Crips and Bloods: Made in America

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With its unprecedented access into the worlds of active gangs, Crips and Bloods: Made in America offers a compelling, character-driven documentary narrative which chronicles the decades-long cycle of destruction and despair that defines modern gang culture. From the genesis of LA's gang culture to the shocking, war-zone reality of daily life in the South L.A., the film chronicles the rise of the Crips and Bloods, tracing the origins of their bloody four-decades long feud. Contemporary and former gang members offer their street-level testimony that provides the film with a stark portrait of modern-day gang life: the turf wars and territorialism, the inter-gang hierarchy and family structure, the rules of behavior, the culture of guns, death and dishonor.

Throughout the film ex-gang members, gang intervention experts, writers, activists and academics analyze many of the issues that contribute to South LA's malaise: the erosion of identity that fuels the self-perpetuating legacy of black self-hatred, the disappearance of the African-American father and an almost pervasive prison culture in which today one out of every four black men will be imprisoned at some point in his life.

Finally the gang members themselves articulate their enduring dream of a better life. They provide Crips and Bloods: Made in America with its ultimate statement: a message of hope and a cautionary tale of redemption aimed at saving the lives of a new generation of kids, not just in South LA but anywhere in the world that gang violence exists.

'A breathtaking and groundbreaking film. It explains how a system of racial domination and economic injustice is at the heart of Los Angeles' gang problem. It exposes the outrage and alienation of LA's Crips and Bloods while not sugarcoating their self-destructive violence. This film is a welcome corrective to one-sided law enforcement and media stereotypes of gangs.' John Hagedorn, Dept of Criminal Justice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Author, A World of Gangs: Armed Young Men and the Gangsta Culture and People and Folks: Gangs, Crime, and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City

'This is one of the most powerful documentaries on the history of street gangs that I have ever watched. It is authentic and direct in presenting the history and foundation of these two violent street gangs in America. The film clearly shows what the root causes, fundamental ideology's and beliefs for the existence of street gangs. The film also shows the need for a Public Health approach vs a Criminal Justice approach to the reduction of violent street gangs and youth violence. Crips and Bloods also speaks to the need of addressing what is truly helpful to young people, especially young men of color. The film brings attention to the artificial pride that has been created based on the promotion of self-hatred. Therefore, I strongly recommend that this film be shown primarily to parents/especially fathers, elected politicians, the policy makers of this country, educators, mental health professionals and young people.' Dr. Ulric Johnson, Assistant Dean, School of Human Services, Springfield College-Boston Campus, Director and Founder of Teens Against Gang Violence

'A powerful film that gets to the root of a real problem that for many minority groups speaks volumes as to what invisibility and denial can do to people. Like any other form of oppression, the formation of these two gangs seems to be a reaction to invisibility, oppression and discrimination against poor African Americans in the Los Angeles area. Thus, this documentary helps those looking for an answer to a very complex and growing problem to find some keys that could result in getting a realistic solution to the gangs' problems not only in Los Angeles, but in other part of the United States as well. In conclusion, the documentary presents key elements of reactions to oppression and discrimination, which are important to know and understand in order to find solutions that can be long lasting and effective.' Dr. Edil Torres Rivera, Professor, Department of Counselor Education, University of Florida

'Crips and Bloods captured the full attention of my students from beginning to end like no other documentary ever has. Everyone who sees this film will have a breakthrough in understanding the causes of gang violence and the people who inhabit the war zones of LA, people that most of us rarely if ever come into contact with, let alone engage in dialogue. The quality of the interviews of gang members and residents, interspersed with rarely seen contemporary and archival film, helps you feel the pain, anger and courage of the warriors, peacemakers and ordinary residents. The compelling stories they tell about their life experiences illustrate the evolution of inner city violence spanning many decades. Commentary by historians, social scientists and activists provide expert analysis.' Paula Garb, Department of Anthropology, co-Director and co-Founder, Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, University of California - Irvine

'More than merely a profile of L.A. gang violence, the program delves into murkier waters of self-esteem, single-parent households, guns, drugs, imprisonment, and survivors, including wrenching interviews with mothers of murdered gang members. This portrait of gang life is one of compassion and humanity - a rare feat achieved through intimate interviews and historic footage.' Booklist, Editor's Choice

'A powerful piece that attempts to demystify gang culture, without sugar coating the surrounding issues or downplaying the extreme violence. While certainly about money, power, drugs, gang life, as exemplified by the Bloods and Crips, it is also about family and is rife with psychological, sociological and anthropological issues. And it's a perfect case study for urban and African-American Studies...Very comprehensive and beautifully produced...This film is highly recommended and appropriate for any library media collection.' Nicole Cooke, Montclair State University, Educational Media Reviews Online

'I watched this movie six times. None of the viewings was easy...I took the assignment as an avid film fan, a political scientist specializing in violence, conflict and democracy, a New Yorker watching a movie about West Coast gangs, and, most importantly, as a non-young, black male. It did not occur to me that the film would cause me to lose sleep, reconceptualize what I focused my research on in particular and what conflict studies was concerned with generally. The film did all of this...At each viewing, I ended the film with a strong sense of outrage and frustration, later followed by days and weeks of reflection about how I was part of the solution or part of the problem.' Christian Davenport, Professor of Peace Studies, Political Science and Sociology, University of Notre Dame, Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict

'A gripping presentation...Crips and Bloods: Made in America is a wonderfully effective bit of filmmaking...Most powerfully of all, no doubt, are the vivid personalities of men who actually took part in early gangs and riots, as well as recent and current gang members. The film, then, does not feel like an exercise in ancient history but is very much alive. In combination with items such as Scott's/Shakur's autobiography and other street-level accounts of gang life, the film would make an excellent teaching tool, as well as a stirring presentation for public audiences...Suitable for some mature high school classes (some strong language included) and for college courses in cultural anthropology, anthropology of race and ethnicity, anthropology of violence, and African-American or American culture studies, as well as general audiences.' Jack David Eller, Community College of Denver, Anthropology Review Database

'I could not pull myself away from Stacy Peralta's riveting, revelatory, exhaustive examination of the 40-year history of gang warfare in South Central L.A.' Rob Salem, TheStar.com

'Insightful and moving...Peralta masterfully presents both a historical primer and accounting of the self-perpetuating cycle of violence through study of social alienation, economic hardship, familial survival, drug use and institutional prejudice...This isn't an episode of The Wire, these are human beings, being unmade, daily, right here in America.' Mike Raffensperger, Zoom In Online - Film and TV

'Amazing music selections match perfectly with the images. As ever with Peralta, it's as impossible to take in everything on a first viewing as it is to look away from the screen.' Robert Koehler, Variety

'With the help of various talking heads culled from academia and from the mean streets, he manages to put a human face on a subject that tends to inspire inflamed debate and has produced calamitous laws and policies, along with a lot of pop culture.' Manohla Dargis, New York Times

'Why is there so much violence in South L.A.? What are the historical roots of the Bloods and Crips? Stacy Peralta's documentary Made in America employs hip-hop beats and music video aesthetics (quick edits, slick cinematography, artful use of still photography) to answer those twined questions...It's a lot to take in, and Peralta does an admirable job cramming tons of history and insight into his reportage on how the 'hood' came to be.' Ernest Hardy, Village Voice

'Heart-rending expose...The picture more importantly offers a serious discussion of exactly how the Crips and the Bloods came to be. It makes no bones about indicting a segregated L.A. culture which discouraged black boys from joining Cub Scout or Boy Scout troops located in lily-white communities, leaving the generally-fatherless African-American adolescents to fend for themselves in the ghetto.' Kam Williams, AALBC.com

'A compelling portrait of how economic and social oppression have helped contribute to the Bloods and Crips' bloody civil war...With sober intelligence, he details the means by which a confluence of explosive interrelated factors -- the LAPD's authoritarian, racist tactics; geographic segregation; the absence of African-American fathers; and the disappearance of working-class industrial jobs -- helped set the stage for the 1965 Watts riots and, after the black power movement's assassination-assisted collapse, the gangs' genesis.' Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

'You'll walk out both enlightened and dismayed.' Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

'There are no easy answers to the devastating realities that the residents of South Central confront daily, but Made in America starts an important discussion that can lead to change.' Jessica Mosby, TheWip.net

'Both striking and unnerving.' Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

'Patience paid off; the film shows some of the faces and personalities behind the headlines.' G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

'Gripping...Does much to contextualize the origins of Los Angeles gangs within the city's African American history.' Cheryl Eddy, San Francisco Bay Guardian

'Sobering...shows the battle lines behind which gang members have imprisoned themselves.' The Oregonian

'Moving and damning....riveting.' Portland Mercury

'Transcends the talking head, single-camera interview format to become something far more compelling, alive and real. The film draws up anger, sadness, compassion, but scholarly explores the history of South LA black culture with a fine-tooth comb. Crips and Bloods gives a human face to a vicious enemy we've long feared and hated.' R.L. Shaffer, IGN.com

'A compelling examination of how the American Dream failed so miserably on the streets of South Central Los Angeles...Crips and Bloods: Made in America goes a long way to creating a level of understanding and opening the door to dialogs that need to occur in order to end a war that most people don't even know about. This is documentary filmmaking that is powerful and evocative, and stands as a movie that should be required viewing.' David Walker, DVD Talk

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Main credits

Peralta, Stacy (Screenwriter)
Peralta, Stacy (Director)
George, Sam (Screenwriter)
Davis, Baron (Producer)
Washington, Kamasi (Composer)
Whitaker, Forest (Narrator)

Other credits

Director of photography, Tony Hardmon; editor, T.J. Mahar; original music, Kamasi Washington; music performed by DJ Krush; music by Matter.

Keywords

gang,gangs,gang culture,gang members,gang violence,Los Angeles,South Los Angeles,South L.A.,South LA,California,Crips,Bloods,Crips and Bloods,gang war,gang wars,violence,turf wars,prisons,gun violence,crime,Slausons,African Americans,African-Americans,African-American,African American,Jim Brown,Stacy Peralta,Tom Hayden,Ron Wilkins,Bird,Kumasi,Bo Taylor,Tony Muhammad,Aqeela Sherrils,Aquil Bashir,AmerIcan,Todd Brown,Josh Sides,Gerald Horne,Leon Bing,James Gilligan; "Crips and Bloods: Made in America"; Bullfrog Films

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[sustained electronic tone]

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[hip-hop music]

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[siren whooping]

00:00:56.033 --> 00:00:57.100
[gunfire]

00:00:59.267 --> 00:01:00.667
(Muhammad)
There's a war going on

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in South Central.

00:01:01.900 --> 00:01:03.233
[guns cocking]

00:01:03.267 --> 00:01:04.900
[electricity crackling]

00:01:06.067 --> 00:01:07.200
(Sherrills)
These Crips and Bloods

00:01:07.233 --> 00:01:09.267
have been warring
for 30-odd years,

00:01:09.300 --> 00:01:12.467
one of the longest-running wars
in the history of this country.

00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:13.800
(Young Dre)
There can always be someone outside

00:01:13.833 --> 00:01:18.367
that's ready to kill me
because of where I live at.

00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:20.067
We go over there
and kill one of them,

00:01:20.100 --> 00:01:21.700
and they come over
and kill one of us.

00:01:21.733 --> 00:01:23.000
(B-4)
It's like we born into it.

00:01:23.033 --> 00:01:24.567
You can't dodge, run away,
or get out of this.

00:01:24.600 --> 00:01:26.033
This is what it is.

00:01:26.067 --> 00:01:27.567
[woman over telephone]
911, what's your emergency?

00:01:27.600 --> 00:01:30.067
(Sherrills) Over the past 20 years alone
in L.A. County,

00:01:30.100 --> 00:01:32.833
there's been over
15,000 gang-related deaths.

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(Hayden) If you had 15,000 people
killing each other

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in any other country,

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there would be diplomats;
there would be mediators.

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It would go to the U.N.

00:01:45.233 --> 00:01:46.967
I grew up in the hood.
I was born in the hood.

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I was raised in the hood.
I'ma die in the hood.

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I didn't choose my destiny.

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My destination chose me.

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[fabric fluttering]

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(Whitaker)
In the southern portion

00:02:21.833 --> 00:02:25.367
of the richest city
in the richest state in America

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lays a cluster of neighborhoods,

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their streets and boulevards
laid out in a grid

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between concrete ribbons of freeway.

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Ten miles to the west
is the Pacific Coast Highway

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and the beaches of Santa Monica.

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Five miles to the north
is Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

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Seven miles to the east
is the corner of Hollywood and Vine.

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25 miles south
lays Orange County and Disneyland.

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Surrounded
by the California dream,

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this region has its own legacy.

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On its streets erupted the country's
most violent outbreak of civil unrest

00:03:03.900 --> 00:03:06.733
not once but twice.

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It's also the home

00:03:07.967 --> 00:03:11.667
of America's two most infamous
African-American gangs,

00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:14.600
the Crips and the Bloods,

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whose bloody 40-year feud

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has taken
five times as many lives

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as did the long-running
sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland

00:03:22.933 --> 00:03:27.800
yet whose devastating body count
continues today.

00:03:27.833 --> 00:03:30.233
But in South Los Angeles,

00:03:30.267 --> 00:03:33.000
life wasn't always this way.

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(man)
♪ One, two, one, two ♪

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♪ Hot ♪

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[jazzy hip-hop music]

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♪ Hot ♪

00:04:00.100 --> 00:04:01.767
(Whitaker)
In the 1950s,

00:04:01.800 --> 00:04:03.633
three friends from South L.A.,

00:04:03.667 --> 00:04:07.000
Ron, Bird, and Kumasi,

00:04:07.033 --> 00:04:10.767
grew up reaching for their piece
of the American dream.

00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:12.933
(man)
♪ Hot ♪

00:04:12.967 --> 00:04:14.767
The most significant thing

00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:17.233
was when I went to join
the Boy Scouts,

00:04:17.267 --> 00:04:20.000
okay, the Boy Scouts of America.

00:04:20.033 --> 00:04:22.600
My mother takes me up to the scouts
to the Goodyear rubber plant,

00:04:22.633 --> 00:04:26.433
where the original blimp
from 1933 to 1983

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parked in our neighborhood
right there.

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So I go up there
to join the Boy Scouts.

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My mother takes me
up to the scoutmaster.

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He was nice.

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But he tells my mother,
"Well, I don't know,

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but some of the parents
might object,"

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'cause it was a white troop.

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See, they say, "Be prepared.

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"Do a good turn daily.

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"A scout is trustworthy,
loyal, hopeful, friendly,

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courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, brave, clean, and reverent."

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See, that's
the Boy Scouts of America,

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a bunch of racists.

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(Kumasi)
We couldn't be Cub Scouts,

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couldn't be Boy Scouts,

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couldn't be Explorer Scouts.

00:05:03.033 --> 00:05:05.433
We couldn't get involved
in organized activity

00:05:05.467 --> 00:05:07.467
that would take us anywhere

00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:10.767
that would bear us
any kind of good fruit, you see?

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So we built
an auxiliary alternative.

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(Whitaker) With names like The Businessmen,
The Gladiators, and The Slausons,

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black teenagers began forming
their own street-front fraternities.

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Our neighborhood
was situated in an area

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where we were assigned
and designated

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to a little small park
on 62nd and Hooper

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called Slauson Park.

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That's where our name
comes from.

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(Whitaker) The Slausons would evolve
into what many consider

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to be L.A.'s first
modern African-American gang.

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But we never
called ourselves a gang.

00:06:00.267 --> 00:06:02.700
That was something
that the city and the police

00:06:02.733 --> 00:06:04.267
would describe us as.

