"It was like... it was like the end of the world, you know?" "It was like..." "A whole other time." "A major disaster... manmade." "A catastrophe!" "You know what I'm saying?" "I mean, that was devastation, you know?" "The violence..." "The destruction..." "The terror." "I mean, that was something." "I mean..." "I have never seen a movie like that." "Crowd:" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "Smith:" "You know, the question we're asking is if anything has changed because of the riots." "I think it didn't get any better." "Smith:" "All right, now what about the riots?" "There was attention paid to the riots." "Was there enough attention paid to the riots?" "You... you had to pay attention." "No matter where you lived." "Smith:" "Do you think we need any more social change?" "Man:" "Do we need change?" "Yeah." "Oh, of course!" "We only got little bitty changes." "All:" "Justice!" "Man:" "The Rodney king incident had nothing to do with race." "They burned my place out." "It's on!" "Revolution is today, money." "Bump all the." "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "Man: 13,000 square feet of building, all gone." "Smith:" "Wow." "Man:" "Uh, this country told the world that it was the great melting pot, and in my eyes it's a boiling pot waiting to erupt." "Smith:" "Oh, you can repeat whatever I say." "I will tell you exactly." "Um, let's see, April the 29th..." "Was that a Wednesday or a Thursday?" " Did you hear what happened to me." " Did you hear what happened to me because of the Beverly hills hotel?" "I don't know if you know this, but I do a lot of publicity." "I've been on television, I do shows on real estate" "I do shows on silicone." "I've been on "60 minutes," they called me to Washington..." "I had 36 surgeries." "I had silicone injections and 36 surgeries on my face." "And so, um..." "I'm diversing." "And I was married to gig young and there was a big scandal and so they wrote a book about it and they called me to interview me for that." "So... when they call me to interview me" "I never know what it's going to be for whether it's going to be real estate, which I love to do..." "Silicone I do to help other people." "I was such a victim." "I was paralyzed for a year." "My face was like this, my eye was like that." "They went in and removed a grapefruit-sized silicone from my face went in and drilled a hole into my head to put bone marrow in." "I had 15 surgeries on this eye." "This was an 18-hour surgery." "I almost died." "And so I said," ""well, what can I give back to the world because of what?"" "All I had was silicone injections to give me cheekbones, nothing more." "You'll read the story." "And so I decided that I would do interviews to keep women and men from having silicone injected into their bodies." "It belongs in cars." "And so I'd been on this crusade in between my work and so I do a lot of interviews um, a lot of television..." "Pretty good." "But when they called me to interview me..." "When the hotel closed, it just didn't come out right." "Well, I mean, you know how they take things out of context." "And so, um..." "Maybe I should back..." "Back and lead up and explain why I was so frightened and why I said what I said." "On the day of the riot we were sitting here safe and sound in Beverly hills because it started slowly and building." "All of a sudden we hear people screaming." "Look out the window, we see smoke!" "Smith:" "I grew up with all this rich stuff at home." "And then when I went to school they started telling me I was inferior..." "Because I was Mexican." "So I knew from an early age that I had an enemy, and that enemy was those nice, white teachers." "And I always wondered, why did I have this..." "This madness in me, that I understood this." "And it's not an enemy that I hated you know, it's not a hate thing." "But the insanity that I carry with me, it started when I took that beating from the police." "In 1942, when I was in my teens" "I was running around as a zoot-suiter and the cops beat me up bad, you know?" "So, uh, well, I don't know." "One of them said something about my mama or something, and so I threw a punch at one of them." "And, uh..." "That sealed my doom, that sealed my doom." "Four cops took me into a room and locked the door." "They started kicking me in the head, and the kicks in the head were so bad that they fractured my eardrums." "I was deaf on both ears worse than I am now." "And from that day..." "I had a hate in me." "And even now, it's... it's..." "It's... it's... it's awful." "It's... it's..." "It's... it's awful." "If I would read in the newspaper" ""cop shot down in the street,"" "killed, dead, a human being, a fellow human being!" "I say, you know, you know, you know, "so what?" "!" ""So what?" You know." ""He's probably one of those."" "You know?" "But hey, I'm not a racist, I'm not a racist." "I have white friends, though." "But you know, I don't see them as white." "I don't see them as white, those..." "I had a lot of anxiety about my boys." "I told them, you know, I..." "Just, you know, I..." "I said, you know, "a cop stops you," you know" ""throw your hands up," you know, "let them..." "Let them tell you what they want," you know?" ""Be... be sure and find out who they are," you know?" ""Be sure and tell me their names."" "But they never told me, they never told me." "Aw..." "Stephen was in Stanford." "Oh, came home one weekend to sing with the band." "Cop pulled him over, pulled a gun at his head!" "How do you think a father feels?" "Stuff that happened to me 50 years ago happening to my boys, man." "You know, and they just... they..." "Aw, they didn't even tell me, they didn't even tell me because it would just make me sick, just make me sick." "And even Rudy, my oldest..." "Hey, Margaret!" "Margaret!" "Margaret, tell them, tell them." "Didn't they?" "Pull you over that time?" "The alhambra cops insulted you and Rudy that time?" "Aw, man." "Crap." "My enemy." "Man:" "The Rodney king incident had nothing to do with race." "But because he was black and he was being beaten and you saw." "This filmy tape..." "Uh, and it brought back..." "In the minds of a lot of people, uh, the..." "The, uh, terrible beatings of the South, the history of..." "Of lynchings in the South and suddenly it became a major, major... uh, racial issue." "Gates must go!" "Gates must go!" "Woman:" "We have watched young men lying on sidewalks..." "Handcuffed." "Oftentimes we've seen the police put their foot on their necks." "We've watched men humiliated." "We have felt helpless to do anything about it." "Who would have ever thought this was going to happen to us?" "We wasn't raised like this." "We wasn't raised with no black-and-white thing." "We had all kinds of friends." "Black, white, Mexican, Chinese." "Most of our friends were Spanish." "I guess a first time for everything, though." "You wouldn't have known him to recognize him." "It was a hell of a look." "That's why he has a lot to be thankful for." "I told him he had a lot to be thankful for." "Hell of a lot." "He couldn't even talk, just, "duh, duh, duh."" "I said,." "It took three plastic surgeries to get Rodney to look like Rodney again." "But I knew one thing..." "My brother's son, sitting up there in that hospital bed that I saw looking like hell, that I saw..." "I knew I was going to do everything to fight for our justice and fairness." "Because I didn't care if it was the president." "Well, you know how, like, the president of the United States he's, like, the top thing." "Anything happened to the president, everybody'd rave." "Well, that's the way I felt towards Rodney." "I mean, here's a nobody, right?" "But that's the way I felt