Consider how different the perspectives of liberal and conservative commentators
ID: 108052 • Letter: C
Question
Consider how different the perspectives of liberal and conservative commentators are about the L.A Riots.
In this exercise, you will summarize liberal and conservative perspectives using the evidence in speeches and editorials of Congressperson Maxine Waters, journalist Mike Davis, President George H.W. Bush, and journalist Midge Decter.
Read the 4 excerpts, grouped into liberal and conservative perspectives. Examine the phrases, words, and meanings in these 4 excerpts for evidence that you can group in the charts under 3 categories:
Importance of the verdict in favor of the police officers to the riots and looting.
The nature and motivations of the rioters and looters.
The possible responsibility of government and business for the riots.
Connection of verdict to rioting and looting
Motivations of rioters and looters
Responsibility of government and business for riots
Waters (Liberal)
Davis (Liberal)
Bush (Conservative)
Decter (Conservative)
Sources
Liberal Perspectives
Congressperson Maxine Waters, Testimony Before the Senate Banking Committee, May 14, 1992
[Waters explains that the economic circumstances of LA had been deteriorating for years, creating rage and anger that was unleashed by the Rodney King incident.]
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, it is a privilege to be here today. The riots in Los Angeles and in other cities shocked the world. They shouldn't have. Many of us have watched our country--including our government--neglect the problems, indeed the people, of our inner-cities for years--even as matters reached crisis stage.
The verdict in the Rodney King case did not cause what happened in Los Angeles. It was only the most recent injustice--piled upon many other injustices--suffered by the poor, minorities and the hopeless people living in this nation's cities. For years they have been crying out for help. For years, their cries have not been heard.…
I have represented the people of South Central Los Angeles in the U.S. Congress and the California State Assembly for close to 20 years. I have seen our community continually and systematically ravaged by banks who would not lend to us, by governments which abandoned us or punished us for our poverty and by big businesses for exporting our jobs to Third World countries for cheap labor.
In L.A. between 40 and 50 percent of all African American men are unemployed. The poverty rate is 32.9 percent. According to the most recent census, 40,000 teenagers--that is 20 percent of the city's 16 to 19 year olds--are both out of school and unemployed.…
We have created in many areas of this country a breeding ground for hopelessness, anger and despair. All the traditional mechanisms for empowerment, opportunity and self-improvement have been closed.…
Mike Davis, "In L.A., Burning All Illusions." The Nation, June 1, 1992
[Davis explains that a large number of the looters in the LA Riots were Latino and also describes the years before the riot when the United States experienced a recession and severe job losses, especially in the Los Angeles area.]
Too many people have been losing their jobs; their pinche [small or insignificant] $5.25-an-hour jobs as seamstresses, laborers, busboys and factory workers. In two years of recession, unemployment has tripled in L.A.'s immigrant neighborhoods. At Christmas more than 20,000 predominantly Latina women and children from throughout the central city waited all night in the cold to collect a free turkey and blanket from charities. Other visible barometers of distress are the rapidly growing colonies of homeless compañeros [companions or in this case similar immigrants] on the desolate flanks of Crown Hill and in the concrete bed of the L.A. River, where people are forced to use sewage water for bathing and cooking.…
Fully 7,000 school-age teenagers in the Belmont area, moreover, have dropped out of school. Some have entered the vida loca [crazy life] of gangs .… , but most are struggling to find minimum wage footholds in a declining economy.
The neighbors in MacArthur Park whom I interviewed, such as Emerio's parents, all speak of this gathering sense of unease, a perception of a future already looted. The riot arrived like a magic dispensation. People were initially shocked by the violence, then mesmerized by the televised images of biracial crowds in South Central L.A. helping themselves to mountains of desirable goods without interference from the police. The next day, Thursday, April 30, the authorities blundered twice: first by suspending school and releasing the kids into the streets; second by announcing that the National Guard was on the way to help enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
Thousands immediately interpreted this as a last call to participate in the general redistribution of wealth in progress.…Although arsonists spread terrifying destruction, the looting crowds were governed by a visible moral economy. As one middle-aged lady explained to me, "Stealing is a sin, but this was like a television game show where everyone in the audience gets to win." Unlike the looters in Hollywood, …the masses of MacArthur Park concentrated on the prosaic necessities of life like cockroach spray and Pampers.
Conservative Perspectives
George H. W. Bush, Address to the Nation on the Civil Disturbances in Los Angeles, California, May 1, 1992
[The president referred consistently to a pervasive criminal element, suggesting that the riots were a policing, not a social problem.]
Tonight I want to talk to you about violence in our cities and justice for our citizens, two big issues that have collided on the streets of Los Angeles.…
One is the urgent need to restore order. What followed Wednesday's jury verdict in the Rodney King case was a tragic series of events for the city of Los Angeles: Nearly 4,000 fires, staggering property damage, hundreds of injuries, and the senseless deaths of over 30 people.