00:06:04.300 --> 00:06:05.667
We were clubs.

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(Ron) What drew me to Slauson
was that they mirrored who I was.

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And it made one feel like
one had some status.

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And you had an identity now,

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an identity that you didn't have
anywhere else.

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There's a sense of family.

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There's a sense of acceptance.

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You also have a way
to wield some power

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because now you've got numbers.

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We had rivalries
among ourselves,

00:06:39.967 --> 00:06:42.600
and then we had rivalries
with people in other neighborhoods.

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You had Slausons and Gladiators
or Slauson and Watts

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or Slauson-Compton.

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(Kumasi)
But our ring was on the sidewalks

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and in the parks
and in the alleys.

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That's where our rings was.

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See, in those days,

00:06:55.500 --> 00:06:57.833
we'd give you an appointment
for an ass-whipping.

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Oh, you had to be there

00:07:01.033 --> 00:07:04.833
because everybody else in town
knew about it.

00:07:04.867 --> 00:07:06.667
They'd say, "Bird,
how good are those things?"

00:07:06.700 --> 00:07:08.467
I'd say,
"These things right here?"

00:07:08.500 --> 00:07:09.867
I'd say,
"I will beat your hairline

00:07:09.900 --> 00:07:11.567
"all the way back
to the center of your head,

00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:13.000
"whup your sideburns off,

00:07:13.033 --> 00:07:15.033
beat all the eyebrows
off your forehead."

00:07:16.600 --> 00:07:18.633
That's what we'd call woofing,
though, you know?

00:07:18.667 --> 00:07:20.333
But, you know,
I was good with my hands.

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That's why they say,
"Man, these are guns," you know?

00:07:22.533 --> 00:07:26.667
If you looking for somebody, say,
"Tell him I'm gunning for him."

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But it wasn't really
about destroying somebody.

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It was just a competitive thing,

00:07:32.067 --> 00:07:34.367
you know,
just competing with each other.

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(Bird) I used to get stopped
by the police all the time.

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My mother always said that,
you know,

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"Well, what did you do
this time?"

00:07:57.600 --> 00:07:59.400
I'd say, "I didn't do anything,"
you know?

00:07:59.433 --> 00:08:01.733
See, people, including parents,

00:08:01.767 --> 00:08:04.800
could not believe that the man
just stopped you all the time.

00:08:11.400 --> 00:08:13.033
Young black men in this society

00:08:13.067 --> 00:08:17.067
have always been represented
as the most threatening figures

00:08:17.100 --> 00:08:20.800
across the board.

00:08:20.833 --> 00:08:25.567
They're viewed as being people
who will commit crimes.

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(Whitaker)
From 1950 to 1966,

00:08:30.833 --> 00:08:32.367
the Los Angeles
Police Department

00:08:32.400 --> 00:08:35.900
was commanded
by Chief William Parker.

00:08:40.233 --> 00:08:41.700
(Boyd)
Chief Parker

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ran the police department
like a military unit.

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And the people
who bore the brunt of this

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were the black residents.

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(man) Shut it off and get out of that car
with your hands up.

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Get your hands up, I said.

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Drop that purse
and get your hands up.

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(Boyd) And so the cops were treating
these young black men

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as though they were enemies,

00:09:01.267 --> 00:09:03.867
as though they were in warfare.

00:09:03.900 --> 00:09:04.867
Get 'em up.

00:09:04.900 --> 00:09:07.200
Get your hands up and go.

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(man)
Come on. Right this way.

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It was an open secret

00:09:12.900 --> 00:09:16.133
that one of the tacit duties
of the LAPD

00:09:16.167 --> 00:09:18.733
was to make sure people
were in the right neighborhoods

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at the right time.

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And Alameda Boulevard
was the white curtain in L.A.

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You didn't cross Alameda
for no reason at all.

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(Ron) East of Alameda,
these were white areas:

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Lynwood, South Gate.

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We couldn't go there.

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You had cops
that didn't want you there.

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And blacks that deigned
to cross the line

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were quickly put in place
by police officers.

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(Kumasi)
There are barriers,

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invisible barriers,
social barriers.

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And their job
is to reinforce that barrier.

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(Ron) We'd get stopped.
We'd get harassed.

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"What are you doing here?

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You're supposed
to stay in your neighborhood."

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(Bird) One time, I was walking down
the street on 77th and Central,

00:10:11.700 --> 00:10:14.567
and the man said,
"Hey, you."

00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:16.800
I heard him, but I kept walking.

00:10:16.833 --> 00:10:18.200
He said, "Hey, you."

00:10:18.233 --> 00:10:19.433
And they ran on the curb,
jumped out the car, and said,

00:10:19.467 --> 00:10:21.100
"Didn't you hear us
calling you?"

00:10:21.133 --> 00:10:23.867
I said, "I heard you say 'you, '
but my name is not 'you.'"

00:10:23.900 --> 00:10:26.500
So, you know, get up against the wall
and such and so on.

00:10:26.533 --> 00:10:29.000
And they tell me
I look like I've been robbing.

00:10:29.033 --> 00:10:30.533
I said, "Well,
how does a robber look?"

00:10:30.567 --> 00:10:32.467
He said,
"Looks just like you."

00:10:41.900 --> 00:10:44.333
(Ron) And so you feel
this sense of alienation.

00:10:44.367 --> 00:10:46.333
You're culturally disoriented.

00:10:46.367 --> 00:10:48.767
You don't have
a sense of identity

00:10:48.800 --> 00:10:50.667
in terms of who you really are.

00:10:58.033 --> 00:11:00.067
(Horne)
So the idea

00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:03.067
was to create
not only a segregated society

00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:06.000
but the idea
that those of darker hue

00:11:06.033 --> 00:11:08.867
were inferior
and should be treated as such.

00:11:08.900 --> 00:11:11.667
[camera clicking]

00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:17.133
(Ron) And after a while,
you began to internalize this.

00:11:17.167 --> 00:11:20.967
And you would develop
a deep-seated self-hatred

00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:24.567
because you see yourself
as having almost no value.

00:11:28.767 --> 00:11:31.567
(man) Up against the wall.
Don't move.

00:11:32.800 --> 00:11:35.833
(Kumasi) In a free society,
I'm walking down the street,

00:11:35.867 --> 00:11:37.400
and police
got the nerve to ask me,

00:11:37.433 --> 00:11:38.833
"Where you going?
Where you com" -

00:11:38.867 --> 00:11:41.733
Ain't none of your damn business
where I'm going.

00:11:41.767 --> 00:11:44.900
It ain't none of your damn business
where I came from.

00:11:44.933 --> 00:11:47.600
[...] you talking about,
"Where are you going?"

00:11:47.633 --> 00:11:49.833
He gonna ask me,
"What are you doing here?"

00:11:49.867 --> 00:11:53.667
You go anywhere and ask anybody else
what they doing there?

00:11:53.700 --> 00:11:56.333
Do you stop and ask anybody else
in this society, man,

00:11:56.367 --> 00:11:59.000
"Why do you exist?"

00:11:59.033 --> 00:12:00.700
You understand what I'm saying?

00:12:00.733 --> 00:12:03.067
But you got the nerve to ask me that
all day every day.

00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:05.933
Now, what do you think
that does to me psychologically?

00:12:05.967 --> 00:12:07.033
What does that tell me?

00:12:07.067 --> 00:12:10.067
What message
am I being fed every day?

00:12:10.100 --> 00:12:12.000
See, you don't understand
that every day,

00:12:12.033 --> 00:12:15.567
he's feeding me
a spoonful of hatred.

00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:17.867
Every day, that's my diet,

00:12:17.900 --> 00:12:21.800
a spoonful of hatred.

00:12:21.833 --> 00:12:23.567
You see?

00:12:23.600 --> 00:12:27.067
And it's just a question of,
when is this going to erupt,

00:12:27.100 --> 00:12:31.267
and upon whom
is it going to erupt?

00:12:31.300 --> 00:12:33.633
Am I going to attack myself?

00:12:33.667 --> 00:12:35.467
Am I going to attack my brother?

00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:36.533
You understand?

00:12:36.567 --> 00:12:39.700
Am I going to attack
my own image in the mirror?

00:12:39.733 --> 00:12:42.367
Or am I going to eventually attack

00:12:42.400 --> 00:12:47.400
the cause of my anger
and my frustration?

00:12:47.433 --> 00:12:50.500
But the point is,
I'm a walking time bomb.

00:12:50.533 --> 00:12:55.700
I'm going to go off
someday somewhere on somebody.

00:12:55.733 --> 00:12:58.200
The question is, upon whom?

00:13:00.700 --> 00:13:03.767
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:13:10.933 --> 00:13:14.700
(Whitaker)
At 7:00 p.m. on August 11, 1965,

00:13:14.733 --> 00:13:17.233
near the corners
of 116th and Avalon,

00:13:17.267 --> 00:13:20.300
21-year-old Watts resident
Marquette Frye

00:13:20.333 --> 00:13:22.633
was pulled over
by the California Highway Patrol

00:13:22.667 --> 00:13:25.167
on suspicion of drunk driving,

00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:26.700
a routine traffic stop

00:13:26.733 --> 00:13:29.800
until police insisted
on impounding Frye's car

00:13:29.833 --> 00:13:32.667
despite being less
than two blocks from his home.

00:13:32.700 --> 00:13:35.000
Frye's mother, Rena,
who owned the car,

00:13:35.033 --> 00:13:37.500
joined the rapidly growing crowd,

00:13:37.533 --> 00:13:40.933
who, along with Marquette,
grew increasingly belligerent

00:13:40.967 --> 00:13:44.533
over what they thought
was the heavy-handed police response.

00:13:44.567 --> 00:13:46.833
LAPD reinforcements
were called in,

00:13:46.867 --> 00:13:48.267
a scuffle broke out,

00:13:48.300 --> 00:13:51.567
and Frye, his mother, Rena,
and brother Ronald

00:13:51.600 --> 00:13:55.100
were all taken into custody.

00:13:55.133 --> 00:13:56.967
The squad cars rolled away,

00:13:57.000 --> 00:13:59.533
but the crowd continued to swell

00:13:59.567 --> 00:14:01.867
as word of the incident
swept through the neighborhood.

00:14:01.900 --> 00:14:04.100
When I walked up
on 115th and Avalon,

00:14:04.133 --> 00:14:06.100
Charles McQuarter
from the D'Artagnans -

00:14:06.133 --> 00:14:07.700
I said, "Man, what happened?"

00:14:07.733 --> 00:14:09.433
He said,
"They jumped on Marquette."

00:14:12.033 --> 00:14:13.967
(Ron) We just got
more and more upset.

00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:15.500
It was a cumulative thing.

00:14:15.533 --> 00:14:18.233
It was one
racist traffic stop too many.

00:14:22.067 --> 00:14:25.367
(Whitaker)
By 8:15, over 1,000 Watts residents

00:14:25.400 --> 00:14:27.933
were surging up and down
Avalon Boulevard.

00:14:27.967 --> 00:14:30.967
[people yelling]

00:14:35.667 --> 00:14:36.967
About 1:00 a.m.,

00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:41.067
despite 29 arrests
and sporadic reports of vandalism,

00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:43.433
the situation
was assessed by the LAPD

00:14:43.467 --> 00:14:46.233
as being under control.

00:14:48.767 --> 00:14:50.967
(man)
Clear the sidewalks up ahead.

00:14:51.000 --> 00:14:53.167
Please go in your homes.

00:14:53.267 --> 00:14:55.467
Please go in your homes.

00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:58.800
(Whitaker) Thursday morning dawned tense
but relatively quiet.

00:14:58.833 --> 00:15:01.600
At 2:00 p.m.,
a meeting was called

00:15:01.633 --> 00:15:03.367
at a neighborhood rec center,

00:15:03.400 --> 00:15:06.500
assembling representatives
from various community groups,

00:15:06.533 --> 00:15:10.333
elected officials,
the LAPD, the media,

00:15:10.367 --> 00:15:12.133
and even Rena Frye.

00:15:12.167 --> 00:15:13.867
I think that we must
stay off the streets.

00:15:13.900 --> 00:15:16.800
I think the Civil Rights drive
in America

00:15:16.833 --> 00:15:20.600
has demonstrated that violence
will never be the just end

00:15:20.633 --> 00:15:22.133
to the grievances we have.

00:15:22.167 --> 00:15:24.100
(Whitaker)
But cutting through a call for order

00:15:24.133 --> 00:15:26.533
came a voice
that only the night before

00:15:26.567 --> 00:15:28.833
was raised by thousands
in the street.

00:15:28.867 --> 00:15:30.200
See, and I'm going
to tell you something.

00:15:30.233 --> 00:15:32.967
Tonight there's going to be another one,
whether you like it or not.

00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:34.467
No, no.
Wait. Wait. Wait.

00:15:34.500 --> 00:15:35.900
Listen.
Listen.

00:15:35.933 --> 00:15:42.000
We, the negro people down here,
have gotten completely fed up...

00:15:42.033 --> 00:15:46.067
(Kumasi) Our elders felt you should
bite the bullet, suck it up.

00:15:46.100 --> 00:15:47.400
We know it's wrong,

00:15:47.433 --> 00:15:51.100
but you can show that you're greater
than oppression by outliving it,

00:15:51.133 --> 00:15:53.533
show that it doesn't work;
it doesn't destroy you.

00:15:55.900 --> 00:15:58.667
But in the process,
we will take the beatings.

00:16:00.667 --> 00:16:02.467
The parents
are coming from places

00:16:02.500 --> 00:16:05.367
where black men are expected
to step off the street

00:16:05.400 --> 00:16:10.600
and say, "Yes, sir,"
to a 12-year-old white boy,

00:16:10.633 --> 00:16:13.400
where black men are lynched
with regularity.

00:16:16.167 --> 00:16:19.600
And so from their perspective,
Los Angeles looks wonderful.

00:16:19.633 --> 00:16:21.833
They're certainly aware
of the flaws,

00:16:21.867 --> 00:16:23.700
but they recognize
it's such an improvement.

00:16:23.733 --> 00:16:26.367
Their children, however,
have a very different perspective.

00:16:28.867 --> 00:16:31.167
(Kumasi) We come along and say,
"We ain't gonna take [...].

00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:34.733
You took it,
and we're not."

00:16:34.767 --> 00:16:39.200
[police radio chatter]

00:16:39.233 --> 00:16:40.800
(Whitaker)
By that afternoon,

00:16:40.833 --> 00:16:45.767
crowds of African-Americans
again filled the streets,

00:16:45.800 --> 00:16:49.500
but this time
facing over 200 LAPD

00:16:49.533 --> 00:16:53.300
and deputy sheriff officers.

00:16:53.333 --> 00:16:56.367
So here we are
in a crowd at night

00:16:56.400 --> 00:16:57.867
on Imperial and Avalon.

00:16:57.900 --> 00:16:59.333
Things were in such disarray,

00:16:59.367 --> 00:17:01.433
and we're facing cops
in the street.

00:17:04.767 --> 00:17:07.500
(Bird) And they went
to move the crowd back.

00:17:07.533 --> 00:17:09.900
See, so when the man moved on us,
we moved toward him.

00:17:09.933 --> 00:17:13.733
[people yelling]

00:17:13.767 --> 00:17:15.700
(Ron) And so you're looking
at one another,

00:17:15.733 --> 00:17:18.100
and you're reading the eyes
of people in the crowd.

00:17:18.133 --> 00:17:22.200
There's the body language that says,
"Let's go on and do this."