towards him." "You understand what I'm saying?" "You do?" "All right." "Is this America or South Africa?" "Man:" "I am announcing today that we have obtained indictments against four Los Angeles police officers for their role in the beating of Mr. King." "LAPD officer Laurence Powell..." "Timothy wind..." "Theodore briseno..." "And sergeant Stacey koon have been indicted for assault with a deadly weapon" " and for excessive use of force under color of authority." " And for excessive use of force under color of authority." "Powell holds the Baton like this." "That is not a good..." "The proper way to hold the Baton is like this." "Now, one of the things that everybody is talking about is why did it take 56 Baton blows?" "And it all comes down to, Powell had no strength and no power in his Baton strikes because he was weak and inefficient with the Baton training." "Oh, yeah, uh, I know what I was going to do." "Prior to this..." "We lost the choke hold..." "The upper body control hold..." "In 1982." "If we still had the choke hold this whole videotape would have never been on;" "This whole incident would have lasted about 15 seconds." "And the reason we lost the upper body control hold..." "Because in a period of about..." "We had something like 17 or 20 deaths in a period of about 1975, '76, to 1982 and it was associated with..." "It was being used on blacks, and blacks were dying." "And a number of, uh... some..." "The so-called community leaders special-interest-group community leaders came forward and complained and created the hysteria about the upper body control hold, that it was an inhumane use-of-force treatment." "And Gilbert Lindsay, who was a really neat man saw a demonstration on the Baton, and he said, "you're not going to beat my people with that Baton."" "He said, "I'd rather you use a choke hold."" "But a couple of other people said you could beat them into submission you could break their bones but you're not choking them anymore." "And so the political framework was laid for the elimination of the upper body control hold." "Reporter:" "March 16, 1991, a young black woman is shot to death by the Korean owner of a grocery store for allegedly stealing a bottle of orange juice." "Reporter:" "Harlins' family was asked if this will lead to violence." "I damn sure hope so that there will be all the hell in the black community and will stand up and see this insanity for exactly what it is." "Reporter:" "Harlins' death occurred days after the Rodney king beating and added to the racial tensions in the black community." "Woman:" "I have a favorite saying that probably is not going to come off too well, either, but I'm just going to be honest." "I feel like the Koreans were like roaches." "They were burnt out from long beach to Pasadena." "All their businesses were targeted." "Latasha's name was written on many of them." " Smith:" "Barbara, could you come in here." " Smith:" "Barbara, could you come in here for a minute, please?" "Latasha hits Mrs. Du in the face four times, very viciously." "She knocks her down twice." "I mean, this fight was no contest." "I'll take the girl." "I'll take the girl, this little girl." "Didn't you think the girl was much smaller?" "Misleading." "Miss five-six, 152 pounds, and she beats the hell out of this lady." "Oh, Barbara, let's take this back from the beginning because it goes so fast... 52 seconds and a 15-year-old girl is dead." "And it's tragic, it is so tragic." "The gun had a hair trigger." "They had been robbed before." "And there was racism involved." "I mean, the Koreans are like I am." "I'm a racist." "How can I live in America and not be a racist?" "I pull for the black coach;" "I pull for the team with the black quarterback." "We all have those feelings." "Now watch this." "It's a nine-year-old boy..." "A nine-year-old little boy with his 12-year-old sister had to watch this killing." "Isn't that sad?" "9:00 Saturday morning, there's the young lady coming up almost like Hollywood in a black sweater on the left." "Now watch this very carefully." "This is an enhanced tape." "It's been played over and over again." "It's a surveillance tape, it's very poor quality but it would have cost us $300,000 to get anything better than this, so watch this, watch this." "Look at there, watch very carefully." "Watch, look at there, look at there." "Doesn't she have a strong right hand?" "Whoom, look at there!" "Like a billiard ball in the pocket!" "Whoom, look at there in the face!" "Whoom, she knocks her down and muhammad Ali couldn't do better." "Whoom!" "She hits Mrs. Du in the face." "The lady throws the chair." "Mrs. Du is reaching under the counter." "She's trying to get the gun, trying to get the gun out of the holster, and latasha comes back to the counter with the orange juice." "She puts the orange juice back." "And the gun!" "She sees the gun." "She makes one step!" "Boom!" "Blood, brains, right under the cash register!" "Now, when I first heard about this case they had the girl walking out of the front door shot in the back, walking down the street." "But it didn't happen that way." "'Cause if you look at her head;" "You look at the girl's head in relationship to the cash register right under there" "36 feet from the front door." "That's enough, Barbara, thank you very much." "Isn't that sad?" "Isn't human life cheap?" "Let's play it again." "We found it very unusual that Charles Lloyd the top black attorney in this city, would take this case..." "A millionaire." "But for Charles Lloyd to defend a Korean woman in the death of a black child..." "Well, I guess he just sold his card." "He's no longer a card-carrying member of our community or our... nation as a people any longer." "He's a sellout." "I guess that's just the best way we could put it." "Because we all know as we sit here today as black people if either of us had killed a Korean child..." "Shot them in the back of the head..." "And it was recorded on videotape and it was recorded on videotape we would not be sitting here talking today." "Soon ja du took the gun because, uh, so nervous." "Maybe I understand that situation because I have a..." "A similar situation in my store." "Five, six youngster come in, come in at one time usually a black... black guys, maybe 15, 17 years old." "One guy's talking with me, one guy's asking the price one guy's asking which one is where." "Then that makes me look another place." "Then they gonna try steal something." "They have a big backpack full of soda, whatever." "After that I..." "I really hate this country." "I really hate!" "We are not like customer and owner, but just like enemy." "Justice denied latasha harlins is justice denied every American citizen." "And the sentencing of soon ja du was a $500 fine..." "Restitution to the funeral expenses." "You can't bury a dog in Los Angeles for $500." "Latasha's funeral cost $7,000." "So $500 fine..." "We think it's more to the tune of $1 billion it cost this city April twenty the ninth, because no matter what people say the injustice done to Rodney king..." "It just coincides, as there's a parallel between Rodney and latasha." "Smith:" "We lived in apartment a-6, which is right next door to a-8 which is where George holliday lived." "And the next thing we knew there were ten or 12 officers making a circle around Rodney king..." "And they started to hit him." "And they were kicking him and they were hitting him with sticks." "And we were just, like, "oh, my goodness!"" "I thought he was really in danger out there it was such an oppressive atmosphere." "I knew it was wrong." "Whatever he had done," "I just knew in my heart, this is wrong, you know." "I mean, they can't do that." "And