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.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

gangs, Los Angeles, Crips, Bloods, violence, turf wars, prisons, gun violence, Slausons, african-americans, Jim Brown, 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

WEBVTT

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[sustained electronic tone]

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♪ ♪

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[hip-hop music]

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♪ ♪

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[siren whooping]

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[gunfire]

00:00:57.967 --> 00:00:59.367
(Muhammad)
There\'s a war going on

00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:00.567
in South Central.

00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:01.933
[guns cocking]

00:01:01.967 --> 00:01:03.600
[electricity crackling]

00:01:04.767 --> 00:01:05.900
(Sherrills)
These Crips and Bloods

00:01:05.933 --> 00:01:07.967
have been warring
for 30-odd years,

00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:11.167
one of the longest-running wars
in the history of this country.

00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:12.500
(Young Dre)
There can always be someone outside

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that\'s ready to kill me
because of where I live at.

00:01:17.100 --> 00:01:18.767
We go over there
and kill one of them,

00:01:18.800 --> 00:01:20.400
and they come over
and kill one of us.

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(B-4)
It\'s like we born into it.

00:01:21.733 --> 00:01:23.267
You can\'t dodge, run away,
or get out of this.

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This is what it is.

00:01:24.767 --> 00:01:26.267
[woman over telephone]
911, what\'s your emergency?

00:01:26.300 --> 00:01:28.767
(Sherrills) Over the past 20 years alone
in L.A. County,

00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:31.533
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.

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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

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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

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not once but twice.

00:03:05.467 --> 00:03:06.633
It\'s also the home

00:03:06.667 --> 00:03:10.367
of America\'s two most infamous
African-American gangs,

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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

00:03:17.867 --> 00:03:21.600
as did the long-running
sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland

00:03:21.633 --> 00:03:26.500
yet whose devastating body count
continues today.

00:03:26.533 --> 00:03:28.933
But in South Los Angeles,

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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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♪ ♪

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♪ Hot ♪

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(Whitaker)
In the 1950s,

00:04:00.500 --> 00:04:02.333
three friends from South L.A.,

00:04:02.367 --> 00:04:05.700
Ron, Bird, and Kumasi,

00:04:05.733 --> 00:04:09.467
grew up reaching for their piece
of the American dream.

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(man)
♪ Hot ♪

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The most significant thing

00:04:13.500 --> 00:04:15.933
was when I went to join
the Boy Scouts,

00:04:15.967 --> 00:04:18.700
okay, the Boy Scouts of America.

00:04:18.733 --> 00:04:21.300
My mother takes me up to the scouts
to the Goodyear rubber plant,

00:04:21.333 --> 00:04:25.133
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.

00:04:33.067 --> 00:04:35.767
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.

00:04:41.767 --> 00:04:43.600
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,

00:04:47.700 --> 00:04:51.033
courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, brave, clean, and reverent.\"

00:04:51.067 --> 00:04:52.867
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.

00:05:01.733 --> 00:05:04.133
We couldn\'t get involved
in organized activity

00:05:04.167 --> 00:05:06.167
that would take us anywhere

00:05:06.200 --> 00:05:09.467
that would bear us
any kind of good fruit, you see?

00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:13.233
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.

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That was something
that the city and the police

00:06:01.433 --> 00:06:02.967
would describe us as.

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We were clubs.

00:06:07.433 --> 00:06:11.033
(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.

00:06:27.833 --> 00:06:30.533
You also have a way
to wield some power

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because now you\'ve got numbers.

00:06:36.967 --> 00:06:38.633
We had rivalries
among ourselves,

00:06:38.667 --> 00:06:41.300
and then we had rivalries
with people in other neighborhoods.

00:06:41.333 --> 00:06:43.200
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

00:06:49.633 --> 00:06:51.367
and in the parks
and in the alleys.

00:06:51.400 --> 00:06:52.767
That\'s where our rings was.

00:06:52.800 --> 00:06:54.167
See, in those days,

00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:56.533
we\'d give you an appointment
for an ass-whipping.

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Oh, you had to be there

00:06:59.733 --> 00:07:03.533
because everybody else in town
knew about it.