00:17:25.067 --> 00:17:27.133
(Bird) And then they fired
some rounds in the crowd.

00:17:27.167 --> 00:17:28.400
[gunshot]

00:17:28.433 --> 00:17:30.400
Say, "All right,
it's on now."

00:17:30.433 --> 00:17:33.567
[gunshots]

00:17:33.600 --> 00:17:34.700
(man)
You're under arrest.

00:17:34.733 --> 00:17:38.000
Get on the ground.
Get on the ground.

00:17:38.033 --> 00:17:39.600
Back up.
Back up.

00:17:39.633 --> 00:17:41.867
Get on the ground right now.

00:17:41.900 --> 00:17:43.567
You're under arrest.

00:17:44.900 --> 00:17:47.900
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:17:49.933 --> 00:17:53.033
(Ron) We were throwing rocks at police
who were in the street.

00:17:53.067 --> 00:17:57.067
And they were taking position
up behind their cars and firing.

00:17:57.100 --> 00:17:58.300
[gunshot]

00:17:58.333 --> 00:18:00.933
And I said, "Damn,
they're shooting at us."

00:18:00.967 --> 00:18:03.433
The cops have weapons,
and they had the law behind them.

00:18:03.467 --> 00:18:05.800
The citizens don't have
anything behind them

00:18:05.833 --> 00:18:07.767
but their own heart,
their own desire,

00:18:07.800 --> 00:18:09.500
their own determinations.

00:18:09.533 --> 00:18:11.567
And they're really
fighting to survive.

00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:14.633
(Kumasi)
And you cannot whup us.

00:18:14.667 --> 00:18:16.333
We're already dead.

00:18:16.367 --> 00:18:17.533
We're already beaten down.

00:18:17.567 --> 00:18:19.667
We been beaten down
for 400 years.

00:18:19.700 --> 00:18:23.333
We already got the wounds
inside and outside our bodies.

00:18:23.367 --> 00:18:24.667
How you gonna hurt us?

00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:26.233
You cannot threaten us.

00:18:26.267 --> 00:18:27.733
You cannot frighten us.

00:18:27.767 --> 00:18:30.000
We live in the most
frightening places

00:18:30.033 --> 00:18:32.233
under the most
frightening conditions.

00:18:32.267 --> 00:18:34.133
We are immune to fear.

00:18:34.167 --> 00:18:35.900
We are immune to harm.

00:18:35.933 --> 00:18:37.067
You see what I'm saying?

00:18:37.100 --> 00:18:39.433
You have stepped
into a cesspool.

00:18:39.467 --> 00:18:41.000
You the only one
gonna get infected.

00:18:46.133 --> 00:18:47.433
(Whitaker)
By Friday morning,

00:18:47.467 --> 00:18:49.800
additional police were called in
from all points of L.A.

00:18:49.833 --> 00:18:52.933
to squash what authorities
were now terming

00:18:52.967 --> 00:18:55.967
"a full-scale riot."

00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:57.433
(Bird)
You see, they called it a riot.

00:18:57.467 --> 00:18:58.533
There was no riot.

00:18:58.567 --> 00:19:01.533
We knew what the hell
we were doing.

00:19:01.567 --> 00:19:03.000
(man) What you're seeing
is guerilla warfare.

00:19:03.033 --> 00:19:04.900
But the reason
that you can't say it

00:19:04.933 --> 00:19:07.267
is because you never gave
the so-called negro credit

00:19:07.300 --> 00:19:09.733
for having enough intelligence
to be strategist enough

00:19:09.767 --> 00:19:12.033
to practice guerilla warfare.

00:19:12.067 --> 00:19:14.767
[siren wailing]

00:19:17.733 --> 00:19:20.733
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:27.533
But then what happens is that it becomes
a big newspaper story,

00:19:27.567 --> 00:19:32.500
which increases political pressure
on the authorities to do something.

00:19:41.267 --> 00:19:43.300
And then they brought in
16,000 National Guard

00:19:43.333 --> 00:19:44.633
who don't know the terrain.

00:19:47.967 --> 00:19:50.633
(Horne) The National Guard in particular
is not necessarily trained

00:19:50.667 --> 00:19:54.333
to engage
in civilian crowd control.

00:19:59.133 --> 00:20:01.233
(Ron)
We wanted to drive them out.

00:20:01.267 --> 00:20:03.600
And so the question then is,
what do we do?

00:20:07.833 --> 00:20:10.233
(Kumasi) And we were
opportunistic fighters.

00:20:10.267 --> 00:20:11.833
We didn't need stockpiles.

00:20:11.867 --> 00:20:13.367
We got dilapidated buildings.

00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:16.567
There's a brick pile just waiting
to be thrown at your ass.

00:20:16.600 --> 00:20:17.833
Here's a dilapidated building.

00:20:17.867 --> 00:20:19.233
Ain't nobody living there.

00:20:19.267 --> 00:20:21.433
You didn't fix it.
You didn't remove it, okay?

00:20:21.467 --> 00:20:23.333
It ain't nothing
but a pile of bricks anyhow.

00:20:23.367 --> 00:20:24.400
That's coming at you.

00:20:24.433 --> 00:20:26.900
That whole building, brick by brick,
is coming at your ass.

00:20:26.933 --> 00:20:29.667
That's what we throwing at you,
the building, the [...],

00:20:29.700 --> 00:20:32.167
the rubble, the rubbish
that we live in.

00:20:32.200 --> 00:20:33.500
That's what's coming
at your ass.

00:20:33.533 --> 00:20:35.133
Those are our weapons,

00:20:35.167 --> 00:20:37.667
the filth, the funk,
the [...] you can't stand,

00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:40.400
that you defend, that you put a barrier
between us and yourself.

00:20:40.433 --> 00:20:42.467
That's coming at you.

00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:43.767
It's coming at you.

00:20:43.800 --> 00:20:45.867
(all)
One, two, three, four.

00:20:45.900 --> 00:20:48.433
One, two, three, four.

00:20:48.467 --> 00:20:51.100
(Horne) At that point,
they went to the other extreme,

00:20:51.133 --> 00:20:54.367
which was the iron fist,
the iron hammer.

00:20:54.400 --> 00:20:55.633
[gunshot]

00:20:55.667 --> 00:20:59.733
And this leads
to a virtual free-fire zone,

00:20:59.767 --> 00:21:04.700
where people could be shot

00:21:04.733 --> 00:21:08.200
for making the wrong turn
at the wrong intersection.

00:21:08.233 --> 00:21:09.800
[gunshot]

00:21:12.467 --> 00:21:15.200
The claim by police
is that these were looters

00:21:15.233 --> 00:21:18.100
that were
refusing orders to halt.

00:21:20.233 --> 00:21:23.867
The autopsies clearly show
that people were shot in the back.

00:21:28.133 --> 00:21:31.100
One has to really question
whether or not a human life

00:21:31.133 --> 00:21:35.833
is worth a bottle of beer
or a case of beer.

00:21:35.867 --> 00:21:38.133
That is to say,
people were being killed

00:21:38.167 --> 00:21:42.100
for what, in retrospect,
were the most trivial of offenses.

00:21:42.133 --> 00:21:43.833
[gunshot]

00:21:43.867 --> 00:21:45.633
(Boyd) Looting didn't
undermine anything,

00:21:45.667 --> 00:21:48.000
because we're talking
about desperate people.

00:21:48.033 --> 00:21:50.467
We're talking about people
who have nothing,

00:21:50.500 --> 00:21:52.000
who see no hope.

00:21:52.033 --> 00:21:56.367
[glass shattering]

00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:58.500
(Yorty)
This is a criminal,

00:21:58.533 --> 00:22:01.767
a lawless element
with which we're confronted

00:22:01.800 --> 00:22:04.900
and that the only thing they understand
is force and power.

00:22:04.933 --> 00:22:06.600
[glass shattering]

00:22:06.633 --> 00:22:08.033
[gunshot]

00:22:10.733 --> 00:22:13.733
(Ron)
That's been the one taboo

00:22:13.767 --> 00:22:17.533
is that black people and other
oppressed people in this country

00:22:17.567 --> 00:22:23.733
are never to use violence
to achieve what it is they want.

00:22:25.667 --> 00:22:29.267
But this country uses violence
whenever it chooses.

00:22:29.300 --> 00:22:32.233
And then it legitimizes
the violence.

00:22:49.000 --> 00:22:52.567
When you send me the message
that my life is of no value,

00:22:52.600 --> 00:22:55.733
then how can your property,
how can your society,

00:22:55.767 --> 00:22:57.267
how can your civilization,

00:22:57.300 --> 00:22:59.400
how can any of the mores
or the rules

00:22:59.433 --> 00:23:01.867
or any of the monuments -

00:23:01.900 --> 00:23:05.667
how can any of that
be of any value to me

00:23:05.700 --> 00:23:10.267
when all it has on the door for me
is a rejection notice?

00:23:10.300 --> 00:23:12.600
I'm not allowed to look.
I'm not allowed to touch.

00:23:12.633 --> 00:23:16.067
I'm not allowed to partake.
I'm not allowed to participate.

00:23:18.267 --> 00:23:21.800
All my life - I was rejected
before I was born.

00:23:21.833 --> 00:23:23.733
I am the most rejected.

00:23:23.767 --> 00:23:26.767
Nothing is open to me.

00:23:26.800 --> 00:23:29.300
And every time I knock on the door
and get rejected,

00:23:29.333 --> 00:23:32.400
it takes
a little something out of me.

00:23:32.433 --> 00:23:34.700
So how does it
mean anything to me

00:23:34.733 --> 00:23:39.300
that I should try to salvage it
or I should respect it

00:23:39.333 --> 00:23:42.267
or I should try to preserve it?

00:23:42.300 --> 00:23:44.967
It stands
as a barrier before me.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:46.733
It was there when I was born.

00:23:46.767 --> 00:23:49.167
It will be there when I die.

00:24:00.267 --> 00:24:03.300
[The Chambers Brothers'
Love, Peace, and Happiness playing]

00:24:07.233 --> 00:24:08.267
(Boyd)
The fact that it took them

00:24:08.300 --> 00:24:12.067
five days to shut down something
they thought they could shut down in a day

00:24:12.100 --> 00:24:16.033
is a testament
to that revolutionary spirit.

00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:20.967
(Ron) As so there was
this sense of pride

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:22.867
that we had taken a stand

00:24:22.900 --> 00:24:25.367
and that we had sent
a message out to the world.

00:24:25.400 --> 00:24:29.033
(man)
♪ It's a small step for a man ♪

00:24:29.067 --> 00:24:33.533
♪ But it's a giant leap
for all mankind now ♪

00:24:33.567 --> 00:24:36.367
(Ron) Newspapers in Europe
and other parts of the world

00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:39.733
carried the story,
carried these images.

00:24:39.767 --> 00:24:44.067
And so in a sense,
it unmasked this country.

00:24:44.100 --> 00:24:46.167
It showed this country
for what it really was.

00:24:46.200 --> 00:24:47.967
Prior to the 1960s,

00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:51.500
race riots, as they existed,
were really riots of white people

00:24:51.533 --> 00:24:53.500
marauding through neighborhoods
where blacks were living

00:24:53.533 --> 00:24:54.900
and attacking blacks.

00:24:54.933 --> 00:24:58.033
The riots of the '60s -
Detroit, Chicago, New York, L.A.,

00:24:58.067 --> 00:25:00.167
these riots
are completely different,

00:25:00.200 --> 00:25:03.433
because they're really
manifestations of black anger,

00:25:03.467 --> 00:25:04.700
black hostility.

00:25:04.733 --> 00:25:06.733
And that's very new.

00:25:14.800 --> 00:25:18.533
What distinguished Watts
from the riots in Chicago and Detroit

00:25:18.567 --> 00:25:21.133
is that nobody thought
it could happen here.

00:25:21.167 --> 00:25:22.767
(Boyd)
The whole environment of L.A.

00:25:22.800 --> 00:25:27.367
was supposed to be so much nicer
than other parts of the country.

00:25:27.400 --> 00:25:30.200
But yet that image of L.A.
that's in the public mind

00:25:30.233 --> 00:25:32.967
had nothing to do
with the large numbers of black people

00:25:33.000 --> 00:25:35.667
living here
in segregated conditions.

00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:43.200
(man)
♪ Peace and happiness ♪

00:25:43.233 --> 00:25:46.967
[Stevie Wonder's Higher Ground playing]

00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.933
(Ron) The other thing that the rebellion
represented for us

00:25:49.967 --> 00:25:52.867
was, it helped
accelerate our consciousness.

00:25:52.900 --> 00:25:56.200
From '65 until about '71,

00:25:56.233 --> 00:25:59.567
gang activity in L.A.
was at an all-time low

00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:02.300
because so many young people
were joining organizations

00:26:02.333 --> 00:26:04.533
like the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee,

00:26:04.567 --> 00:26:06.300
like the Panther Party.

00:26:06.333 --> 00:26:09.000
(Wonder)
♪ People ♪

00:26:09.033 --> 00:26:11.700
♪ Keep on learnin' ♪

00:26:11.733 --> 00:26:13.833
(Whitaker) This growing
black pride movement

00:26:13.867 --> 00:26:17.333
saw the development of dynamic
African-American organizations

00:26:17.367 --> 00:26:21.133
committed to instigating change
from within.

00:26:21.167 --> 00:26:24.333
(Wonder)
♪ World ♪

00:26:24.367 --> 00:26:27.667
♪ Keep on turnin' ♪

00:26:27.700 --> 00:26:29.800
♪ 'Cause it won't be too long ♪

00:26:29.833 --> 00:26:33.667
(Whitaker) Former street fighters
like Kumasi, Bird, and Ron

00:26:33.700 --> 00:26:36.733
now fought the power
rather than other gangs,

00:26:36.767 --> 00:26:39.933
working alongside groups
like the Black Panthers

00:26:39.967 --> 00:26:42.833
on civic programs that ranged
from free breakfasts

00:26:42.867 --> 00:26:46.067
to neighborhood restoration
to political activism.

00:26:48.333 --> 00:26:50.900
(Wonder)
♪ Believers ♪

00:26:50.933 --> 00:26:54.733
♪ Keep on believin' ♪

00:26:54.767 --> 00:26:56.500
(Kumasi)
All them youngsters were busy

00:26:56.533 --> 00:26:59.433
trying to rebuild their communities,
trying to build a future,

00:26:59.467 --> 00:27:03.133
trying to figure out, "Where the [...]
do we go from here, together,

00:27:03.167 --> 00:27:05.567
and how do we give ourselves
some kind of a future?"

00:27:05.600 --> 00:27:08.233
(Wonder)
♪ Gonna keep on tryin' ♪

00:27:08.267 --> 00:27:10.967
♪ Till I reach
the highest ground ♪

00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:13.000
(Whitaker)
But this new black power structure

00:27:13.033 --> 00:27:14.800
quickly found itself
in the crosshairs

00:27:14.833 --> 00:27:18.733
of government agencies
like the FBI.

00:27:18.767 --> 00:27:21.700
According to recently
declassified documents,

00:27:21.733 --> 00:27:24.100
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover

00:27:24.133 --> 00:27:26.733
launched a covert
counterintelligence operation

00:27:26.767 --> 00:27:29.733
against the Black Panthers,

00:27:29.767 --> 00:27:33.033
an organization he described
as the greatest threat

00:27:33.067 --> 00:27:35.500
to the internal security
of the country.

00:27:35.533 --> 00:27:37.167
[gunshots]

00:27:37.200 --> 00:27:40.000
(Wonder)
♪ Powers ♪

00:27:40.033 --> 00:27:41.667
♪ Keep on lyin' ♪

00:27:41.700 --> 00:27:44.233
They turned around
and squashed those movements.