even my husband was petrified." "He said, "let's go inside."" "He was trying to get me to come away from the scene." "But I said no." "I said, "we have to watch this, because this is wrong."" "And my husband was petrified because he comes from a country where this is prevalent;" "Police abuse is prevalent in Mexico." "So we stayed and we watched the whole thing." "And I was kind of upset at the outcome because I had a lot to say." "I was scheduled to testify and I was just really upset." "I was scheduled to testify and I was just really upset." "And I said to the prosecutor" "I said, "well, when do you want me to come?"" "Because the date said such-and-such a time and that was, um..." "And he said, "well, I'll call you and give you a time so you don't have to wait around."" "Now, the time came and the time went and so I started to call him and I said, "well, are you going to call me or not?"" "And he said, "well, I can't really talk to you." "I don't think we're going to be using you because what you say contradicts what the highway patrol said."" "And I remember I was so upset." "I wrote him a letter and I faxed it and I said, "these officers are going to be acquitted."" "I said, "if you do not put one resident..."" "Terry white did not put one resident, not one resident except for George holliday." "I said, "if you do not put one resident to say what they saw, those officers are going to be acquitted."" "I said, "let the jury hear the facts." "Let them hear what other people have to say."" "But I think that the prosecution was just dead set that the video was going to tell all." "But that video doesn't show where those officers went and assaulted Rodney king in the beginning..." "Do you see that?" "And I remember I was so upset, I said to my co-worker," "I said, "oh, my goodness, I just had this terrible dream that the officers were acquitted."" "And she said" ""oh, you know, they're not going to be acquitted." "You shouldn't think like that."" "I said, "I wasn't thinking, it was a dream."" "Well, I just saw the men in the courtroom and I just felt in my heart something's happening." "Because dreams are made of this indelible substance." "And my co-worker said," ""you know, you shouldn't think like that."" "I said, "I wasn't thinking." "It was a dream, and that's all."" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "We saw it, we know it!" "Reporter:" "It took a year, but the case that caused a furor over police brutality has finally come to trial." "Reporter:" "Because of pretrial publicity and political fallout the trial was moved from Los Angeles to nearby ventura county." "It took a month to find..." "Reporter:" "The jury is essentially white and middle-aged." "There are seven men and five women." "None of the jurors are black." "Smith:" "I knew there would be people unhappy with the verdict, but I didn't expect anything near what happened." "They were taking us out of the courtroom and there were a lot of obnoxious reporters around and the police were trying to..." "Get us into the buses and hide our faces, get us into the buses and hide our faces, and one of the obnoxious reporters..." "Said, "why are you hiding your heads in shame?" "Do you know that people are dying..." "And buildings are burning in South Los Angeles because of you?"" "And to see on television all the political leaders..." "Mayor Bradley and president bush condemning our verdict..." "And..." "Some of the jurors, we kind of tossed it around that..." "Was this some sort of a setup?" "We felt like we were pawns of the system..." "And that we were being tossed aside." "And even the judge..." "When he was reading the verdict, some of the jurors said there was a look of disdain on his face." "And..." "He had the power and the right to withhold our names for a period of time, but he didn't do that." "He just released them right away." "And our names and our addresses were published in newspapers..." "All across the country." "The New York times published the value of our homes." "We received threatening letters and..." "Phone calls." "But worse than the letters..." "Worse than the threats..." "All of the jurors got letters from the kkk saying, "we support you." "If you need our help..." "If you would like to join our organization, we would be happy to welcome you into..." "Into the fold."" "Into the fold."" "Reporter:" "It was a clean sweep for the defendants..." "Not guilty of assault." "Reporter:" "The videotape wasn't enough to convince a mostly white jury the officers were guilty." "Within hours there was madness in the streets." "Man:" "I took a route home that..." "That kept me off the freeways" "I went the back roads through the orange orchards." "Um, about halfway through that trip I turned on the radio and listened to the..." "I was listening, you know..." "The live coverage from the helicopter reporter at Florence and normandie and I was, you know..." "I'm just a Kansas boy." "I, you know, it's just like, "oh, my God, what is going on?"" "And then I went home and I didn't sleep for probably three, three and a half days." "I ruptured my bowels." "I had diarrhea so bad" "I had to have emergency surgery at 8:30 one night." "Watching this, it was just the work of sinister, diabolical predators." "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "No justice, no peace!" "Man:" "Tip it over!" "Smith:" "What took place here..." "Southern California was rocked." "The whole infrastructure, the foundation, was cracked." "The seams of that fine fabric that Los Angeles image that we have that California, that sunshine, we showed the insides you know, the core, that which is normally bypassed or overlooked, was shown;" "It came forward, it let it be known." "Smith:" "I went downstairs with a couple of, uh, copy messengers, uh..." "I grabbed a pair of scissors, uh, uh..." "A guy looked, uh, like he was coming in." "Uh, I shouted at him with the scissors and a couple of, uh, copy, uh, copy messengers with me." "Uh, my wife is an emergency room doctor and she said, because she feels that she's considerably more in tune with the kinds of guys who go around with scissors, uh, and other weapons" ""why don't you just go back upstairs and work with the copy" " because, uh, you might not do very well with the crowd." " Because, uh, you might not do very well with the crowd you seem to want to be running with."" "But I wasn't about to be stopped because, uh..." "There was a clear sense that clearly, big and dreadful things, uh, were happening." "Smith:" "I think this thing about the Koreans and the blacks, you know, that wasn't altogether true, you know?" "And the thing that happened in, to..." "To the... to the Korean stores, in the black neighborhood that was just due to lack of, uh, lack of, uh lack of, uh, lack of, uh..." "Smith:" "My husband came to United States 28 years ago and he was very high educated and very nice to all the people." "And he started business, seven, ten, 20 years ago and he work so hard, he work very hard." "And he also donate a lot of money to the Compton area." "And the city council, they knows him, and the police, they knows him." "Then why he has to get shot, you know?" "I don't know why." "So really angry... you know?" "And this thing, they talk about the blacks and the Koreans." "Well, we wasn't lootin' over there in Korea town..." "Those wasn't blacks..." "Those wasn't blacks lootin' over there, looting' over there." "Those was Mexicans lootin' over there, those wasn't blacks." "Smith:" "Uh, as soon as I heard about the, uh... the verdict, uh, which wasn't until about 5:30..." "Uh, I immediately headed downtown to Parker center." "Uh, I drove into the garage." "There's Daryl