowing Enron to manipulate the energy markets to insure the systematic transfer of funds from the citizens of California, and ending international treaties without the approval of Congress, to forcing the GAO to sue to see documents it has a legal right to examine in the first place, guaranteed by the US Constitution. All of these things are criminal, and they are just a few of the things we have proof of. There are also several things that need to be investigated such as why the administration ignored the countless warnings that resulted in the carnage of 9/11 and it’s sorry aftermath in Afghanistan, all for the sake of an oil pipeline. Perhaps one of the worst things they have done is taken away the very rights many of our loved ones spent their lives and blood to protect; destroyed by gutting the U.S. Constitution with the tastelessly named Patriot Act.

I know that many people have no argument with the above statements, and feel that we can voice our horror and dissent with their policies by voting against them come fall. I certainly hope this is true. But deep in my heart I wonder how safe it is to wait for the opportunity to use our right to vote. All I can think about is how many other rights have been taken away in the name of national security and the “war on terra”. Let’s face it; they didn’t need 9/11 to negate everyone’s right to vote. The Supreme Court did that on December 12th, 2000 with a ruling so shameful they even refused to sign their names to it. And as many times as Drew Cary may say that “we won, they lost, the USSC had nothing to do with it…” doesn’t make it true. They can be in denial all they want; most of America knows the real truth.

The other argument is “well, how much damage can they do” until then, assuming the Democrats can take over the control of both houses of Congress? I thought that way for awhile as well, but looking back over the short sixteen months since that black January day in 2001, I say now that the answer is, “quite a lot.” There is much in the planning stages for Bush & Co.; from more carnage in Columbia, once again for an oil pipeline deal, to the invasion of Iraq even though Saddam and his government have made it quite public that they will allow UN weapons inspectors in with free reign. But nothing it seems is going to stop these warmongers from destroying more innocent lives anywhere they deem necessary, just for their oil and defense-contract bottom lines.

Julie may be right. Justice may be too extreme for most Americans. Just like the part in I Claudius where Postumus says, “Yes, the very thought of Grandmother poisoning everyone who stands in the way of her son becoming Emperor is just too horrifying to even contemplate.” The depths to which this cabal will sink to get what they want, i.e. thousands dead wherever there lies an obstacle to their world-wide oil monopoly, just to line the pockets of their pals, is too horrifying to contemplate. And I am sure many people think that the checks and balances that exist within the structure of our government will take care of working everything out. That would be true if the checks and balances were working, or being allowed to work, but they’re not, and for the most part the executive branch have acted completely solo. In fact, with their little “shadow government” (meaning executive branch alone) in place in the bunker, that bunch most likely can’t wait for some rogue state to get with the program and drop that dirty bomb that Ari and Rummy keep telling us is inevitable on the other two branches so they can get on with rebuilding Hitler’s dream like old Prescott Bush wanted in the first place.

I am not sure what’s to be done. But I do know that if we as citizens and the Congress continue to allow the executive branch to work alone, then we will deserve the outcome no matter how grossly unjust, including the undeclared perma-war on terror to an endless postponement of our local and national elections for national security reasons. I just hope a larger and more extensive version of L.A. in ’92 isn’t what’s in store when the sleeping masses finally wake up to the reality of what’s happened and all snap en masse.

Complacency and inaction have no place in a democracy.
“The important thing — the most important thing, she said, is to make sure the Democrats win big in this year's election and in 2004. We all know George Bush deserves impeachment, and the Supreme Court 5 deserve impeachment, and various people deserve to go to prison — but those things, she told us, aren't going to happen. They're too extreme for most Americans.”
~Honoring Julie by Maia Cowan
TALLY BRIGGS / Actress At Large
bardgal@yahoo.com
Three Spring Days