00:27:44.267 --> 00:27:47.467
(Wonder)
♪ While the people ♪

00:27:47.500 --> 00:27:49.833
♪ Keep on dyin' ♪

00:27:49.867 --> 00:27:52.133
(Whitaker) Former Slauson
and Panther chapter founder

00:27:52.167 --> 00:27:54.633
Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter
and John Huggins

00:27:54.667 --> 00:27:58.067
were gunned down
at a UCLA black student meeting

00:27:58.100 --> 00:28:01.100
while Black Panther founders
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale

00:28:01.133 --> 00:28:03.900
faced arrest
and lengthy jail sentences.

00:28:03.933 --> 00:28:05.767
(Wonder)
♪ Oh, no ♪

00:28:05.800 --> 00:28:10.300
♪ Till I reach
the highest ground ♪

00:28:10.333 --> 00:28:12.000
(Whitaker)
Within a few short years,

00:28:12.033 --> 00:28:15.633
many of America's most influential,
iconic black leaders

00:28:15.667 --> 00:28:19.400
had either been incarcerated
or assassinated.

00:28:19.433 --> 00:28:21.567
[gunshot]

00:28:21.600 --> 00:28:23.133
They ran 'em down.
They chased 'em down.

00:28:23.167 --> 00:28:24.167
They hunted 'em down.

00:28:24.200 --> 00:28:25.767
They murdered everybody
that they could

00:28:25.800 --> 00:28:27.900
and made everybody else
either go to exile,

00:28:27.933 --> 00:28:29.667
or they locked them up
in the penitentiary.

00:28:29.700 --> 00:28:31.633
And when all that was over with,

00:28:31.667 --> 00:28:36.800
a new element rose up
called The Crips.

00:28:36.833 --> 00:28:38.400
You see?

00:28:38.433 --> 00:28:39.967
And the [...] started again.

00:28:40.233 --> 00:28:43.200
[dramatic music]

00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:05.867
The original Crips
came out of our neighborhood.

00:29:05.900 --> 00:29:08.033
They were the children
we passed by every day

00:29:08.067 --> 00:29:10.700
and paid no attention to,
but they watched us.

00:29:14.800 --> 00:29:17.467
We had the generation
our parents came from,

00:29:17.500 --> 00:29:23.200
and we had the great personalities
of their generation to connect with.

00:29:23.233 --> 00:29:26.867
We had something
to attach ourselves to.

00:29:26.900 --> 00:29:29.100
They didn't.

00:29:32.067 --> 00:29:35.967
They were born in a state
of suspended animation.

00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:42.900
They were totally disconnected
and disenfranchised.

00:29:42.933 --> 00:29:45.333
They're like a planet
out of orbit.

00:29:48.833 --> 00:29:50.500
(Whitaker)
In the late 1960s,

00:29:50.533 --> 00:29:53.267
from the blacktop playgrounds
of Fremont High School

00:29:53.300 --> 00:29:55.267
emerged this new order

00:29:55.300 --> 00:29:58.367
led by South L.A. teenager
Raymond Washington,

00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:01.667
generally credited
as the Crips' founding member.

00:30:05.900 --> 00:30:09.533
In response, a number of rival gangs
formed an alliance,

00:30:09.567 --> 00:30:12.167
calling themselves Bloods,

00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:14.800
a moniker adopted
by African-American soldiers

00:30:14.833 --> 00:30:16.567
serving in Vietnam.

00:30:18.767 --> 00:30:23.267
With the opposing armies now in place,
battle flags were raised:

00:30:23.300 --> 00:30:27.000
blue for Crips
and red for Bloods.

00:30:27.033 --> 00:30:29.900
Yet exactly which set,
or neighborhood,

00:30:29.933 --> 00:30:34.700
drew first blood and why
may never be known.

00:30:34.733 --> 00:30:37.800
Much of the firsthand knowledge
has been taken to the grave

00:30:37.833 --> 00:30:40.333
by gang leaders
like Raymond Washington,

00:30:40.367 --> 00:30:43.967
who was shot and killed
on the corner of 64th and San Pedro.

00:30:46.167 --> 00:30:47.700
Gangs don't fight anymore.

00:30:47.733 --> 00:30:48.700
They don't use the fists.

00:30:48.733 --> 00:30:50.600
We used to fight,
but they don't do that anymore.

00:30:50.633 --> 00:30:51.633
We use the guns.

00:30:51.667 --> 00:30:53.900
All about shooting, taking 'em out.

00:30:55.333 --> 00:31:00.400
Part of the mechanics
of oppressing people

00:31:00.433 --> 00:31:03.767
is to pervert them to the extent

00:31:03.800 --> 00:31:07.833
that they become the instruments
of their own oppression.

00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:13.900
[gunshots]

00:31:17.600 --> 00:31:21.700
(Whitaker) Over the next four decades,
warring Crip and Blood sets

00:31:21.733 --> 00:31:26.633
would carve the streets of South L.A.
into a grid of rival territories.

00:31:39.000 --> 00:31:41.267
Today these fractured communities

00:31:41.300 --> 00:31:44.867
are home to five generations
of urban soldiers.

00:31:51.300 --> 00:31:55.667
These are Crips and Bloods
of all different eras and ages

00:31:55.700 --> 00:31:59.700
from different neighborhoods,
loyal to different sets,

00:31:59.733 --> 00:32:02.267
yet they share
one thing in common.

00:32:02.300 --> 00:32:06.567
All have grown up at war
on the streets of L.A.

00:32:08.067 --> 00:32:10.733
If you ain't from where I'm from,
[...] you.

00:32:10.767 --> 00:32:12.800
That's just how it is
where we come from.

00:32:12.833 --> 00:32:15.600
That's just the whole motto,
"Kill or be killed."

00:32:27.867 --> 00:32:30.300
(Gee Active) Once you go to enemy turf,
anything can happen to you.

00:32:30.333 --> 00:32:33.067
Come across Normandy, you die.

00:32:33.100 --> 00:32:35.933
Come across Vermont,
I feel bad for you.

00:32:35.967 --> 00:32:38.167
(James)
When I was gangbanging,

00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:40.667
if you weren't from my hood,
you don't come to my hood.

00:32:40.700 --> 00:32:42.867
If you come to my hood
and you don't know nobody in my hood,

00:32:42.900 --> 00:32:44.900
then you die.

00:32:44.933 --> 00:32:46.533
(Young Dre)
West side of us is Bloods.

00:32:46.567 --> 00:32:47.967
On the east side of us is Crips.

00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:49.833
We're just surrounded in a box,
you know what I mean?

00:32:49.867 --> 00:32:51.933
We're surrounded by enemy sets.

00:32:51.967 --> 00:32:54.667
This was created
over 20 years ago

00:32:54.700 --> 00:32:56.567
to where the geographics
in the neighborhoods

00:32:56.600 --> 00:32:58.533
have been separated by gangs.

00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.733
(Nikko De)
Certain streets, certain alleys,

00:33:03.767 --> 00:33:06.567
certain stores, certain schools,

00:33:06.600 --> 00:33:10.033
certain parks
were claimed as turfs.

00:33:14.067 --> 00:33:17.067
(Bow Wow) You can't to this gas station
and put some gas in your car.

00:33:17.100 --> 00:33:20.567
You can't go to that Burger King over there
'cause you in the wrong neighborhood.

00:33:20.600 --> 00:33:23.600
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:33:25.567 --> 00:33:28.767
You got some [...]
that'll ask you, "Where you from?"

00:33:28.800 --> 00:33:30.900
And you could tell them, you know,
"I ain't from nowhere, homey."

00:33:30.933 --> 00:33:31.933
You know what I'm saying?

00:33:31.967 --> 00:33:34.033
But you got some [...]
that won't ask you [...],

00:33:34.067 --> 00:33:36.067
just blow your head off
just 'cause where you at.

00:33:36.100 --> 00:33:38.267
I done been jammed up,
guns all in my face,

00:33:38.300 --> 00:33:39.467
"Where you from?"

00:33:39.500 --> 00:33:41.000
I had to tell them,
you know what I mean?

00:33:41.033 --> 00:33:43.033
Told 'em where I was from,
the guns come down,

00:33:43.067 --> 00:33:44.533
and I'm out of the situation.

00:33:44.567 --> 00:33:45.767
(B-4)
I wish I can just go

00:33:45.800 --> 00:33:47.800
and just be wherever
I want to chill with, man.

00:33:47.833 --> 00:33:49.600
There's other girls
in other projects, man,

00:33:49.633 --> 00:33:51.600
I just want to go through
and just see, man.

00:33:51.633 --> 00:33:52.867
You feel what I'm saying?

00:33:52.900 --> 00:33:54.400
My little young hotties, man.

00:33:54.433 --> 00:33:57.067
I can't even go over there
and see my young hotties.

00:33:57.100 --> 00:33:58.900
Oh, everything -
I can't, man.

00:33:58.933 --> 00:34:00.433
You can't do it.

00:34:04.400 --> 00:34:07.167
My little brother
walk out the door to school,

00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:08.433
6:00 in the morning,

00:34:08.467 --> 00:34:10.267
and they shoot at him
as he's going to school.

00:34:12.600 --> 00:34:15.300
(Young Dre) We've been burying one
of our friends, one of our comrades,

00:34:15.333 --> 00:34:17.400
and we've had shootouts at the funeral

00:34:17.433 --> 00:34:21.267
where another one of our homeboy
gets killed at the funeral.

00:34:21.300 --> 00:34:22.300
You dig?

00:34:27.067 --> 00:34:30.233
So as we live
amongst each other,

00:34:30.267 --> 00:34:32.833
there might be one street,
it might be one gas station

00:34:32.867 --> 00:34:36.000
that service
two or three different gangs.

00:34:36.033 --> 00:34:38.567
Well, when I get to the gas station,
I have to find out,

00:34:38.600 --> 00:34:42.067
"What are your intentions with me
while I'm pumping gas?"

00:34:42.100 --> 00:34:44.333
So I cannot turn my back
and allow you to shoot me

00:34:44.367 --> 00:34:45.767
or hit me
in the back of the head.

00:34:45.800 --> 00:34:48.600
I have to look you in your eyes
and see your intentions.

00:34:48.633 --> 00:34:51.567
And when I look you in your eyes,
I'm looking to see if you're a wolf.

00:34:51.600 --> 00:34:54.100
If you're a wolf and I'm a wolf,

00:34:54.133 --> 00:34:56.033
then we need to come
to some sort of agreement

00:34:56.067 --> 00:34:58.800
so we can both
get out of here peacefully.

00:34:58.833 --> 00:35:01.133
And if you're a pork chop,
I'm happy.

00:35:01.167 --> 00:35:02.867
Let me go on and get my gas,
pork chop.

00:35:02.900 --> 00:35:05.167
I appreciate you being here.

00:35:05.200 --> 00:35:08.500
When I was in the communities
talking to guys in the gangs

00:35:08.533 --> 00:35:10.400
in Watts and Compton
and Inglewood -

00:35:10.433 --> 00:35:14.267
that so many of these,
particularly the younger guys,

00:35:14.300 --> 00:35:16.933
had never seen the Pacific Ocean.

00:35:16.967 --> 00:35:19.033
In a gang-infested community,

00:35:19.067 --> 00:35:21.600
there are situations
where people will not leave

00:35:21.633 --> 00:35:24.133
a given ten-block radius
for years.

00:35:24.167 --> 00:35:25.900
Put it like this, man.

00:35:25.933 --> 00:35:27.367
For those that don't go nowhere,

00:35:27.400 --> 00:35:29.400
they got a [...]-up attitude
about a lot of [...].

00:35:29.433 --> 00:35:30.567
Why?

00:35:30.600 --> 00:35:32.233
Because they don't know
nothing else.

00:35:33.400 --> 00:35:34.800
(Kumasi)
And he's been taught, man,

00:35:34.833 --> 00:35:36.333
that if you ain't quick,
you dead.

00:35:36.367 --> 00:35:38.200
It's what they call "slippin'."

00:35:38.233 --> 00:35:40.900
Don't get caught slippin'.

00:35:40.933 --> 00:35:46.267
"Slipping" means relaxing,
being off guard, not on point,

00:35:46.300 --> 00:35:49.767
not always hostile, hard,
ready to do or die

00:35:49.800 --> 00:35:52.867
and be the one who does
instead of the one who dies.

00:36:03.067 --> 00:36:04.767
(Scrap)
You can't have heart living there.

00:36:04.800 --> 00:36:07.033
You have to be
on your toes at all times, man,

00:36:07.067 --> 00:36:09.533
because anything at any time
can happen to you.

00:36:09.567 --> 00:36:11.467
(Peralta) Wait a minute.
You can't have a heart?

00:36:11.500 --> 00:36:13.367
No, no, no.

00:36:13.400 --> 00:36:16.400
You can have a heart,
but you better not show it.

00:36:16.433 --> 00:36:18.167
It's sort of never
letting yourself be weak,

00:36:18.200 --> 00:36:23.100
never letting yourself be seen
as someone with feelings, emotions,

00:36:23.133 --> 00:36:26.900
except for brutal force.

00:36:48.933 --> 00:36:51.400
In the ghetto,
you will be taken advantage of.

00:36:51.433 --> 00:36:52.800
You will be targeted.

00:36:52.833 --> 00:36:54.200
The sharks will just eat you up.

00:36:54.233 --> 00:36:56.700
So out here
in the concrete jungle,

00:36:56.733 --> 00:36:58.767
you got to be respected
as a man.

00:37:01.167 --> 00:37:02.833
(T. Rodgers)
But in most cases,

00:37:02.867 --> 00:37:08.533
respect is actually fear.

00:37:08.567 --> 00:37:10.067
You better respect me.

00:37:10.100 --> 00:37:11.633
You better fear me.

00:37:13.200 --> 00:37:15.733
(Famous) You want to have that hard look.
Everything is hard.

00:37:15.767 --> 00:37:17.400
You want to be
in that right state of mind.

00:37:17.433 --> 00:37:19.200
If you're feeling good
about your dress code,

00:37:19.233 --> 00:37:20.633
you're going to represent
to the fullest.

00:37:20.667 --> 00:37:22.300
[echoing] Feeling good about
your dress code. State of mind.

00:37:22.333 --> 00:37:24.833
Feeling good about your dress code,
dress code.

00:37:24.867 --> 00:37:27.133
You don't want
to dress like no sucker,

00:37:27.167 --> 00:37:28.967
not out in the world,
not in the gang.

00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:31.600
[Famous, echoing] State of mind, state
of mind, state of mind, state of mind.

00:37:31.633 --> 00:37:33.367
State of mind, state of mind,
state of mind.

00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:35.667
(B-4) And that's all we know, man,
is looking good.

00:37:35.700 --> 00:37:38.167
[Famous, echoing] Feeling good about
your dress code, dress code, dress code.

00:37:38.200 --> 00:37:40.233
And do whatever it takes
to look good.

00:37:40.267 --> 00:37:43.600
[Famous, echoing]
Feeling good about your dress code.

00:37:43.633 --> 00:37:45.500
I was on a book tour,

00:37:45.533 --> 00:37:49.533
and two guys were with me
in San Francisco to be interviewed.

00:37:49.567 --> 00:37:52.333
I knocked on the door of their hotel room,
and they said, "Come in."

00:37:52.367 --> 00:37:53.633
(man)
What's up, yo?