gates, getting into his car." "I said, "where you Goin'?"" ""I got something I gotta do."" "That's the only answer I got." "Now, as you may have heard, he was on his way to a fundraiser right up there in brentwood." "First of all," "I don't think it was a fundraiser, uh..." "I don't think it was a fundraiser at all." "I think it was a group of people, real strong supporters of mine, real strong supporters of mine, uh, and they begged me to be there." "And I didn't want to go." "I don't like those things." "I don't like them at all, but..." "Why?" "Why he has to be shot?" "He was very high educated!" "Gates:" "And, uh, so I made a commitment and I'm the kind of person who likes to keep a commitment." "Uh, and when I thought that I had some, uh, serious problems uh, my driver said, you know," ""we're almost there, chief, we're almost there."" "Uh, and my intent was to drop in say, "hey, I think we got a, uh, riot blossoming, I can't stay."" "Park:" "He also donate a lot of money to the Compton area, and the Compton police, they knows him, and the city council, they knows him." "Gates:" "To drop in, say," ""hey, I think we got a riot blossoming." "I can't stay."" "And that's basically what I did." "But it's awful hard to get away." "I kept walking towards the door, walking towards the door." "Uh, people want to, uh, take your picture, uh, shake your hand, and, uh..." "It took longer than I thought." "Sheinbaum:" "So, after I got done with that..." "Trying to figure out what in the hell was going on with him..." "I mean, he's the chief!" "And this whole thing very well may be falling apart!" "Man:" "You got these young brothers out there thinking that they're getting something that they're going to make a living with and getting something they can buy a car." "Like the white people have cars, why can't I have a car?" "They're getting something so they can... get a piece of gold." "White people have gold, why can't I have gold?" "They're getting something to get a house." "The white people have a house, why can't I have a house?" "And they actually think that is something that's giving resources to them but they're killing themselves just like the wolf who's licking the blade and they're slowing dying without knowing it." "That's what's happening to the community, you with me?" "Smith:" "Many people were just there because other people were there." "A lot of people didn't really know why." "I'm pretty sure most of the hispanic people didn't even know why because, basically, the Rodney king basically came out on channel two, four, five, seven, nine, 11 and 13." "Basically no hispanic news people really even came out with it, not until after the incidents not until after the riots started." "So... basically most of the hispanic people didn't even know why." "That's." "You know, people were just as pissed off people were just as on-edge in the Latino community as they were in South central." "And of course South central is half Latino..." "But nobody talks about that, right?" "I mean, you know, there's just as much police abuse in the Latino community." "I mean, you see, Anna..." "You see police stopping people for jaywalking all the time, I mean, all the time." "This does not happen in Beverly hills." "This does not happen in the valley." " Even though you are doing all the right things..." " Even though you are doing all the right things..." "I mean, it's... you're..." "You're, you're... there's still something wrong with you." "You know, maybe it's because you speak Spanish, maybe it's because you have brown skin, maybe it's because you come from Mexico, but, you know what?" "You're just not walking right, you're just not walking right." "Smith:" "We had an insurrection in this city before and if I remember correctly, it was sparked by police brutality." "We had the kerner commission report and as I stand here today, in 1992" "I see that what that report cited still exists today." "Mr. President, we want our black men back on America's agenda." "They've been dropped off of everybody's statistics and data." "They're not in school, they're not employed, they don't live anywhere..." "They go from grandmama to mamma to girlfriend." "And, Mr. President, not everybody in the street is a thug or a hood!" "Not everybody is a criminal." "And if they are, Mr. President, then what about your violations?" "Oh, yes, I'm angry..." "We are angry." "The fact of the matter is, whether we like it or not, riot was the voice of the unheard." "Smith:" "My reaction?" "Surely they're not coming up here." "This Ridge is armed, secure." "I was raised in a hunting culture." "So was my neighbor, so was my son." "I got calls from my liberal friends..." ""Chuck, could you lend me a, uh, a shotgun?"" "And I said, "oh, yeah, you have to wait two weeks to buy one."" "But I did lend them some protection." "But my friend John millus, the screenwriter, said, "nope, they're all being used."" "Smith:" "I just thinking about, everybody pumped up, talking about the Koreans and the blacks, the blacks and the Koreans the blacks... the blacks and the Koreans the blacks and the Koreans..." "I didn't see it!" "I didn't see it!" "Now, pep boys, now see, that right there see, I didn't like the idea of them hitting' pep boys..." "No, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't like that." "Not because I think..." "Well, the only reason I can think they hit pep boys is just that pep boys was just too damn hot." "You know, people say, "well, you know, let me get in there" " get me some of that... whatever the hell they got in there."" " Get me some of that... whatever the hell they got in there."" "But, uh, now I didn't loot this time, no, no I didn't." "Now, girl, get it out." "Get it out!" "No, I'm not ki... get that out!" "I didn't loot, no, I didn't!" "I didn't!" "I did in 1965, but this time it was just much more than that for me." "But I was praising the ones that did it, though." "I was, like, "yeah," you know" ""you need to go ahead and burn that sucker down."" "Crowd:" "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "We saw it, we know it." "Guilty!" "Guilty!" "Smith:" "And he worked so hard..." "He work very hard..." "Then why he has to be shot?" "You know?" "I don't know why." "So, really angry, you know?" "I cried..." "Most of my life..." "This is the time, I cried..." "A lot." "We got a call from our stringer in beirut wondering if we were all right." "You know you've got some trouble in your city if your stringer from beirut calls to say," ""are you all right?"" "Smith:" "Well, there was the fuse that was still burning and the uneasiness that was growing but it was basically business as usual..." "You know, "such-and-so on line one,"" ""such-and-so on line two";" ""Traffic:" "Wilshire, Santa Monica," like that." "Bunch of us had to go to lunch at the grill in Beverly hills." "You know, again, you know, major showbusiness, you know, kind of sort of dead-center business restaurant..." "Kind of loud but genteel." "And there was an incipient panic." "The tension in the restaurant was palpable, it was tangible." "You could cut it with a knife." "All everybody was talking of:" ""Did you hear, did you hear?"" "You know, little bits of conversation little bits of information." "And we were basically working ourselves up into a frenzy, which had to do with guilt, you know, just generic guilt." "And..." "Uh, we're driving back from the restaurant to here." "You know, it's about a ten-minute drive." "People talking about the need to buy guns to protect themselves." "So I mean, you know, we've gone from there to there." "And I don't mean to tell you that anything happened in the restaurant you know, like