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ART
Excerpts from
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN
Date of publication: 01/13/1995
A Film Review By Roger Ebert
In the movie's long night of the soul, the man, bound to a chair, will protest his innocence. The woman will jeer at him and cross-examine him. And her husband will waver first in one direction and then in the other, because this Dr. Miranda is a charming man and a very intelligent one, and if there is a way for him to talk his way to freedom, he will find it.
"Death and the Maiden" is said to be based on events in Chile, but it could take place in any of the many countries where rule is by force and intimidation. It is, to some degree, about actual guilt: Is this the man who raped and tortured her? To another degree, it is about the nature of guilt and human identity: If this is the same man, has he perhaps changed? Was he a product of the times - even a victim of the times, which forced some to be torturers no less than requiring others to be victims?
If he is guilty, does he repent? Is there forgiveness for his crime? Does the woman, by making him a captive and taunting him, descend to his level?
LIFE
Excerpts from
Cincinnati Declares State of Emergency, Curfew
Date of publication: 04/12/2001
A News Report by Bob Weston
CINCINNATI, Ohio (Reuters) - City officials declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew on Thursday following three days of vandalism and looting sparked by the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white policeman.
Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken admitted the city is suffering from "a very legitimate and real problem with race relations" but said, "We cannot tolerate lawlessness... the violence must stop and the violence will stop."
The chaos began following the shooting death last Saturday of Timothy Thomas, a 19-year-old sought on 14 misdemeanor arrest warrants. It was the 15th time a black crime suspect was killed by Cincinnati police since 1995 -- a period during which there were no police killings of white suspects.
Cincinnati has a population of more than 300,000, about 43 percent of which is black.
REALITY
A SEARCH OF NORTHERN LIGHT
35,936 items in Police science & law enforcement for:
"unarmed black" AND statistics OR numbers
DOES LIFE IMITATE ART?
LONG BEACH (coup2k.com) April 13, 2001 -- A look at the Cincinnati situation, the police murders of unarmed black men in America, and selective outrage.
Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken admitted the city is suffering from "a very legitimate and real problem with race relations" but said, "We cannot tolerate lawlessness... the violence must stop and the violence will stop."
Ah, yes, here we see outrage. A line in the sand. Lawlessness will not be tolerated. Violence must and will be stopped. But what violence is Mayor Luken referring to? The violence of fifteen dead black men at the hands of law enforcement? No. Not at all. No, Mayor Luken's outrage, his avowal of commitment to the rule of law, is reserved, rather, for the response to the atrocities. My goodness. How sadly, utterly predictable.
I suppose, riots being rare, they deserve a response. Black citizens being shot to death by law enforcement, on the other hand, is par for the course, so why get our knickers all in a twist over it? Why, indeed...
Living as I have these last few years near Los Angeles, these are tragedies that are in constant and heartbreaking reruns on the local news. A young black man, jaywalking, reaches into his pocket for a cookie to eat, and is shot to death by police. A young black woman locked in her car, is shot to death by police who were called to help her. Yes, she had a gun laying in her lap, but her car, when all was said and done, looked like the car at the end of "Bonnie and Clyde," and she was dead, without ever firing a shot.
Blacks get angry -- demand justice. They get none. We move on.
But how much abuse, how many people from your community have to be buried, how many times do you have to seek justice and not find it, before you decide to make some justice of your own? Before you take matters into your own hands? Before you demand an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, flesh for flesh? Before you strike out blindly at anyone nearby?
In "Death and the Maiden," the protagonist, a victim of political torture, sets a trap for her torturer. She does not explode in a senseless and spontaneous act of rage. She plots, she schemes, she plans -- then she acts. Premeditated revenge via kidnapping, detainment, torture... But I won't spoil the end of the movie for you...
(Continued on Next Page)
NEXT: DEATH AND THE AFRICAN AMERICAN
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