00:37:53.667 --> 00:37:56.133
(Bing) And here are two
of the most hard-core gang members,

00:37:56.167 --> 00:37:59.400
and one of them
has got his ironing board out,

00:37:59.433 --> 00:38:02.267
and he's got his traveling iron,
and he's ironing his clothes.

00:38:06.067 --> 00:38:07.700
(Flipside)
It's the look, man, you know?

00:38:07.733 --> 00:38:09.900
We just get some starch,
and we iron our [...].

00:38:12.967 --> 00:38:17.733
It was, like, fashion to make your pants
stand up in the corner with nobody in them.

00:38:17.767 --> 00:38:20.433
[laughs]

00:38:20.467 --> 00:38:21.867
How about that?

00:38:21.900 --> 00:38:23.300
You know what I mean?

00:38:37.200 --> 00:38:39.333
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:38:48.767 --> 00:38:52.267
(Peralta) For somebody that has no idea
why a young man would do it,

00:38:52.300 --> 00:38:53.800
what is the allure and stuff?

00:38:53.833 --> 00:38:56.000
I joined the gang
not only for the protection

00:38:56.033 --> 00:38:58.733
but for the love, for the unity,
to be a part of a family.

00:39:03.667 --> 00:39:06.100
(James) If you living in the ghetto
and you living in an environment

00:39:06.133 --> 00:39:07.967
where you're being assaulted
like I was -

00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:09.467
I just got tired
of being a victim.

00:39:09.500 --> 00:39:13.067
It's like, either you the victim
or you the victor.

00:39:15.567 --> 00:39:17.033
(B-4)
You're raised into it.

00:39:17.067 --> 00:39:18.667
It's not like you're going
to get out of it some way.

00:39:18.700 --> 00:39:20.000
You raised into it.

00:39:20.033 --> 00:39:22.067
Like, this is what they teach you
at a young age.

00:39:22.100 --> 00:39:24.167
(Bandana)
I was really a good dude.

00:39:24.200 --> 00:39:26.133
And then, you know,
getting chased out of school,

00:39:26.167 --> 00:39:28.267
getting shot at all the time.

00:39:28.300 --> 00:39:31.033
And you like, "[...] it.
I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't."

00:39:31.067 --> 00:39:32.967
[man speaking indistinctly]

00:39:33.000 --> 00:39:34.667
(Caddy)
I didn't get jumped in this.

00:39:34.700 --> 00:39:36.433
I grew up in this.

00:39:36.467 --> 00:39:38.833
My mom grew up
in my neighborhood.

00:39:38.867 --> 00:39:40.833
My dad from my neighborhood.

00:39:40.867 --> 00:39:42.900
All my uncles
from my neighborhood.

00:39:42.933 --> 00:39:45.400
So I don't look at it
as, like, no gang thing.

00:39:45.433 --> 00:39:46.967
It's just family.

00:39:54.200 --> 00:39:57.133
(Bandana) And that's why
when he's hooked up with his crew,

00:39:57.167 --> 00:39:58.167
they feeding him.

00:39:58.200 --> 00:40:00.133
They looking out for him
and putting clothes on his back.

00:40:00.167 --> 00:40:01.900
Okay, but now it's time
to get in this car

00:40:01.933 --> 00:40:04.233
and go get these [...]
that just shot up my house.

00:40:04.267 --> 00:40:06.600
What you gonna do?

00:40:06.633 --> 00:40:08.267
What you gonna -
you obligated to do.

00:40:08.300 --> 00:40:10.833
That man just fed you all month.

00:40:10.867 --> 00:40:12.967
So how can you say no to that?

00:40:13.000 --> 00:40:14.433
Let's go kill these [...],

00:40:14.467 --> 00:40:15.967
because, man, [...],
you feeding me.

00:40:16.000 --> 00:40:18.833
[guns cocking]

00:40:24.967 --> 00:40:26.933
(Peralta) How old were you
when you first got a gun?

00:40:26.967 --> 00:40:28.267
My first gun, I was, like, ten.

00:40:28.300 --> 00:40:31.033
I probably was about 12.

00:40:31.067 --> 00:40:33.400
Man, I got my first gun
when I was 13 years old.

00:40:33.433 --> 00:40:35.467
We got guns just to go to school,
you know?

00:40:35.500 --> 00:40:37.733
If you don't have one, you got to be
around somebody that got one.

00:40:37.767 --> 00:40:39.133
I carry two or three guns,

00:40:39.167 --> 00:40:41.033
'cause if I run out of one,
I have another one.

00:40:41.067 --> 00:40:42.067
I got a backup.

00:40:43.500 --> 00:40:45.867
(Naji)
The AK-47, the Uzi, the MAC-10:

00:40:45.900 --> 00:40:47.000
you got big guns.

00:40:47.033 --> 00:40:49.000
You ain't got .22s
and .38s no more.

00:40:49.033 --> 00:40:51.767
These cats putting out 9-millimeters
with 16 bullets in 'em.

00:40:51.800 --> 00:40:53.967
Come on, man,
how you gonna survive that gunshot?

00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:55.433
[gun clicks]

00:40:55.467 --> 00:40:57.700
(Big Girch) My generation
was the last that fought.

00:40:57.733 --> 00:41:00.733
After my generation,
it was gunplay.

00:41:00.767 --> 00:41:02.467
There was no such thing
to fight.

00:41:02.500 --> 00:41:06.900
The kids today
came right in the game with guns.

00:41:06.933 --> 00:41:08.567
That's why there's so many murders.

00:41:11.300 --> 00:41:15.800
(T. Rodgers) That's made a 12-year-old,
a 13-year-old king for a day.

00:41:15.833 --> 00:41:17.000
Oh, my God.

00:41:17.033 --> 00:41:19.033
Put you in a whole nother state.

00:41:19.067 --> 00:41:21.867
[gunshots]

00:41:24.867 --> 00:41:28.933
Just the sound within itself
says that you cleared the block.

00:41:28.967 --> 00:41:30.867
Pow, pow, pow.

00:41:30.900 --> 00:41:32.633
You cleared the block.

00:41:32.667 --> 00:41:35.133
People close their windows,
shut their doors.

00:41:35.167 --> 00:41:36.800
Car alarms go off.

00:41:36.833 --> 00:41:38.567
The dogs and cats run.

00:41:38.600 --> 00:41:40.533
Ain't no rats.

00:41:40.567 --> 00:41:43.133
I mean, you cleared the block.

00:41:43.167 --> 00:41:46.033
And you standing there,
12, 13 years old,

00:41:46.067 --> 00:41:48.467
with the pistol smoking.

00:41:48.500 --> 00:41:50.300
And you stick it in your pocket,

00:41:50.333 --> 00:41:51.767
and you walk on home.

00:41:58.167 --> 00:42:00.800
I think it's very hard to use a gun

00:42:00.833 --> 00:42:03.433
against another individual
or a human being,

00:42:03.467 --> 00:42:05.433
but once you block
that part of your mind out,

00:42:05.467 --> 00:42:06.600
it becomes very easy.

00:42:06.633 --> 00:42:08.833
You can watch 'em.
They become numb.

00:42:08.867 --> 00:42:11.233
The first time, they're jittery.

00:42:11.267 --> 00:42:13.400
You can just see
the nervousness in them.

00:42:13.433 --> 00:42:16.133
And you come back
and look at that same person

00:42:16.167 --> 00:42:18.833
after being involved
with the hood for a year,

00:42:18.867 --> 00:42:20.533
and, I mean, they soldiers.

00:42:20.567 --> 00:42:22.367
They're ready to get down.

00:42:32.200 --> 00:42:34.667
(Pete)
These wars go farther back

00:42:34.700 --> 00:42:36.233
than most
of these kids been around.

00:42:36.267 --> 00:42:39.833
A lot of them not sure about
why the war was going on,

00:42:39.867 --> 00:42:43.133
but they started doing
what was being done.

00:42:46.067 --> 00:42:47.600
(Caddy)
Don't nobody like us.

00:42:47.633 --> 00:42:48.900
But that's even before our time.

00:42:48.933 --> 00:42:52.000
Before I was born,
it's been like that.

00:42:52.033 --> 00:42:56.300
So I just grew up
into making more enemies.

00:42:59.200 --> 00:43:01.767
We at war
with a lot of people right now.

00:43:01.800 --> 00:43:05.133
But being who I am
and the [...] that I been through,

00:43:05.167 --> 00:43:08.400
I got a lot of love for being
a real [...] out here.

00:43:08.433 --> 00:43:11.267
And that has saved my life many times,
you know what I'm saying?

00:43:11.300 --> 00:43:12.733
But at the same time,

00:43:12.767 --> 00:43:14.900
it's another generation
that don't know me

00:43:14.933 --> 00:43:18.167
and feel like they can get a stripe
if they get rid of me.

00:43:19.033 --> 00:43:20.967
You see me, you give me a pass.

00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:22.900
I see you,
I might give you a pass.

00:43:22.933 --> 00:43:24.167
Depends on how I feel.

00:43:24.200 --> 00:43:25.533
Don't give me a pass,

00:43:25.567 --> 00:43:27.887
then you already know what time it is
next time you see me.

00:43:29.533 --> 00:43:32.667
(Nikko De)
The game is to hunt your enemies.

00:43:32.700 --> 00:43:34.600
And whatever they do,
you counterattack.

00:43:34.633 --> 00:43:36.333
They write on the wall,
you write on the wall.

00:43:36.367 --> 00:43:38.300
They beat up somebody,
you beat up somebody.

00:43:38.333 --> 00:43:39.967
They shoot somebody,
you shoot somebody.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:45.000
[sirens wailing]

00:43:45.033 --> 00:43:46.533
They come over here
and shoot one of us,

00:43:46.567 --> 00:43:48.767
we go over there and shoot,
like, three or four of them.

00:43:50.767 --> 00:43:53.600
We got to shoot back.

00:43:53.633 --> 00:43:55.567
We got to do
what's necessary to survive.

00:43:55.600 --> 00:43:57.500
And it became
a dog-eat-dog war.

00:43:59.967 --> 00:44:03.400
When of your loved ones get killed,
then what you expect to do?

00:44:03.433 --> 00:44:05.367
You got to retaliate,

00:44:05.400 --> 00:44:07.467
because your heart is broken,
not theirs.

00:44:07.500 --> 00:44:10.167
You know what I'm saying?
You in tears at the funeral, not them.

00:44:10.200 --> 00:44:12.367
So now you got to make them feel
the way you feel.

00:44:12.400 --> 00:44:13.533
And this is a vicious cycle.

00:44:13.567 --> 00:44:15.500
It just goes over and over
and over again.

00:44:15.533 --> 00:44:17.000
[engine revving]

00:44:17.033 --> 00:44:19.467
[gunshot]

00:44:19.500 --> 00:44:21.867
[woman over radio]
98-26, stand by.

00:44:21.900 --> 00:44:24.900
[siren wailing]

00:44:26.833 --> 00:44:28.167
Two suspects.

00:44:28.200 --> 00:44:32.133
Suspect one: a male black,
black hair, dark eyes.

00:44:40.600 --> 00:44:43.900
Dark complexion
and medium-length natural.

00:44:43.933 --> 00:44:48.800
Suspect two: male black,
short black natural,

00:44:48.833 --> 00:44:51.267
white T-shirt,
no further description.

00:44:55.267 --> 00:44:58.967
(Big Girch) Even though I'm in the game
I'm in, I pray.

00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:01.933
(Peralta) But how do you deal
with the moral argument, man?

00:45:01.967 --> 00:45:03.600
I ignore it.

00:45:03.633 --> 00:45:05.233
I don't pay attention to it.

00:45:05.267 --> 00:45:10.267
There's really no room in this world
for soft [...], man.

00:45:10.300 --> 00:45:12.067
Soft [...] don't eat.

00:45:12.100 --> 00:45:14.333
I wrestle with my moral issues
a lot, man,

00:45:14.367 --> 00:45:18.100
because I know that ultimately,
this ain't the way that God

00:45:18.133 --> 00:45:20.233
or society intended it to be.

00:45:20.267 --> 00:45:21.367
So a lot of times, man,

00:45:21.400 --> 00:45:23.433
I know, morally,
I'm a good individual,

00:45:23.467 --> 00:45:27.000
but sometimes I got to put
that moral state of mind behind me

00:45:27.033 --> 00:45:28.133
and become an animal.

00:45:51.633 --> 00:45:59.633
(men)
♪ Prettiest train that I ever seen, man ♪

00:45:59.733 --> 00:46:06.067
♪ Prettiest train, Lord,
I ever seen ♪

00:46:06.100 --> 00:46:07.800
Prior to World War II,

00:46:07.833 --> 00:46:12.300
85%, 90% of the black population
of this country lives in the South.

00:46:12.333 --> 00:46:18.467
(men)
♪ New Orleans, New Orleans ♪

00:46:18.500 --> 00:46:19.967
(Boyd)
Black people had primarily

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:22.133
lived in the South
because of slavery,

00:46:22.167 --> 00:46:25.067
and the South was a rural, agrarian -
a farm economy.

00:46:25.100 --> 00:46:30.333
(men) ♪ Police'll get you
and you're workhouse bound ♪

00:46:31.867 --> 00:46:34.867
[whistle blows]

00:46:36.867 --> 00:46:38.400
(Sides)
World War II ushers in

00:46:38.433 --> 00:46:40.233
a series of transformations

00:46:40.267 --> 00:46:41.767
that radically change the nature

00:46:41.800 --> 00:46:44.800
of black history
in this country.

00:46:44.833 --> 00:46:48.033
Blacks, for the first time,
are invited en masse

00:46:48.067 --> 00:46:51.900
to work in America's
industrial arsenal for democracy,

00:46:51.933 --> 00:46:53.733
building those tanks,
building those planes,

00:46:53.767 --> 00:46:55.300
building those ships.

00:46:59.533 --> 00:47:02.467
Between 1940s and the 1970s,

00:47:02.500 --> 00:47:05.933
you see over 4 million African-Americans
leave the South

00:47:05.967 --> 00:47:10.100
in ways that had
never, never occurred before.

00:47:10.133 --> 00:47:12.200
Head for New York.
Head for Chicago.

00:47:12.233 --> 00:47:14.133
Head for Los Angeles.

00:47:17.500 --> 00:47:19.900
For the first time,
they were integrated

00:47:19.933 --> 00:47:22.533
into the American work economy.

00:47:22.567 --> 00:47:23.667
They were earning enough

00:47:23.700 --> 00:47:26.567
to be lower middle-class
homeowners in L.A.

00:47:26.600 --> 00:47:29.267
and to establish,
if not exactly,

00:47:29.300 --> 00:47:32.267
a very close similarity
to the American dream.

00:47:42.167 --> 00:47:46.033
L.A. didn't have
the overt history with racism

00:47:46.067 --> 00:47:47.833
that one had in the South.

00:47:47.867 --> 00:47:51.433
(Sides) There were no laws that said
blacks had to ride on one part of the bus.

00:47:51.467 --> 00:47:54.000
There were no laws that said
blacks had to be in certain schools.

00:47:54.033 --> 00:47:56.933
There were, however,
an extremely exclusive web

00:47:56.967 --> 00:47:59.233
of racially restricted
housing covenants

00:47:59.267 --> 00:48:01.667
that kept blacks
in particular areas

00:48:01.700 --> 00:48:04.267
and out of other areas.

00:48:04.300 --> 00:48:07.967
(Whitaker) These covenants mandated
the sale of real estate along racial lines

00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:10.700
in an effort to keep
traditionally white neighborhoods

00:48:10.733 --> 00:48:13.633
free of nondesirable homeowners.