somebody screamed at somebody or something." "No, nothing, just, you know, Caesar salad..." "You know, the whole bit went like that." "And, uh, so, uh, we're coming from the underground garage into here and we see people running around." "I mean, people walk fast in this business but now they're, like, running." "And so we looked at each other and we said," ""we got to close the office!"" "Shut down." "I mean, so we've gone from, "I'm a little nervous"" " to, "we got to close the office."" " To, "we got to close the office."" "This is a business." "We don't shut down." "Memo goes out, "office closed for the day."" "Oh, then I remember..." "Somebody said," ""did you hear they're burning down the Beverly center?"" "Yeah, by the way, "they."" "You know, I mean, you know, there's no who." "No, no, no..." "It's just, you know, uh, the, uh, they, uh, you know..." ""Did you hear?" "They're burning down the Beverly center."" "What do you mean who?" "There is no who." "It's irrelevant." "Just, you know... just "they."" "You know, somebody, it's not us." "So, uh, you know, when I really started to worry about, you know, the... the..." "You know, safety of my, you know, my family," "I mean, you know, because the panic was so high..." "You know, "where is the nanny?" "Where is the kids?"" "I actually started to think, you know," ""do I, uh, you know, do I deserve this?"" "And, I mean, you know, not me personally, no..." "Me generically." "Maybe so, even though," "I mean what's provoked it was the spark, you know, which was the verdict, which was absurd." "But... but... but that was just the spark." "I mean, this was something that was set, uh, years before and, uh, you know, I mean maybe..." "Not maybe, you know, the system plays unequally and the people who were the "they"" "who were burning down the Beverly center had been victims of the set..." "Uh, victims of the system, whether well-intentioned or not." "And so I basically began to absorb a little guilt, and say, uh, you know, "I deserve it, I deserve it."" "And, yeah, I don't mean to say" "I deserve to have my house burned down." "But the "us" did, you know, not in, you know, I..." "I mean, I like to think not intentionally but, uh, you know, maybe so." "It's just, uh..." "It was just so awful out there to see all of the..." "The... the destruction;" "So heartbreaking to see all of those, you know..." "The devastation and the, uh, people burning down their own neighborhoods." "I mean, you know, burning down our neighborhoods I could see but... but they burnt down their own." "That... that was more dramatic to me." "So the second day, I had a date and my date lived in the valley which is about 20 minutes away." "And they said, "don't drive freeways."" "And I was just three weeks separated and I didn't want to be alone." "So I called him up and I said," ""well, are you going to see me tonight because I don't want to be alone?"" "He says, "yeah."" "So he came to pick me up and I said, "oh, my God, where are we going to go?" ""We can't eat anywhere." "Everything is closed."" "And then I said, "wait a minute." "And then I said, "wait a minute." "A hotel wouldn't be closed." "They're going to be serving food."" "I said, "let's go see if we can go to the Beverly hills hotel."" "And so we did." "Much to my shock, the whole town, picture-business people everybody was there." "And so for the two or three days of heavy rioting we just all went to the Beverly hills hotel." "So when they called me to interview me when the hotel closed," "I said, "I went there 36 years for lunch."" "I said, "I wrote my book there."" "When my book starts out" "I was driving into the Beverly hills hotel." "And I talked about how we were all at the polo lounge at the hotel when... during the riots..." "Because it was foremost on my mind." "Some man wrote me a letter." ""To Mrs. Young:" "I saw your interview on television." "As far as I'm concerned, you are an." "You are a dumb bimbo." "How stupid can you be?" "You are talking about having fun at the Beverly hills hotel during the riot..." "You are an embarrassment."" "And I'm sitting here reading this letter and I'm thinking, "oh, my God, if only he'd left his number so I could call him up and explain to him no way in the world" "did I mean to be flippant on television about the riots."" "It's just that, there we were at the Beverly hills hotel." "I mean, it was like, how far down can you go?" "At a certain point you just have to say" ""let me put this out of my mind and go on."" "That was the mood at the Beverly hills hotel:" "Safety in numbers." "Nobody can hurt us at the Beverly hills hotel." "It's like a fortress." "And we were just like" ""here we are, and we're still alive, and we hope that people will be alive when we come out."" "Smith:" "It was rage, black rage." "The blacks were upset, they were extremely upset." "And since I've been back home" "I see all the vacant lots." "No wonder they were so upset, right?" "!" "You've got to realize that the verdicts..." "The not-guilty verdicts..." "Was heavy on everybody's mind." "And I was following the trial because I wanted to see if justice worked." "And on that particular day, justice did not work." "Yes, I was upset, I was highly upset." "That could have been me out there getting my ass whooped." " And those four officers could have walked away." " And those four officers could have walked away after whooping' my ass like that?" "I'm afraid not!" "I'm afraid not!" "Ha!" "I'm afraid not!" "Whoo!" "Whoo!" "Whoa!" "Whoo!" "I'm afraid not!" "George h.W. Bush:" "We must respect the process of law whether or not we agree with the outcome." "Smith:" "Well, it was like a carnival out there." "And I said to my cousin frances" "I said, "frances, you see this?"" "She say, "girl, it's getting worse."" "And so I said, "well, let..." "You know, let me get my butt upstairs before something happen."" "And it seemed like as soon as I said that," "I heard, like, a bottle being thrown." "And I felt, like, a tingling sensation and it was itching and it was moist." "And I did it like this and I looked down and I saw blood." "And I said, "frances, I'm bleeding!"" "And so we went up to her house." "She say, "lift up your gown and let me see."" "She say, "elvira, it's a bullet!"" "I say, "what?"" "I say, "I didn't heard nothing."" "She say, "well, yeah, but it's a bullet."" "And she say, "you go lay down there." "Let me call St. Francis hospital, tell them send an ambulance, you been shot."" "And the neighbor came over and said," ""you know, why... you know, why they have to shot you?" "You don't mess with none of them people." "Why they have to shot you?"" "You know, matter of fact, after some people say to me" ""elvira, what you doing in it?"" "I said, "I wasn't in it."" "I said, "I was coming to my house..." "Coming... to... my... house." "It happened right here." "It was kind of like a drive-by."" "So, you know, frances say, "well, the, uh..." "The ambulance... they gon' to take 15, 20 minutes."" "I say, you know, I say, "frances, I cannot wait that." "I'm going."" "So I went upstairs and I said to my oldest son" "I say, "amant, take care your brothers."" "And he was standing up there crying." "By then they was all standing up there crying." "And what I did for them not to see the blood" "I covered it up with my gown and then I didn't cry so I wouldn't be nervous." "And so I went downstairs and I was getting in the car." "And frances say, "what you doing?"" "I said, "I'm driving."" "She say, "no, you not!"" "And she got in and she took all the back streets because the... you know, the streets was blocked." "And she was so supportive." "She say, "elvira, you feel dizzy?"" "She