To restore order right now, there are 3,000 National Guardsmen on duty in the city of Los Angeles.… [The president explains further military and police strategies to end the rioting.] …What we saw last night and the night before in Los Angeles is not about civil rights. It's not about the great cause of equality that all Americans must uphold. It's not a message of protest. It's been the brutality of a mob, pure and simple. And let me assure you: I will use whatever force is necessary to restore order. What is going on in L.A. must and will stop. As your president I guarantee you this violence will end.
Now let's talk about the beating of Rodney King, because beyond the urgent need to restore order is the second issue, the question of justice: Whether Rodney King's federal civil rights were violated. What you saw and what I saw on the TV video was revolting. I felt anger. I felt pain. I thought: How can I explain this to my grandchildren? Civil rights leaders and just plain citizens fearful of and sometimes victimized by police brutality were deeply hurt. And I know good and decent policemen who were equally appalled.… .
But the verdict Wednesday was not the end of the process. The Department of Justice had started its own investigation immediately after the Rodney King incident and was monitoring the State investigation and trial. And so let me tell you what actions we are taking on the federal level to ensure that justice is served.
Midge Decter, "How the Rioters Won," Commentary, July 1992
[Decter describes 2 LA gang members, with the street names Time Bomb and Li'l Monster, who were interviewed after the LA Riots by television journalist Ted Koppel on his program, Nightline.]
Many people were offended by this program, with its suggestions that these young thugs had a genuine case to argue. Yet there was something truly interesting to be learned from Time Bomb and Li'l Monster and the others. And that was how very much they have managed to pick up from the high-toned academic and political generalizations that have for so long served as an excuse for them and their lives. They could speak coolly in one breath of breaking and entering and killing, and in the next of their rage and frustration at the lack of jobs in their community.…
How is it possible that anyone in good conscience should claim that too little money has been spent in, or on, the cities when more than a trillion dollars has in one way or another been allocated to them by Washington since the 60's? How is it possible to go on declaring that what will save the young men of South-Central L.A., and the young girls they impregnate, and the illegitimate babies they sire, is jobs? How is it possible for anyone to look at these boys of the underclass--to look at them literally, with one's own eyes, and actually see them--and imagine that they either want or could hold on to jobs? How is it possible to think that Time Bomb and Li'l Monster, and their counterparts in Chicago, Detroit, New York, are angry and frustrated at the unemployment rate in their communities?
In short, how is it possible to persist in refusing to recognize that the condition of those young men is beyond the reach of government--that indeed, the efforts of government have done much to undermine their capacity to take charge of their own lives? Yet taking charge of their own lives is the only thing that will save them. As Glenn Loury, the black political scientist, recently remarked, "The problem of the black underclass is a problem that will only be solved one by one and from the inside out."
Connection of verdict to rioting and looting
Motivations of rioters and looters
Responsibility of government and business for riots
Waters (Liberal)
Davis (Liberal)
Bush (Conservative)
Decter (Conservative)
Explanation / Answer
1) connection of verdict to rioting and looting-
Waters (liberal)- according to him, he estimated that the life of people of LA going to be worse. he told that many of us have watched our country including nation and government, neglecting the problems, indeed the problems and don't bother about even the situation reached at cricis stages.
Davis (liberal)-according to the interviewed of park taken by devis, it was found and analysed that the cops were blundered twice. they first suspend the school and then releasing the kids in the street. secondly it was announced that national gaurd was on the way to help them but the things happens opposite which make situations more painful to the people.
Bush-he as a president found the brutility of the mob pure and simple to be harassed by cops and national guard. also foung that beating of podney king was also a despute to the civil rights. it was so shameful that make nation towards down side.
Decter-he estimated that these thugs are so intelligents that they make illegal genuine reply which make the government to be get diverted according to their opinions.
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2)motivations of rioters and looters-
Waters- he thought to be like the saint that he will impliment the fact toward the roiters and looters to aware and motivate them. they should be acknowledge in such a way that the simple people of nation not get destroyed by their acts.
Devis- he explained that it seem to be like a television show where every one want to win and looters are heavy mass who take the chance to other. by doing nothing against these looters they going to be more strong day by day.
Bush- the department of justice has been started and it will soon impliment and handle the situation. we should not just wait for agencies to do the justifications. we have to self-relient so that it will raise our voice against the looters.
Decter- how it's possible to persist the situation and conditions of young thugs who are whatever become is due to sustain their life. their voice is not reachable to government so it is important to help them to get out from such bad pathways.
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3) responsibilities of government and business-
Waters- it is very neccessary to help the young mind to get ride out of such things and we are the one who will do such task to make the nation complete. it our as well as government duties to take the chance to young mind to not be unemploye in the nation.
Devis- the responsibilities is that the government should look upon the matter deeply and try to understnd the problems faced by common people. it should be also important that they should not take such decision that shock the people of nations.
Bush- as a president it is so important that we would try to fing the root of such problems. if the roots of crisic stage are found then the problem will solve automatically. the government and people are then no need to effort much.
Decter-the government take the responsibility of young men that what they want to live. the answer of this question is known to us. young mens are full of energy. they just want jobs to retains their life and not go to wrong path. this will eliminate the beginning of the formation of thugs and looters.
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