00:48:13.667 --> 00:48:15.900
(Sides)
Sometimes "nondesirable" meant Latino.

00:48:15.933 --> 00:48:18.333
Sometimes "nondesirable" meant Jew.

00:48:18.367 --> 00:48:20.100
Sometimes "nondesirable" meant Asian.

00:48:20.133 --> 00:48:22.400
But it always meant black.

00:48:22.433 --> 00:48:24.833
And so those
racially restrictive covenants,

00:48:24.867 --> 00:48:28.400
which didn't disappear
until the late '40s and early '50s,

00:48:28.433 --> 00:48:30.467
essentially kept blacks
circumscribed

00:48:30.500 --> 00:48:34.867
in a very narrow portion
of the L.A. County region.

00:48:34.900 --> 00:48:39.433
(Boyd) Black people were sort of forced
to live on top of each other

00:48:39.467 --> 00:48:41.833
because it just wasn't possible
to live where you chose,

00:48:41.867 --> 00:48:45.033
even though you might've
been able to afford it.

00:48:45.067 --> 00:48:46.800
[horn honking]

00:48:50.300 --> 00:48:51.933
(Whitaker)
South L.A. residents responded

00:48:51.967 --> 00:48:54.133
by transforming
their allotted territory

00:48:54.167 --> 00:48:56.600
into a thriving cultural hub,

00:48:56.633 --> 00:49:00.667
with Central Avenue developing
into a sort of Harlem west.

00:49:03.167 --> 00:49:05.867
(Sides)
West Coast's best jazz clubs,

00:49:05.900 --> 00:49:09.033
dozens of black businesses
lining the street,

00:49:09.067 --> 00:49:12.500
people dressed in their Sunday best
on the weekends:

00:49:12.533 --> 00:49:16.200
a period during which the most affluent
and the poorest blacks

00:49:16.233 --> 00:49:18.067
live essentially side by side.

00:49:24.167 --> 00:49:26.733
(Whitaker)
And then with World War II's end,

00:49:26.767 --> 00:49:31.300
L.A.'s wartime economy adapted itself
to a booming automotive industry,

00:49:31.333 --> 00:49:37.600
with major corporations like GM,
Chrysler, Ford, Goodyear, and Firestone

00:49:37.633 --> 00:49:41.933
all establishing factories
in South Los Angeles.

00:49:41.967 --> 00:49:44.007
(Boyd) You work in a factory,
you got good benefits,

00:49:44.033 --> 00:49:45.033
and you could buy a house.

00:49:45.067 --> 00:49:46.067
You could buy a car.

00:49:46.100 --> 00:49:47.533
You could raise a family.

00:49:47.567 --> 00:49:50.467
You could live a working-class
or lower middle-class life.

00:49:55.967 --> 00:49:58.567
(Sides) It was a moment
of unprecedented black prosperity

00:49:58.600 --> 00:50:02.033
in which the trajectory
of black America was on the rise.

00:50:02.067 --> 00:50:04.067
People were getting jobs.
People were buying homes.

00:50:04.100 --> 00:50:07.033
People were buying cars,
sending their kids to colleges.

00:50:07.067 --> 00:50:08.867
It was a moment
of real optimism.

00:50:18.867 --> 00:50:20.167
In the late 1950s,

00:50:20.200 --> 00:50:25.200
you begin to get the first wave

00:50:25.233 --> 00:50:28.500
of what came to be called
de-industrialization.

00:50:36.367 --> 00:50:38.067
The American economy
is changing.

00:50:38.100 --> 00:50:40.367
We're moving
from an industrial economy

00:50:40.400 --> 00:50:42.533
to an economy based on service,

00:50:42.567 --> 00:50:45.833
based on information,
rooted in technology.

00:50:45.867 --> 00:50:49.267
(Sides) That is, it's high-skilled,
high-wage, high-training on one hand,

00:50:49.300 --> 00:50:52.633
very low-skilled,
sweatshop labor on the other hand.

00:50:54.900 --> 00:50:59.867
Blacks find that their skills
don't fit into either of those demands.

00:50:59.900 --> 00:51:02.400
They don't have the education
or the skill or the training

00:51:02.433 --> 00:51:06.500
because of historic discrimination
to work in aerospace.

00:51:06.533 --> 00:51:09.267
On the other hand,
they don't feel any desire or need

00:51:09.300 --> 00:51:11.767
to go into the low-skilled
service sector jobs

00:51:11.800 --> 00:51:15.933
like hotel cleaning,
like sweatshop work in downtown L.A.

00:51:15.967 --> 00:51:19.633
because they don't perceive that as jobs
that American citizens should have.

00:51:20.967 --> 00:51:24.367
(Boyd) We're not talking about people
who had careers.

00:51:24.400 --> 00:51:26.967
We're talking about people
who had jobs.

00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:30.967
If you have a job,
you are dependent upon that job.

00:51:31.000 --> 00:51:35.133
So when that factory closes,
you are, in essence, ass out.

00:51:38.267 --> 00:51:39.400
(Sides)
By the late '60s,

00:51:39.433 --> 00:51:41.767
you see those plants
beginning to disappear.

00:51:41.800 --> 00:51:43.200
When they disappear,

00:51:43.233 --> 00:51:45.567
there is virtually nothing left
in their wake.

00:51:56.000 --> 00:52:04.000
And so it leaves a gaping hole
in the economy of that region

00:52:05.667 --> 00:52:09.700
with consequences
that are just enormous.

00:52:15.433 --> 00:52:17.367
Generationally, in America,

00:52:17.400 --> 00:52:19.600
it's supposed to be
about the American dream.

00:52:19.633 --> 00:52:20.967
People are supposed to move up.

00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:23.500
They're supposed to elevate.

00:52:23.533 --> 00:52:27.567
We're talking about a situation
where, in actuality, it went in reverse.

00:52:27.600 --> 00:52:31.567
The children, over time,
began to do worse than their parents.

00:52:36.900 --> 00:52:42.100
(Whitaker) In 1975, the Los Angeles Times
sent reporters into the streets

00:52:42.133 --> 00:52:45.367
to assess progress
in the city's black communities

00:52:45.400 --> 00:52:48.667
ten years
after the Watts rebellion.

00:52:48.700 --> 00:52:51.700
"The fearful live behind protective bars
and double locks.

00:52:51.733 --> 00:52:55.833
"High schools are graduating
functional illiterates.

00:52:55.867 --> 00:52:58.133
"Some black people
have got businesses;

00:52:58.167 --> 00:53:01.267
"some professionals
have gotten into significant jobs.

00:53:01.367 --> 00:53:03.333
"But if you talk about the masses

00:53:03.367 --> 00:53:06.500
"or that guy who was in trouble
in 1965,

00:53:06.533 --> 00:53:10.367
"it is more difficult now.

00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:14.333
For the black in the ghetto,
the goal is survival."

00:53:15.300 --> 00:53:17.900
(Shakur)
♪ California love ♪

00:53:17.933 --> 00:53:20.900
[hip-hop music]

00:53:27.467 --> 00:53:29.867
♪ California ♪

00:53:29.900 --> 00:53:33.000
♪ Knows how to party ♪

00:53:33.033 --> 00:53:35.367
♪ California ♪

00:53:35.400 --> 00:53:38.300
♪ Knows how to party ♪

00:53:38.333 --> 00:53:43.633
♪ In the city of L.A. ♪

00:53:43.667 --> 00:53:48.400
♪ In the city
of good old Watts ♪

00:53:48.433 --> 00:53:53.100
♪ In the city,
city of Compton ♪

00:53:53.133 --> 00:53:56.167
♪ We keep it rockin' ♪

00:53:56.267 --> 00:53:59.233
♪ We keep it rockin' ♪

00:53:59.267 --> 00:54:01.433
(Peralta) Can I ask you
a few more questions?

00:54:01.467 --> 00:54:03.600
Yes, definitely.

00:54:03.633 --> 00:54:05.100
Pete, hold on.
Let's just set this up.

00:54:05.133 --> 00:54:07.967
I don't want to lose
what you say.

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:11.000
[sirens wailing]

00:54:26.433 --> 00:54:29.300
Huh? Sirens, huh?

00:54:29.333 --> 00:54:33.600
How about if they going on
all night and all day?

00:54:33.633 --> 00:54:35.867
All night.

00:54:35.900 --> 00:54:37.833
All day.

00:54:39.533 --> 00:54:44.800
(man)
♪ You on your own down here, man ♪

00:54:44.833 --> 00:54:48.700
♪ You on, you on, you on,
you on your own down here ♪

00:54:48.733 --> 00:54:52.467
[record scratching furiously]

00:54:52.500 --> 00:54:55.700
Got Hurricane Katrina
going on right here, been going on.

00:54:55.733 --> 00:54:57.833
Gang of refugees,
if you want to call 'em that.

00:54:57.867 --> 00:55:00.167
We displaced like a [...].

00:55:04.400 --> 00:55:05.967
(Skipp)
A helicopter flying overhead

00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:08.533
might not be acceptable
in Brentwood.

00:55:08.567 --> 00:55:13.033
However, it's something that occurs
every two or three hours in my community.

00:55:13.067 --> 00:55:15.567
(Basheer)
In the South Central community,

00:55:15.600 --> 00:55:18.400
basically what you have
is empty fields,

00:55:18.433 --> 00:55:20.733
broken-down businesses,
if you have any businesses.

00:55:24.933 --> 00:55:26.467
Every corner,
you got a liquor store.

00:55:26.500 --> 00:55:29.700
You got all the different things
that help make you less stable.

00:55:36.400 --> 00:55:38.900
Take a walk down Adams Boulevard
from Crenshaw to Vermont,

00:55:38.933 --> 00:55:41.033
and you tell me the opportunities
that are available.

00:55:41.067 --> 00:55:44.133
Low-income housing,
five or six churches,

00:55:44.167 --> 00:55:45.700
gang violence, crack.

00:55:50.233 --> 00:55:53.900
(Whitaker) Introduction of crack cocaine
onto the streets of L.A. in 1981

00:55:53.933 --> 00:55:58.767
proved to be a major tipping point
for an already vulnerable community.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:04.833
When cocaine came into our area,
it broke up a lot of homes.

00:56:04.867 --> 00:56:09.067
You know, a lot of people just thought
crack was the way out,

00:56:09.100 --> 00:56:11.133
you know, without even
thinking about their kids,

00:56:11.167 --> 00:56:12.133
you know what I'm saying?

00:56:12.167 --> 00:56:14.033
That what broke a lot of homes up.

00:56:14.067 --> 00:56:17.167
If that crack would've never came,
we'd probably still have nice little homes

00:56:17.200 --> 00:56:18.767
and nice little families,
you know?

00:56:18.800 --> 00:56:21.733
But when that came,
that, like, tore everything apart.

00:56:22.933 --> 00:56:25.800
(Peralta) Let me ask you, man, did you have
a conventional childhood?

00:56:25.833 --> 00:56:27.700
Hell, no. Dysfunctional-[...] family.

00:56:27.733 --> 00:56:29.000
Can you tell me about it?

00:56:29.033 --> 00:56:30.300
[...] up.

00:56:30.333 --> 00:56:31.467
Father?

00:56:31.500 --> 00:56:33.100
He out of here.
He been gone since '93.

00:56:33.133 --> 00:56:35.067
I was raised without a daddy,
basically.

00:56:35.100 --> 00:56:36.767
So I had to be a man on my own,

00:56:36.800 --> 00:56:39.033
take care of my mommy and [...],
my G-moms,

00:56:39.067 --> 00:56:40.733
my family,
my little brothers and sisters.

00:56:40.767 --> 00:56:42.533
I had to do this [...]
by myself.

00:56:42.567 --> 00:56:44.567
How do you advise
your little brothers and sisters?

00:56:44.600 --> 00:56:46.433
Do what you do.

00:56:46.467 --> 00:56:47.433
What else can I tell 'em?

00:56:47.467 --> 00:56:48.967
Look at me.

00:56:57.733 --> 00:56:59.500
My mom was on drugs,
you know what I'm saying?

00:56:59.533 --> 00:57:02.667
Now she cool, you know,
but back when I was younger.

00:57:02.700 --> 00:57:06.767
My dad, he in a federal penitentiary,
12 years, you know?

00:57:09.200 --> 00:57:11.467
I grew up in a house
where my grandmother,

00:57:11.500 --> 00:57:13.100
my uncle,
everybody was selling drugs.

00:57:13.133 --> 00:57:14.233
You know what I'm saying?

00:57:14.267 --> 00:57:16.067
I grew up to where
when the police raiding,

00:57:16.100 --> 00:57:19.000
they handed me drugs to hide
and all this other stuff.

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:22.733
I grew up in a home
where my mother worked two jobs

00:57:22.767 --> 00:57:24.300
but had three boys.

00:57:24.333 --> 00:57:26.467
So you can imagine
we were unsupervised,

00:57:26.500 --> 00:57:29.767
so I found my supervision
outside of the home.

00:57:32.800 --> 00:57:40.067
She was too busy making a living
than to love me.

00:57:40.100 --> 00:57:42.867
Even though she tried
and did the best that she could,

00:57:42.900 --> 00:57:44.733
it was not enough.

00:57:44.767 --> 00:57:48.867
I could say that my whole life,

00:57:48.900 --> 00:57:51.833
I was trying to figure out
why my mother didn't love me

00:57:51.867 --> 00:57:53.733
or why my mother
didn't show me love.

00:57:53.767 --> 00:57:56.233
If she could say it,
she couldn't show it,

00:57:56.267 --> 00:57:58.533
meaning that she never once
gave me a hug or a kiss.

00:57:58.567 --> 00:58:02.467
It'd be $20 because she would
have to go somewhere.

00:58:02.500 --> 00:58:05.667
But all the while,
I saw her chasing other men,

00:58:05.700 --> 00:58:07.567
other people,
and giving them the love

00:58:07.600 --> 00:58:09.433
I thought I should have.

00:58:09.467 --> 00:58:12.033
It made me act out.

00:58:12.067 --> 00:58:15.833
It made me resent her
in a certain way.

00:58:15.867 --> 00:58:18.433
Only because -
I could've resented my dad,

00:58:18.467 --> 00:58:20.533
but he never showed me
the negative imagery.

00:58:20.567 --> 00:58:21.733
He just was gone.

00:58:21.767 --> 00:58:25.200
So all I had was a thought
of who he was,

00:58:25.233 --> 00:58:28.700
and who am I?

00:58:42.600 --> 00:58:44.933
(Big Chan) There was a lot of black kids
in the neighborhood

00:58:44.967 --> 00:58:46.400
that just went the opposite way.

00:58:46.433 --> 00:58:48.600
Or when the gangs was outside,
they didn't come outside,

00:58:48.633 --> 00:58:49.867
you know what I'm saying?

00:58:49.900 --> 00:58:53.667
They had some parents that,
"Get in your books," and stayed on 'em.

00:58:53.700 --> 00:58:56.033
But if everybody had that,

00:58:56.067 --> 00:58:58.000
then a lot of things
would've been different.

00:58:58.033 --> 00:59:00.600
But that wasn't the case.

00:59:00.633 --> 00:59:03.400
A lot of minds are messed up
because they don't have that support.

00:59:03.433 --> 00:59:05.500
They don't have no one
that really got their back.

00:59:05.533 --> 00:59:08.500
They don't really have no one
who understand them.

00:59:12.267 --> 00:59:14.567
You got the homies down the alley
drinking some 8-Ball,

00:59:14.600 --> 00:59:16.233
and they tell you,
"You are something.

00:59:16.267 --> 00:59:17.833
We love you,
and you can be a part of this."