say, "you feel...?"" "You know, she say..." "She say, "you all right?" "You feel cold?"" "She say... she say, "the baby move?"" "She say, "you nervous?"" "I said, "no, I'm not nervous but I'm worried about this baby."" "I say, "I don't want to lose this baby."" " She say, "elvira, everything's going to be all right." " She say, "elvira, everything's going to be all right." "Just pray."" "And we had to be blowing the horn." "And we got to St. Francis hospital." "And, uh, we went to the front desk and... and she say" ""she been shot!"" "Everybody stopped what they was doing." "And they say, "well, what she doing walking?"" "I said, "I'm all right."" "And we went upstairs to the..." "They put the monitor on to see if the baby was all right and they found the baby heartbeat." "Soon as they found the baby heartbeat..." "Long as I knew, whatever it was... boy or a girl..." "It was all right, then I calmed down." "And, uh, uh, matter of fact, you know, my doctor, Dr. Thomas, he was there in emergency room." "What a coincidence, right?" "Because everybody saying, "oh, you the best patient, you know." "All day long everybody else been screaming and yelling."" "I said, "well, you know, I was too nervous." "I couldn't do nothing."" "And, uh, long as I saw Dr. Thomas, to see a familiar face, I knew..." "I was looking for a familiar face." "As long as I saw him" "I knew I would be..." "I thought, you know, I'd be all right now." "So Dr. Thomas came over with another doctor, and he say," ""elvira, you know, we don't know how deep is the bullet but we going to operate on you." "And when we operate on you we going to take the baby out so you don't have to go through all that."" "And they say, um, "do you understand what we saying?"" "I say, "yeah!"" "And they say, "okay, sign here."" "And that's the end of what I remember." "I remember them preparing me and taking me up to the operating room, but..." "Nella!" "Nella!" "No!" "She like company." "No!" "And then I remember I heard Dr. Thomas in the background, and I think I remember him scrubbing his hands but I was too drugged up." "And he say," ""elvira, you've got a six-pound, 12-ounces little girl."" "And he told me her weight and, uh, her length." "And then he say, "when we... when she born..."" "Yeah, "when she born, she had a bullet in her elbow."" "And he say, "well, when we clean her up" ""the bullet was between two joints." ""But we operate on her and we took the bullet out." "But now your daughter is fine and you are fine."" "[ Laughs yeah, yeah, yeah..." "Yeah." "Oh, and the doctor say," ""when the bullet went in, it destroyed the plas..." ""It went..." "Destroyed the placenta and it went through me." "She caught it in her arm." "If she didn't caught it in her arm her and me would be dead."" "So, um..." "It's, like, open your eyes." "Watch what's going on." " Smith:" "Well, it's all confusion," " Smith:" "Well, it's all confusion, and the more we talk about this the more facets of this confusion" "I can understand and see." "I was coming back after having given a performance in Seattle." "So I was in Los Angeles on the day of the riots." "And some friends of mine who are very involved in things having to do with civil rights said, "you know, you really ought to stay."" "And I said, "I can't."" "I said, "I have to, you know..." ""I'm in the middle of a tour..." "I can't." "And who knows whether or not the verdict's going to come down today anyway." "I'm going to go, you know, to... to New York."" "And so, I was on the plane thinking," ""well, gosh, I didn't have time to stay in Los Angeles, but what could I have done anyway besides go to somebody's church and sing a few songs?" "What... what could I have done besides to talk or to sing to somebody who would listen to me?"" "I don't think people were in the mood to... to... to..." "listen..." "To sing at that time somehow." "But of... of course, of course, of course, of course, exactly." "In the civil rights movement, you'd sing first and then you would organize whatever protest was happening that day or that week or whatever." "And then we'd sing at the end of it as well." "I mean, you'd sing all through it." "We as African Americans have a great tradition of singing ourselves through troubles." "This is how the spiritual came into being..." "That in order to..." "To... to... deal with this unbelievable situation of having been transported from one's homeland and been brought to some strange place and made a slave, we had to sing ourselves through that." "We didn't sing ourselves out of it." "We sang ourselves through it." "And I think that if I were a person..." "You know, sort of a..." "A... a... a..." "You know, a teenager or a youngster... 20 or something..." "And I felt that I were being heard for the first time it would not be singing as we know it." "Oh, I think it would be a roar." "It would come from the bottom of my feet." "I think it would be..." "It would just be like a lion just roaring." "It wouldn't be singing, it wouldn't be words, it would be..." "Oh, I think it would be..." "It would just be like the earth's first utterance." "I really do feel so." " Reporter:" "Denny was pulled out of the truck, kicked and beaten," " Reporter:" "Denny was pulled out of the truck, kicked and beaten, all of it on live television eventually seen coast to coast." "Reporter:" "Police say the man putting his foot on Denny's neck and holding him down as others continued to attack him is 27-year-old Henry Watson." "Well, I mean, you know, huh, that's mind blowing." "I mean, you know, you're talking about history." "I mean, you know, that..." "That's, you know, that's a lot of pressure." "You know what I'm saying?" "You understand what I'm saying?" "I mean, you know, I mean, you go through life, you know, you want to make your mark, you know, you want to leave your mark, and say, you know, hey, you know, I was here," "you know, I did it, you know?" "I passed through this, you know, uh, through life, you know, uh, but never in my wildest dreams..." "Did I think that something like this would have happened in order for me to make my mark, you know, to leave my mark." "I mean, you know, I mean, to have my name uttered in the same breath as these two gentlemen or the same sentence as these two gentlemen," "I mean you understand what I'm saying?" "I've been placed next to Martin..." "I'm talking about Martin Luther king... and Malcolm X." "I mean, that's, you know, that's... that's..." "That's a lot of pressure, you know what I'm saying?" "That's... that's heavy, you know?" "You know what I mean?" "You understand?" "Reporter:" "Here's the situation from South central." "The LAPD is nowhere to be found." "Smith:" "And I guess when I realized something was wrong was when they bashed in the right window of my truck." "And that's the end of what I remember till about five or six days later when I woke up in Daniel Freeman hospital." "And they say that I was in a coma." "And it was... they were giving me morphine for pain so it was a really interesting time." "And I think when it dawned on me that something big might have happened was when important people wanted to come by and see me." "And one of the first people I remember coming to see me, the first person I was really aware of who was waiting to see me, was reverend Jesse Jackson." "And I heard the name and I'm going, "not that guy." "I mean, that's the dude I seen on TV all the time."" "And then arsenio hall came by to see me, and then, about then, that's when I started to get it." "Reporter:" "Uh, someone's standing there, taking a picture." "He's taking a videotape of the man laying on the street but nobody's helping him." "But nobody's