Not All Hollywood is Whacked

Catching-up on weekend reading;

I have never read a James Ellroy novel. For the most part, reading fiction is not my thing. I did see the movie adaptation of his book, L.A. Confidential. And until now, I guess I did not realize that L.A. was first a book.

Whatever. It was a good movie, so when I saw this Q & A with the writer in my National Journal, I expected another Michael Moore-Attacks-Republicans piece.

Ohhh, but this Hollywood writer is no such creature...

Why do you think most cops are conservatives?

Because they know that crime is individual moral default on a epidemic basis, and it needs to be solved, impeded, interdicted, and suppressed on that basis.

And because cops daily come up against crimes for which there are no justifications.

And it's their mandate to enact justice in the moment, and it becomes the overwhelming fact in their lives.

...I'm the son of a murdered mother and, frankly, I'm vindictive. And I want to see evil punished.

But you've also been critical of some on the Right

...I said there was a rabble out there: abortion-clinic bombers, anti-capitalist paint-throwers, the Klan, the militias, militant homosexuals.

I said these people had to be impeded, interdicted and suppressed in order to maintain a lawful society.

The audience didn't know how to react because I was attacking lunatic fringe groups on both the Left and the Right and wrapping them up with one big bow and saying, Stop these people.

People on the Left and the Right have an obligation to disavow the kooks on their own side.

Everyone should take note of Peggy Noonan's behavior. She's charming, reasonable, and she knows how to be conciliatory without giving up her soul.

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...You have on the one hand esprit de corps and the need to maintain order, which is often prosaic, occasionally violent, and often has to do with the curtailing of crime committed by minority members, juxtaposed against big social issues like the historical injustices shown to blacks in this country.

When you see something like the out-of-context beating of Rodney King, the drama of it holds much greater weight than the reality of good cops doing their job.

...If you look at the entire Rodney King incident in context and in real time, you see that Rodney King had two companions in the car, both of them black. They submitted willingly and were led out of the frame.

Rodney King charged several times and was thrown down and got up again and again, took a Taser from Sergeant Stacy Koon, kept on coming and finally took the 56 blows from batons that, absent context and in slow motion, look terrible.

In full-blown context it looks like nothing but a justified response to a suspect who would not submit.

I think most people not schooled in the street and the realities of police work think the cops are supposed to engage dangerous suspects in something like one-on-one fights like you might see on television, and of course it doesn't work that way.

Did you ever receive any rough treatment at the hands of the police?

...I thought I could outrun the cops. I was mistaken. Two patrol units come in, throw me down on somebody's lawn, and kick my ass with beavertail saps. I got some bruises but no lasting damage.

A rather amused middle-aged sergeant picked me up, dusted me off, smiled at me and said, "Okay, kid, why did we kick your ass?"

And I said, "Well, because I stole the booze."

He says, "Nah, kid, think that over." So I thought about it for about ten seconds and I said, Because I ran? And he said, "Yeah." And guess what: I never ran again, and I never got my ass kicked again.

And it was instructive. There was a civil contract between the police and street tools like me. This was my first painful lesson in it, and I learned. And it's a good story 39 years later.