00:59:17.867 --> 00:59:19.067
Then where you gonna go?

00:59:29.500 --> 00:59:32.267
(Kumasi) The common thread
throughout all of these conversations

00:59:32.300 --> 00:59:35.300
and throughout our community
seems to be,

00:59:35.333 --> 00:59:38.500
for the most part,
the absence of a father,

00:59:38.533 --> 00:59:42.233
a male figure, a father figure,
in the home.

00:59:50.600 --> 00:59:57.033
I wasn't taught at all
about manhood.

00:59:57.067 --> 00:59:59.033
I was raised
by my great-grandmother,

00:59:59.067 --> 01:00:00.833
my grandmother, and my mother.

01:00:00.867 --> 01:00:02.867
There was no male figure.

01:00:02.900 --> 01:00:04.967
There was no role model for me.

01:00:14.300 --> 01:00:18.567
So if you come up in a home
when there is no male influence,

01:00:18.600 --> 01:00:21.533
there's no strong male influence,

01:00:21.567 --> 01:00:24.000
then everything
is going to be out of whack.

01:00:24.033 --> 01:00:26.700
The people that taught me
taught me wrong,

01:00:26.733 --> 01:00:28.267
taught me how to be hard,

01:00:28.300 --> 01:00:30.900
taught me
how it was about being tough.

01:00:30.933 --> 01:00:32.867
You gonna teach me
how to be a man by just fighting,

01:00:32.900 --> 01:00:35.533
tell me to fight somebody
or go shoot somebody.

01:00:35.567 --> 01:00:37.207
That's the way
they taught me being a man.

01:00:42.133 --> 01:00:46.167
(Brown) You have a subculture
of young black men

01:00:46.200 --> 01:00:50.200
pretending to be men
by killing each other

01:00:50.233 --> 01:00:53.400
or by standing up
in a bravado manner.

01:00:57.767 --> 01:00:59.433
But they're misguided.

01:01:08.167 --> 01:01:11.433
Well, I'll sit here,
and I'll tell you

01:01:11.467 --> 01:01:14.867
that I didn't become a man
until I was 38 years old...

01:01:23.100 --> 01:01:28.467
Because I had
to hold the hand of a man.

01:01:28.500 --> 01:01:29.967
It was just that simple.

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:34.667
A man had to stoop low enough
to take me out of the gutter

01:01:34.700 --> 01:01:36.467
and say,
"Hey, this is the way to go.

01:01:36.500 --> 01:01:37.833
"This is what you do.

01:01:37.867 --> 01:01:39.700
This is how it's done."

01:01:46.900 --> 01:01:50.500
Nowadays, the fathers
or the black men my age

01:01:50.533 --> 01:01:52.433
are either dead or in jail.

01:01:52.467 --> 01:01:55.600
And one of the problems we have is,

01:01:55.633 --> 01:01:57.400
if they're going to try
to arrest the problem,

01:01:57.433 --> 01:02:00.733
that means they're putting
all the black men in jail.

01:02:07.667 --> 01:02:11.100
(Whitaker)
A 2003 Bureau of Justice report reveals

01:02:11.133 --> 01:02:14.367
that 28%
of African-American men,

01:02:14.400 --> 01:02:15.733
more than one in four,

01:02:15.767 --> 01:02:21.067
will be jailed or sent to prison
in their lifetime.

01:02:21.100 --> 01:02:23.333
We have engaged in this country

01:02:23.367 --> 01:02:26.933
in an absolutely
historically unprecedented

01:02:26.967 --> 01:02:30.633
experiment in mass imprisonment.

01:02:30.667 --> 01:02:33.467
We now have an imprisonment rate

01:02:33.500 --> 01:02:35.533
that is six
to seven times higher

01:02:35.567 --> 01:02:37.867
than it has ever been before
in our history.

01:02:37.900 --> 01:02:39.900
(Ice Cube)
♪ It's a hustle called capitalism ♪

01:02:39.933 --> 01:02:41.300
♪ Got my [...] in prison ♪

01:02:41.333 --> 01:02:43.133
♪ Or stuck in the system, yeah ♪

01:02:43.167 --> 01:02:45.167
(Whitaker)
In 2007, California's governor

01:02:45.200 --> 01:02:49.067
announced plans
to spend $7.4 billion

01:02:49.100 --> 01:02:51.167
to build 40,000 new prison beds.

01:02:51.200 --> 01:02:52.600
(Ice Cube)
♪ I'm from a place ♪

01:02:52.633 --> 01:02:56.100
♪ Where the [...] Terminator
is the governor ♪

01:02:56.133 --> 01:02:58.700
(Boyd) If you look at the population
of the people in the penitentiary,

01:02:58.733 --> 01:03:01.200
particularly from the 1980s
going forward,

01:03:01.233 --> 01:03:04.767
black men are
disproportionately represented.

01:03:04.800 --> 01:03:07.833
That's the new cotton field
right there, the pen.

01:03:07.867 --> 01:03:10.333
(Ice Cube)
♪ Concrete slave ships never move ♪

01:03:10.367 --> 01:03:12.933
♪ Where [...] like us
get used like a mule ♪

01:03:12.967 --> 01:03:15.633
♪ Don't let 'em catch you,
arrest you ♪

01:03:15.667 --> 01:03:17.200
♪ Strip and undress you ♪

01:03:17.233 --> 01:03:19.800
♪ Throw you in a cesspool ♪

01:03:19.833 --> 01:03:21.333
(Gilligan)
What this means is,

01:03:21.367 --> 01:03:24.967
we are breaking up
even the possibility

01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:27.967
of there being intact families

01:03:28.000 --> 01:03:30.300
with a mother
and a father present

01:03:30.333 --> 01:03:32.067
raising a child together...

01:03:32.100 --> 01:03:34.533
(Ice Cube)
♪ The [...] trap ♪

01:03:34.567 --> 01:03:38.667
(Gilligan) Because we are sending
the men off to prison

01:03:38.700 --> 01:03:43.400
at unprecedented rates,
usually for nonviolent offenses.

01:03:43.433 --> 01:03:45.033
(Ice Cube)
♪ The ghetto is a [...] trap ♪

01:03:45.067 --> 01:03:46.333
♪ Take the cheese ♪

01:03:46.367 --> 01:03:48.700
♪ Soon as you do it,
here come the police ♪

01:03:48.733 --> 01:03:51.467
♪ Invented and designed
for us to fail ♪

01:03:51.500 --> 01:03:54.100
♪ Where you gonna end up,
dead or in jail ♪

01:03:54.133 --> 01:03:56.400
(Whitaker)
Even with time served,

01:03:56.433 --> 01:03:58.967
many of those determined
to start a new life

01:03:59.000 --> 01:04:01.833
find little freedom
in their release.

01:04:01.867 --> 01:04:02.867
I go to get a job.

01:04:02.900 --> 01:04:04.533
I'm working for Xerox.

01:04:04.567 --> 01:04:06.267
And I lied on the application,

01:04:06.300 --> 01:04:07.800
and they found out
I was on parole,

01:04:07.833 --> 01:04:09.433
and I lost my job.

01:04:09.467 --> 01:04:13.100
I used to be jealous of my wife
going to work every day.

01:04:13.133 --> 01:04:14.467
This is my wife,

01:04:14.500 --> 01:04:16.167
a woman that's stood by me,
grew up with me,

01:04:16.200 --> 01:04:18.433
been with me
ever since we was kids.

01:04:18.467 --> 01:04:20.133
And she would go out the house
and go to work,

01:04:20.167 --> 01:04:21.867
and I would be mad at her

01:04:21.900 --> 01:04:24.533
because she could go to work
and I couldn't go.

01:04:24.567 --> 01:04:26.100
Man, I feel like, man,
we over here, man,

01:04:26.133 --> 01:04:28.333
we locked in a box, man,
no matter what we do.

01:04:28.367 --> 01:04:30.133
You get a record,
you're not getting nothing.

01:04:30.167 --> 01:04:31.533
I just got out the pen.

01:04:31.567 --> 01:04:32.967
They don't hire me
'cause I'm a parolee.

01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:34.567
So what I'ma do,
just sit out here and be broke?

01:04:34.600 --> 01:04:35.900
Stop it.

01:04:35.933 --> 01:04:38.100
Either I'ma sell some weed,
some dope, some crystal,

01:04:38.133 --> 01:04:40.233
some heroin,
or I'm fixin' to rob.

01:04:40.267 --> 01:04:42.033
- To make ends meet?
- That's the bottom line.

01:04:42.067 --> 01:04:44.500
There's never no cycle
to get us out of this.

01:04:44.533 --> 01:04:46.767
There's just a cycle
to get us back into it.

01:04:46.800 --> 01:04:51.600
So of course people are going to behave
in ways that are antisocial

01:04:51.633 --> 01:04:54.967
if we don't let them behave
in pro-social ways.

01:05:01.733 --> 01:05:05.500
When you hear America saying,
"There's gonna be a war on crime,"

01:05:05.533 --> 01:05:11.767
to a black person, that means
that's a war on black people.

01:05:11.800 --> 01:05:13.967
When they say, "A war on gangs,"
I say that's a war on me.

01:05:14.000 --> 01:05:16.367
When they say, "War on drugs,"
I say that's a war on me.

01:05:19.533 --> 01:05:22.233
Every war they got is a war
against me and my people.

01:05:22.267 --> 01:05:26.233
We need to come in here
and solve this problem,

01:05:26.267 --> 01:05:27.800
not attack this problem,

01:05:27.833 --> 01:05:29.633
'cause here's a people
that's already angry.

01:05:29.667 --> 01:05:32.800
I don't have nothing to lose
if you attack me, sir.

01:05:32.833 --> 01:05:34.500
I'm being attacked
every day anyway.

01:05:34.533 --> 01:05:36.767
I'm being shot at
every day anyway.

01:05:36.800 --> 01:05:39.367
So you shooting at me,
you putting me in jail

01:05:39.400 --> 01:05:42.267
don't mean nothing to me.

01:05:42.300 --> 01:05:44.600
(Hayden) That's where the gang problem,
so-called, is.

01:05:44.633 --> 01:05:48.667
It's been redefined as a crime problem
and a gang problem.

01:05:48.700 --> 01:05:52.700
But it's really
an issue of no work

01:05:52.733 --> 01:05:55.033
and dysfunctional schools
and so on.

01:05:55.067 --> 01:05:58.667
(Gilligan) We know that what we've been doing
to deal with gang violence isn't working,

01:05:58.700 --> 01:06:01.500
but we just keep doing the same thing
over and over again.

01:06:01.533 --> 01:06:04.700
And then we say,
"Well, the fact that it isn't working

01:06:04.733 --> 01:06:08.100
"doesn't mean that we're acting
out of ignorance

01:06:08.133 --> 01:06:10.200
or maybe we need
to learn something."

01:06:10.233 --> 01:06:15.500
We say, "It just proves
that these kids are unredeemable."

01:06:18.167 --> 01:06:19.567
(Hayden)
It's a belief

01:06:19.600 --> 01:06:25.400
that our society did not contribute
to the formation of this problem.

01:06:25.433 --> 01:06:29.033
That's the story
of the scapegoat.

01:06:29.067 --> 01:06:31.767
The gang member
is the scapegoat.

01:06:31.800 --> 01:06:32.800
Nothing's our fault.

01:06:32.833 --> 01:06:35.000
It's their fault.

01:06:35.033 --> 01:06:36.967
We didn't create them.

01:06:37.000 --> 01:06:39.167
They're inevitably incorrigible.

01:06:43.733 --> 01:06:45.800
(Whitaker) This continuing
atmosphere of denial

01:06:45.833 --> 01:06:50.133
virtually guaranteed
that history would repeat itself.

01:06:50.167 --> 01:06:54.633
On April 29, 1992,
27 years and five miles away

01:06:54.667 --> 01:06:59.100
from the flashpoint
of the 1965 Watts rebellion,

01:06:59.133 --> 01:07:01.700
rioting again broke out,

01:07:01.733 --> 01:07:04.267
the most violent,
costly outbreak

01:07:04.300 --> 01:07:07.633
of civil unrest
in U.S. history.

01:07:07.667 --> 01:07:10.067
(Chuck D) ♪ I got so much trouble
on my mind ♪

01:07:10.100 --> 01:07:12.267
♪ Refuse to lose ♪

01:07:12.300 --> 01:07:14.267
♪ Here's your ticket ♪

01:07:14.300 --> 01:07:16.200
♪ Hear the drummer
get wicked ♪

01:07:16.233 --> 01:07:18.067
(Whitaker)
The explosion of angry protests

01:07:18.100 --> 01:07:20.300
was touched off by the outcome

01:07:20.333 --> 01:07:23.267
of the controversial
Rodney King-LAPD

01:07:23.300 --> 01:07:24.833
police brutality trial.

01:07:24.867 --> 01:07:26.733
(Chuck D)
♪ Man, I've had it up to here ♪

01:07:26.767 --> 01:07:28.100
(Ron)
The message to the community

01:07:28.133 --> 01:07:30.300
is that the system
does not deliver justice.

01:07:30.333 --> 01:07:32.167
It does not work for us.

01:07:32.200 --> 01:07:34.267
So we have to find our justice
in the streets.

01:07:34.300 --> 01:07:35.967
(Chuck D)
♪ My home is your home ♪

01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:38.100
(all)
No justice, no peace.

01:07:38.133 --> 01:07:39.633
No justice, no peace.

01:07:39.667 --> 01:07:41.033
(Public Enemy)
♪ But welcome to the terrordome ♪

01:07:41.067 --> 01:07:45.267
♪ Come on down ♪

01:07:45.367 --> 01:07:49.167
♪ Come on down ♪

01:07:49.200 --> 01:07:51.467
(Whitaker)
But unlike the '65 rebellion,

01:07:51.500 --> 01:07:53.700
which was primarily
contained to Watts,

01:07:53.733 --> 01:07:56.300
the flames of '92
burned their way

01:07:56.333 --> 01:07:59.467
to the very doorstep
of bordering affluent communities.

01:08:03.667 --> 01:08:06.500
(man) Would you join me please
in welcoming...

01:08:06.533 --> 01:08:09.333
Marcus Garvey used to say
that when all else fails

01:08:09.367 --> 01:08:11.367
to organize the people,
conditions will.

01:08:11.400 --> 01:08:14.367
(Kumasi)
And therefore, in 1992,

01:08:14.400 --> 01:08:18.167
the reasons
all clustered together.

01:08:18.200 --> 01:08:19.667
And it happened again.

01:08:47.967 --> 01:08:50.767
(Whitaker)
In the aftermath of '92's uprising,

01:08:50.800 --> 01:08:53.200
a high-profile
private-sector initiative

01:08:53.233 --> 01:08:56.667
was formed to create
Rebuild L.A.

01:08:56.700 --> 01:08:58.967
The $6 billion
investment program

01:08:59.000 --> 01:09:03.533
defined its goals
as long-term systemic change

01:09:03.567 --> 01:09:06.067
and promised to create
74,000 new jobs

01:09:06.100 --> 01:09:10.833
within the riot zone
over the next five years.

01:09:10.867 --> 01:09:12.833
At the same time,
a tentative truce

01:09:12.867 --> 01:09:15.200
between several
Crip and Blood sets

01:09:15.233 --> 01:09:17.067
helped establish
a tone of optimism

01:09:17.100 --> 01:09:19.567
for South L.A.'s
war-weary community.

01:09:22.167 --> 01:09:23.433
But just one year later,

01:09:23.467 --> 01:09:27.000
with many South L.A. neighborhoods
still in ruin,

01:09:27.033 --> 01:09:30.733
Rebuild L.A.
quietly closed its doors.