helping him." "Unbelievable." "Here's a man with a shotgun." "Smith:" "They accused my brother Lance of attempted murder of shooting at Reginald Denny." "They said he attempted to go and blow up some gas pumps things of this nature." "Now, my dad got shot in the streets 11 years ago over a petty robbery, and their attitude was, you know," ""we don't want to bring your family through the drama and the trauma."" "So, basically, if it's a black-on-black crime, you know, if it's a nigger killing a nigger, they don't have no problem with that." "But, oh, you know, let it be a white victim, oh, they going to go..." "You know, they going to go to any extremes necessary to basically convict some black people." "Reporter:" "Reginald Denny did not know who saved his life until well after he came out of his coma." "Bobby green is a truck driver." "He drove Denny's big rig to the hospital." "Lei yuille is a dietitian who got in the truck to comfort Denny." "Titus Murphy was on the running board, waving traffic away." "And Terry barnett drove her own car to block intersections to the hospital." "All four testified they saw the beating of Denny on television and said that they felt they must go to the scene to try to help the trucker." "Since my brother was in the room, he looked over at me, and he said to me, "we are christians." "We need to go help him," and I said, "you're right."" "Smith:" "And lei, lei yuille, she's a woman, and she said that she just kind of cradled me because there's no passenger seat in the truck, and so I was down on my knees, and lei was just, like, covered in blood." "And Titus was on the side, because they bashed in the windshield so bad that Bobby couldn't see to drive." "So Titus was on the running board telling Bobby where to drive." "And Terri..." "That's Titus's girlfriend..." "She was out in front driving through traffic, dodging towards cars, trying to tell them to get out of the way." "And the next stop..." "Daniel Freeman hospital." "You know, one day I'm going to have a house, and it's going to have one of those rooms, and it's going to be of all the riot stuff." "And it's not going to be a blood-and-guts memorial." "It's not going to be a sad room;" "It's going to be a happy room, where you can just go in there and have a good ole time in there." "And it's going to be of all the funny notes I got and all the letters from faraway places, all the love and compassion." "You know, just framed, placed, framed things." "And it's just going to be people in that room and it's going to be a wild place." "It's going to be a blast." "One day it'll happen." " Lord willing, it'll happen." " Lord willing, it'll happen." "They caught it on video." "Some brothers beating the out of a white man." "And then they going to do everything in their power to try to convict those brothers." "No justice, no peace." "That's basically what my motto is..." "You know, you know, and it's very simple." "If we don't have no justice here, they not going to have no peace." "Peace of mind, peace of body, peace of mind." "You may wake up with a dent, a dent in your head." "From now on in life..." "It may not be you;" "It may be your daughter, someone in your family..." "There's just not going to be no peace." "Huh." "Yeah." "One day I'm going to have a house." "And when I finally have my house" "I'm going to have one of those rooms set aside and it's going to be my "no justice, no peace" room." "I'm going to have "no justice" over here on the wall, and over here, "no peace,"" "and it's going to be all my articles and clippings so that my son, you know, my children, you know, could basically see, you know, if I do happen to be alive, God willing," "could basically see what daddy did..." "You know, what it takes to be a strong black man, right?" "If God calls you, what you got to do, you know, for your people." "Either you stand or you fall." "Either be black or you die." "Huh." "We didn't get to Beverly hills." "That don't mean we not going to get there, keep it up." "And they say we burned down our own neighborhoods." "We burned down these Koreans in this neighborhood." "The Koreans was like the Jews back in the day, and we put them in check." "Man:" "That's not right!" "It's not right what you all doing!" "Why'd ya destroy my business?" "!" "I'm trying to make it!" "Couldn't you understand that?" "Can't you all see it?" "I'm trying to make it!" "Smith:" "To use the language of decline, decay and despair, rather than doom, gloom, and no possibility, because I think any talk about despair is not where you end, but where you start, and then the courage and the sacrifice come in..." "But at the level of hope, not optimism." "Optimism and hope are different." "Optimism tends to be based on the notion" " that there's enough evidence out there." " That there's enough evidence out there that allows us to think that things are going to be better." "Much more rational, deeply secular." "Whereas hope looks at the evidence and says, it doesn't look good at all." "It doesn't look good at all." "We going to go beyond the evidence to attempt to create new possibilities based on visions that become contagious, to allow us to engage in heroic actions always against the odds no guarantee whatsoever..." "That's hope." "I'm a prisoner of hope, though." "I'm going to die a prisoner of hope." "Never believed that misery and despair have the last word." "But I think..." "I think..." "If white folks were to experience black sadness, it would be too overwhelming for them." "Very few whites could take seriously black sadness and still live the lives that they living, living in denial." ""Oh, it couldn't be that bad."" "And they got their own form of sadness." "It tends to be linked to the American dream." "But it's a very, very different kind of sadness." "Smith:" "Do you remember where you were when you learned that there was going to be a second trial?" "Well, I knew as I left that courthouse that there was going to be more." "Hmm." "My experience from back home told me that the U.S. government was going to take its turn now." "Reporter:" "Given the level of violence following the first trial, defense attorneys say their questioning of prospective jurors will be extremely focused." "Are you afraid?" "That's the number-one question." "Are you afraid to sit on this jury?" "Smith:" "The thing is, we lost our humane in there." "'Cause we saw that tape over and over again." "Rodney king became like a doll, like a little doll." "You know, even me, I lost my humane in there." "You know, at first..." "I told you the first time I saw the tape how I was." "I was crying and everything." "By the end, I could just, you know, watch it with a... pfft!" "With a soda." "So, um, anyway I'm going to tell you how we got to this verdict." "Okay." "So, uh, we get in here, right, and..." "All right." "So, at first, everything was going pretty good and it looked like it was going to be a "guilty"" "on officer Powell." "Then we come back in here the next day" " and things is going pretty good," " And things is going pretty good, and this one woman raises her hand and she says uh, "oh," you know." ""I think I'm..." "I think I'm getting a headache." "I think..." "I think..." "I think I'm going brain dead." "Let's just quit."" "I told them, I said," ""I don't believe you when you say you tired."" "I said, "I work at the post office."" "I said, "I work a eight-hour day." "They come in and they tell me I got two hours' overtime." "I work two hours overtime, and I do a job good of it." "And I don't say I'm tired because that is my job, and I'm not tired, and this is our job, and we are not tired!"" "I agree with Maria." "Don't be around