01:09:30.767 --> 01:09:35.367
(Hayden) A young generation of kids
heard about this promise.

01:09:35.400 --> 01:09:37.967
They momentarily
got their hopes up.

01:09:38.000 --> 01:09:40.100
They committed
to this peace treaty.

01:09:40.133 --> 01:09:42.233
And instead, they learned
that it was just another

01:09:42.267 --> 01:09:45.367
fork-tongued promise
of the man.

01:09:50.000 --> 01:09:52.000
It failed.

01:09:52.033 --> 01:09:55.200
We should've known what the future
would be in other cities

01:09:55.233 --> 01:09:56.933
from here to Baghdad.

01:09:56.967 --> 01:09:59.933
(Ice Cube) ♪ When something happens
in South Central Los Angeles ♪

01:09:59.967 --> 01:10:01.200
♪ Nothing happens ♪

01:10:01.233 --> 01:10:05.000
♪ It's just another [...] dead,
dead, dead, dead, dead, dead ♪

01:10:13.500 --> 01:10:19.700
Death is a way of life now
in our communities.

01:10:38.833 --> 01:10:42.033
(Muhammad)
Can you imagine a society

01:10:42.067 --> 01:10:44.100
where mothers
are burying their children

01:10:44.133 --> 01:10:47.667
instead of their children
burying their mothers?

01:12:49.400 --> 01:12:51.167
(Moore)
It's okay to cry.

01:12:51.200 --> 01:12:54.033
You have to cry.

01:12:54.067 --> 01:12:59.800
I have to cry
in order to keep going.

01:12:59.833 --> 01:13:01.833
I have to cry,

01:13:01.867 --> 01:13:04.133
'cause if I don't cry

01:13:04.167 --> 01:13:07.467
and I keep all the anger
up in me,

01:13:07.500 --> 01:13:09.300
I may do something.

01:13:09.333 --> 01:13:10.600
You know, people say,

01:13:10.633 --> 01:13:11.767
"Oh, you can get over it."

01:13:11.800 --> 01:13:13.333
Hell, no, we can't.

01:13:13.367 --> 01:13:14.667
We just get through it.

01:13:14.700 --> 01:13:15.667
Just get through it.

01:13:15.700 --> 01:13:16.933
We'll never get over this.

01:13:16.967 --> 01:13:18.033
You didn't take my dog.

01:13:18.067 --> 01:13:19.867
You didn't foreclose
on my house.

01:13:19.900 --> 01:13:22.800
You know, you didn't,
you know, repossess my car.

01:13:22.833 --> 01:13:24.267
My son was murdered.

01:13:24.300 --> 01:13:25.967
He just didn't die.
He was murdered.

01:13:40.933 --> 01:13:43.233
(Sweet) So when I finally
went back to school,

01:13:43.267 --> 01:13:44.700
I was always crying.

01:13:44.733 --> 01:13:46.567
And it's amazing, all the kids.

01:13:46.600 --> 01:13:49.000
I look around,
and they're like, all -

01:13:49.033 --> 01:13:50.767
you know, a lot of the girls,
all teary-eyed,

01:13:50.800 --> 01:13:51.933
even some of the boys.

01:13:51.967 --> 01:13:53.007
And then I would ask them,

01:13:53.033 --> 01:13:55.100
"How many of you guys
know somebody,

01:13:55.133 --> 01:13:58.600
"an uncle, a father,
a friend, a schoolmate,

01:13:58.633 --> 01:14:00.800
who was murdered?"

01:14:00.833 --> 01:14:03.200
And when at first
I asked that question

01:14:03.233 --> 01:14:05.667
and 3/4 of the class
raised their hand,

01:14:05.700 --> 01:14:07.200
I just broke down in tears.

01:14:46.000 --> 01:14:49.000
(Whitaker) A recent comparison
of twin psychological studies

01:14:49.033 --> 01:14:51.233
by the Lancet and RAND Corporation

01:14:51.267 --> 01:14:54.200
indicates that children
in South Los Angeles

01:14:54.233 --> 01:14:57.933
are exhibiting greater levels
of post-traumatic stress disorder

01:14:57.967 --> 01:15:00.867
than children
of a similar age in Baghdad,

01:15:00.900 --> 01:15:03.533
the war-torn capital of Iraq.

01:15:11.767 --> 01:15:14.167
(Lindsey) And if they don't get resources
for these youngsters,

01:15:14.200 --> 01:15:15.333
what's gonna happen?

01:15:15.367 --> 01:15:17.933
You got another group
of angry children,

01:15:17.967 --> 01:15:20.300
another group of killers.

01:15:30.833 --> 01:15:33.467
(Peralta) If someone right now said,
"What do you want in your life?

01:15:33.500 --> 01:15:34.867
I'll give you
anything you want."

01:15:34.900 --> 01:15:37.567
What would it be?

01:15:37.600 --> 01:15:39.167
Man, one thing?

01:15:39.200 --> 01:15:40.567
Just one thing?

01:15:40.600 --> 01:15:41.933
Freedom.

01:15:41.967 --> 01:15:43.200
(Big Girch)
My wish would be

01:15:43.233 --> 01:15:46.967
for Crips and Bloods

01:15:47.000 --> 01:15:52.267
to realize that everybody else
is against us.

01:15:52.300 --> 01:15:55.267
And if we don't come together,

01:15:55.300 --> 01:15:57.533
it's gonna be over for us.

01:15:57.567 --> 01:15:59.133
(Peralta)
So if the resources were here,

01:15:59.167 --> 01:16:01.067
you're saying these kids
wouldn't choose gangs?

01:16:01.100 --> 01:16:02.500
No, man.

01:16:02.533 --> 01:16:04.867
No, man, you choose that
'cause there's no hope.

01:16:04.900 --> 01:16:07.133
You in no-man's-land.

01:16:07.167 --> 01:16:08.333
There's no hope.

01:16:08.367 --> 01:16:10.333
People taking choices
of going to college,

01:16:10.367 --> 01:16:11.933
and, like, that's, like,
making a choice.

01:16:11.967 --> 01:16:13.267
Here, you ain't
making no choice.

01:16:13.300 --> 01:16:14.733
There's no choice.

01:16:14.767 --> 01:16:16.900
It's like you waiting for somebody
to come save you, man.

01:16:16.933 --> 01:16:19.633
And you just ain't gonna
never get saved, man.

01:16:19.667 --> 01:16:22.033
I did the gangbanging,
the stomping out the sets,

01:16:22.067 --> 01:16:24.067
the getting shot,
the drive-bys,

01:16:24.100 --> 01:16:26.933
the getting shot in drive-bys
to going to jail

01:16:26.967 --> 01:16:28.433
to all that, right?

01:16:28.467 --> 01:16:31.933
But had I had a chance
or someone else tell me,

01:16:31.967 --> 01:16:34.567
"Fool, you playing
the devil's game."

01:16:34.600 --> 01:16:35.967
Since I've been
in the gang, man,

01:16:36.000 --> 01:16:39.100
I done been to the county jails,
to several penitentiaries,

01:16:39.133 --> 01:16:42.000
and back and forth through war,
as far as gunfights and stuff.

01:16:42.033 --> 01:16:45.200
So this perception
that gangbanging is wonderful,

01:16:45.233 --> 01:16:46.500
that it is
the lifestyle to live -

01:16:46.533 --> 01:16:48.967
it's no lifestyle to live,
period.

01:16:49.000 --> 01:16:52.000
[siren whooping]

01:17:08.033 --> 01:17:09.833
(Whitaker)
Today the streets of South L.A.

01:17:09.867 --> 01:17:12.367
have given rise
to a new sort of gang

01:17:12.400 --> 01:17:15.867
determined to fight
not simply for turf or colors

01:17:15.900 --> 01:17:19.433
but for the lives
of the next generation.

01:17:19.467 --> 01:17:23.467
(Basheer) I work with about 400 or 500
high-risk youth every month.

01:17:23.500 --> 01:17:25.500
The first thing I do,
I apologize to them,

01:17:25.533 --> 01:17:27.500
because I have to let them know,

01:17:27.533 --> 01:17:29.933
my generation
has failed you miserably.

01:17:29.967 --> 01:17:31.233
See, I'm 51 years old.

01:17:31.267 --> 01:17:33.967
I've been through decades
of destruction.

01:17:34.000 --> 01:17:37.167
So we let 'em know that,
hey, we have done some wrongs

01:17:37.200 --> 01:17:38.833
just like you doing wrong.

01:17:38.867 --> 01:17:42.333
(Whitaker) These peacemakers, many of them
former gang members,

01:17:42.367 --> 01:17:44.500
have stepped out
from behind the guns

01:17:44.533 --> 01:17:46.633
and are now
standing between them,

01:17:46.667 --> 01:17:49.433
literally risking their lives
with the formation

01:17:49.467 --> 01:17:54.167
of street-level
gang intervention organizations.

01:17:54.200 --> 01:17:56.567
Privately funded,
receiving almost no support

01:17:56.600 --> 01:17:58.667
from either state
or federal governments,

01:17:58.700 --> 01:18:02.233
these grassroots movements
are taking the first crucial steps

01:18:02.267 --> 01:18:05.867
toward stopping the cycle
of gang violence.

01:18:05.900 --> 01:18:08.133
People who care,
who want to see a better community,

01:18:08.167 --> 01:18:10.000
who want to see
a better country,

01:18:10.033 --> 01:18:12.300
we got to start getting together
and having some sit-downs

01:18:12.333 --> 01:18:15.933
so that we don't keep breeding
generations and generations

01:18:15.967 --> 01:18:18.733
who only think
that that's the way to go.

01:18:22.433 --> 01:18:25.100
An alternative to that lifestyle
has to be put in place.

01:18:25.133 --> 01:18:27.133
And if they want to see change,
then they're going to have to be willing

01:18:27.167 --> 01:18:28.933
to invest
in that alternative lifestyle.

01:18:34.000 --> 01:18:36.600
(Raymond) One thing my son told me one day
was, "Daddy?"

01:18:36.633 --> 01:18:37.800
I said, "What's up?"

01:18:37.833 --> 01:18:39.567
He said, "I know
how you get your money."

01:18:39.600 --> 01:18:41.767
I said,
"How I get my money, son?

01:18:41.800 --> 01:18:43.267
He said,
"When dirty people come up,

01:18:43.300 --> 01:18:45.800
you give 'em that white stuff,
and they give you money."

01:18:45.833 --> 01:18:47.067
I said, "Is that right?"

01:18:47.100 --> 01:18:48.833
So he took off
and rode off on his bike.

01:18:48.867 --> 01:18:51.600
And I sat there
thinking and wondering,

01:18:51.633 --> 01:18:54.100
"Damn, my son
really out here watching me

01:18:54.133 --> 01:18:55.833
doing what I do."

01:18:55.867 --> 01:19:02.167
So if I still continue on
robbing, whatever it is,

01:19:02.200 --> 01:19:05.700
he's going to do the same thing.

01:19:05.733 --> 01:19:07.833
Right then,
I made a choice in my life,

01:19:07.867 --> 01:19:10.167
whether I was going
to stick by them

01:19:10.200 --> 01:19:11.433
or stick by us.

01:19:11.467 --> 01:19:13.933
"Us" is meaning me
and my neighborhood, my gang,

01:19:13.967 --> 01:19:15.633
"them" meaning my kids.

01:19:15.667 --> 01:19:17.600
So I chose to stick with them.

01:19:17.633 --> 01:19:20.000
Turned around a little bit.

01:19:20.033 --> 01:19:24.600
Now I'm a coach,
role model, proud parent.

01:19:24.633 --> 01:19:26.267
And I'm living.

01:19:28.600 --> 01:19:31.500
(Skipp) I'm the one
who prevented my own self

01:19:31.533 --> 01:19:32.833
from going to different areas.

01:19:32.867 --> 01:19:35.267
I prevented it
because of my mentality

01:19:35.300 --> 01:19:37.533
and because of what I did,
how I dressed,

01:19:37.567 --> 01:19:39.300
how I carried myself.

01:19:39.333 --> 01:19:41.700
If I went into an area
and I'm dressed in all red,

01:19:41.733 --> 01:19:43.167
I'm looking for problems.

01:19:43.200 --> 01:19:45.067
And I would be looking
for problems.

01:19:45.100 --> 01:19:46.567
I'd be looking
for the guys in blue.

01:19:46.600 --> 01:19:48.233
I'd be looking
for the guys that look at me.

01:19:48.267 --> 01:19:49.433
And when they looked at me,

01:19:49.467 --> 01:19:50.467
now I'm ready to deal
with this problem.

01:19:50.500 --> 01:19:52.067
I'm ready to show my anger.

01:19:52.100 --> 01:19:53.567
I'm ready to show my ignorance,

01:19:53.600 --> 01:19:56.300
that I can get
just as stupid as you.

01:19:56.333 --> 01:19:58.100
But when I stopped
that mentality,

01:19:58.133 --> 01:20:00.100
when I started
dressing differently,

01:20:00.133 --> 01:20:01.800
I started thinking differently.

01:20:01.833 --> 01:20:04.333
I've increased my freedom
to where I will go anywhere.

01:20:04.367 --> 01:20:06.833
And when I get there
and see certain individuals,

01:20:06.867 --> 01:20:10.100
they will say, "Well,
that's Skipp from over there,"

01:20:10.133 --> 01:20:11.467
and we can, "Hey, how you doing?"

01:20:11.500 --> 01:20:12.733
And we can talk now.

01:20:12.767 --> 01:20:13.800
And it's not a problem.

01:20:13.833 --> 01:20:16.700
I go to everybody's neighborhood,
and it's not a problem.

01:20:16.733 --> 01:20:18.333
(Peralta)
How do you like that?

01:20:18.367 --> 01:20:19.500
Love it.

01:20:19.533 --> 01:20:20.567
I love it.

01:20:20.600 --> 01:20:22.400
I truly enjoy it.

01:20:59.900 --> 01:21:01.767
(Gilligan)
We are a democracy.

01:21:01.800 --> 01:21:03.367
We have the resources.

01:21:03.400 --> 01:21:05.533
We're the richest country
on Earth.

01:21:05.567 --> 01:21:07.467
It is absolutely outrageous,

01:21:07.500 --> 01:21:09.600
it is inexcusable,

01:21:09.633 --> 01:21:15.233
that we have failed to meet
the most elementary tests

01:21:15.267 --> 01:21:18.067
of what it means
to be fellow citizens

01:21:18.100 --> 01:21:20.267
and build a community.

01:21:28.333 --> 01:21:33.667
(Brown) See, the ingredient is to care
about people and to love them.

01:21:33.700 --> 01:21:36.300
That's the ingredient
across the board.

01:21:36.333 --> 01:21:38.233
And to understand
that they are human.

01:21:38.267 --> 01:21:39.367
They're not gang members.

01:21:39.400 --> 01:21:40.800
They're human beings.

01:22:23.533 --> 01:22:26.467
The one thing
you have to realize,

01:22:26.500 --> 01:22:27.633
if you opened them up,

01:22:27.667 --> 01:22:29.567
there would be a stamp
under their shirt

01:22:29.600 --> 01:22:33.200
that says,
"Made in America."

01:22:33.233 --> 01:22:34.500
Okay?

01:22:34.533 --> 01:22:36.067
Not no place else.

01:22:36.100 --> 01:22:40.767
They weren't made in Taiwan
or, you know, Indonesia.

01:22:40.800 --> 01:22:43.833
They were made in America.