here." "If you so tired, get your out of here." "We got three alternates who would love to take your places, so get your out of here if you so tired." "Here come the black guy." ""I have not slept in two weeks." ""In two weeks, I have not had one bit of sleep." "And I have broken out in hives."" "And he takes off his shirt, and the man is red all over his body." "He's got hives all over his body." "He's crying and crying and crying, he goes running out of the room..." "I thought the man was going to have a heart attack." "Now, we got this high-class lady, right?" "Real good job." "Excuse me." "She's over in the corner going like this." ""I hate arguing." "I hate, I hate arguing." "I hate arguing, I hate arguing, I..."" "Now she busts out crying..." ""Oh, please, if anybody writes a movie, if anybody writes a book, oh, please, don't say nothing about my family."" "And she starts telling us all this stuff about her family!" "Which we didn't know, so why is she telling us now?" "After that day, right, I broke, right?" "Everybody broke, right?" "All this stuff that..." "That did not have nothing to do with the case, right?" "You know, once everybody's personal guilt came out onto the table and was pushed aside, then we could look at the evidence, the testimony, and, uh, you know, we came to a verdict on Powell like that." "Guilty... nobody cried." "Nobody argued." "You know, nobody, you know, brought up what happened to their sister six years ago." "We just went through the evidence." "Such and such said this." "Such and such said that." "Just like in school:" "Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." "It was simple." "It took us five days, four and a half days to get to that a.A. Meeting." "After that a.A. Meeting, it took us two days" " to come up with a verdict on all four of them." " To come up with a verdict on all four of them." "Reporter:" "Outside the courthouse, a crowd erupted in cheers at the announcement of the two guilty verdicts." "Reporter:" "The jury found officer Laurence Powell, who delivered most of the blows in the king beating, and sergeant Stacey koon, who supervised, guilty." "Timothy wind and Theodore briseno were found not guilty." "Man:" "Did it help?" "Oh, yes." "Most definitely." "It all depends on what side of the track you are looking at as far as whether it helped." "From a black perspective, looking at it from a black neighborhood, it did help." "First of all, let me make something perfectly clear..." "It's not a riot, all right?" "It's more..." "It's a civil unrest..." "Or, as a lot of us call it, a revolution." "A riot is a situation where you don't have no political overtones." "Did you go out and riot?" "Well, you know, first of all, let me say," "I don't consider it to be a riot." "Did you go out and engage in a civil unrest?" "You know what, I did not..." "I..." "I..." "I in..." "I was involved in a lot of things that went down." "And right..." "Now you're sounding like..." "Now you're sounding like the average, uh, European that... that... that kidnapped the black folks over there." "Do you steal when you're in a revolution?" "Smith:" "Let me suggest one possibility here." "As much as we all are going to talk, is just to make sure that we're listening." "Black and brown haven't gotten together in this town." "They are living side by side, house to house throughout South Los Angeles, you know, and they're no more together today..." "There's no more understanding today than there was in 1992." "Woman:" "You know, it's very interesting that so many Korean people's anger came up against the police because I think that many people thought they were cultivating the mayor and cultivating the police, and they have an idea of America" "being this land of everything is that law and freedom and fairness." "And then they watch the police standing by while their businesses and livelihoods were being destroyed." "They were shocked." "They thought, "why are they protecting Beverly hills and they're not going to protect us?"" "Smith:" "I used to believe." "America was the best." "I still do." "I don't deny that because I am a victim." "But..." "After the riots, when we were in such turmoil, and having all the financial problems and all the mental problems," "I began to really realize that Koreans are completely left out are completely left out of, uh, this society." "And we are nothing." "Nothing." "What is our right?" "Why do we have to be left out?" "Is it because we are Korean?" "Is it because we have no politicians?" "Is it because we don't speak good English?" "Why?" "Why do we have to be left out?" "We didn't qualify for medical treatment." "No food stamp." "No g.R." "No welfare." "Anything!" "Many African-Americans who never work get minimum amount of money to survive." "We didn't get any..." "Because we have a car and a house." "And, uh, we are high taxpayer." "Where do I find the justice?" "Okay?" "Many African-Americans probably think they won by the trial." "I was sitting here watching them the morning after the verdict, and all the day, and they were having a party!" "They celebrated." "All of South central, all the churches." "And they say, "well, finally justice has been done in this society."" "Well, what about victims' rights?" "They got their rights by destroying innocent Korean merchants." "And I wonder if that is really justice for them..." "To get their rights in that way." "I was, uh..." "Swallowing the bitterness, swallowing the bitterness, sitting here alone and watching them." "Oh, they became all hilarious." "But I was, uh, I was, I was..." "I was happy for them, I was..." "I was glad for them." "At least that they got something back." "Okay?" "Let's just forget about Korean victims and... and... and other victims who were destroyed by them." "They fought for their rights for over two centuries." "And maybe because of their sacrifice, other minorities..." "Hispanic, Asian..." "We, we one that suffer more in the mainstream." "That's why I understand." "I..." "I have a lot of sympathy and understanding for them." "That's why I have, uh, mixed feeling about the verdict." "But I, I..." "I wish that I could be part of their joyment." "I wish that I could live together with black people." "But after the riots it is..." "It's too much difference." "The fire is still there." "How do you say it?" "Uh, ig... ig... ig..." "Ig... uh..." "Igna... ignite?" "Igniting." "Igniting, igniting, igniting, igniting fire, igniting fire." "It's still there." "It can, um, burst out any time." "Sometimes when I take my ideas to my homeboys, they say, "well, twilight, that's an idea that's before its time."" "Like in 1988, when I was talking about the gang truce, that was an idea they said was before its time." "But then in 1992 we made it realistic." "And so sometimes I feel as though I'm stuck in limbo and so sometimes I feel as though I'm stuck in limbo the way the sun is stuck between night and day in the twilight hours." "I'm in an area not many people exist." "And nighttime to me is like a lack of sun..." "Although I don't affiliate darkness with anything negative." "I affiliate darkness with what came first because it was first." "And then relative to my complexion," "I am a dark individual." "And with me being stuck in limbo," "I see the darkness as myself." "And I see the light as the knowledge and the wisdom of the world and the understanding of others." "And I know, in order for me to be a true human being," "I cannot forever dwell in darkness." "I cannot forever dwell in the idea of identifying with those like me and understanding only me and mine." "And so, twilight is that time between day and night." "Limbo." "I call it limbo."