00:07:03.567 --> 00:07:05.367
They\'d say, \"Bird,
how good are those things?\"

00:07:05.400 --> 00:07:07.167
I\'d say,
\"These things right here?\"

00:07:07.200 --> 00:07:08.567
I\'d say,
\"I will beat your hairline

00:07:08.600 --> 00:07:10.267
\"all the way back
to the center of your head,

00:07:10.300 --> 00:07:11.700
\"whup your sideburns off,

00:07:11.733 --> 00:07:13.733
beat all the eyebrows
off your forehead.\"

00:07:15.300 --> 00:07:17.333
That\'s what we\'d call woofing,
though, you know?

00:07:17.367 --> 00:07:19.033
But, you know,
I was good with my hands.

00:07:19.067 --> 00:07:21.200
That\'s why they say,
\"Man, these are guns,\" you know?

00:07:21.233 --> 00:07:25.367
If you looking for somebody, say,
\"Tell him I\'m gunning for him.\"

00:07:25.400 --> 00:07:28.900
But it wasn\'t really
about destroying somebody.

00:07:28.933 --> 00:07:30.733
It was just a competitive thing,

00:07:30.767 --> 00:07:33.067
you know,
just competing with each other.

00:07:48.467 --> 00:07:51.533
(Bird) I used to get stopped
by the police all the time.

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My mother always said that,
you know,

00:07:54.933 --> 00:07:56.267
\"Well, what did you do
this time?\"

00:07:56.300 --> 00:07:58.100
I\'d say, \"I didn\'t do anything,\"
you know?

00:07:58.133 --> 00:08:00.433
See, people, including parents,

00:08:00.467 --> 00:08:03.500
could not believe that the man
just stopped you all the time.

00:08:10.100 --> 00:08:11.733
Young black men in this society

00:08:11.767 --> 00:08:15.767
have always been represented
as the most threatening figures

00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:19.500
across the board.

00:08:19.533 --> 00:08:24.267
They\'re viewed as being people
who will commit crimes.

00:08:27.100 --> 00:08:29.500
(Whitaker)
From 1950 to 1966,

00:08:29.533 --> 00:08:31.067
the Los Angeles
Police Department

00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:34.600
was commanded
by Chief William Parker.

00:08:38.933 --> 00:08:40.400
(Boyd)
Chief Parker

00:08:40.433 --> 00:08:42.933
ran the police department
like a military unit.

00:08:42.967 --> 00:08:44.867
And the people
who bore the brunt of this

00:08:44.900 --> 00:08:46.200
were the black residents.

00:08:46.233 --> 00:08:49.933
(man) Shut it off and get out of that car
with your hands up.

00:08:49.967 --> 00:08:52.133
Get your hands up, I said.

00:08:52.167 --> 00:08:54.133
Drop that purse
and get your hands up.

00:08:54.167 --> 00:08:58.233
(Boyd) And so the cops were treating
these young black men

00:08:58.267 --> 00:08:59.933
as though they were enemies,

00:08:59.967 --> 00:09:02.567
as though they were in warfare.

00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:03.567
Get \'em up.

00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.900
Get your hands up and go.

00:09:08.400 --> 00:09:10.033
(man)
Come on. Right this way.

00:09:10.067 --> 00:09:11.567
It was an open secret

00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:14.833
that one of the tacit duties
of the LAPD

00:09:14.867 --> 00:09:17.433
was to make sure people
were in the right neighborhoods

00:09:17.467 --> 00:09:19.100
at the right time.

00:09:19.133 --> 00:09:23.533
And Alameda Boulevard
was the white curtain in L.A.

00:09:23.567 --> 00:09:25.933
You didn\'t cross Alameda
for no reason at all.

00:09:25.967 --> 00:09:29.100
(Ron) East of Alameda,
these were white areas:

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Lynwood, South Gate.

00:09:30.500 --> 00:09:31.933
We couldn\'t go there.

00:09:31.967 --> 00:09:34.100
You had cops
that didn\'t want you there.

00:09:34.133 --> 00:09:36.433
And blacks that deigned
to cross the line

00:09:36.467 --> 00:09:40.900
were quickly put in place
by police officers.

00:09:40.933 --> 00:09:42.467
(Kumasi)
There are barriers,

00:09:42.500 --> 00:09:45.433
invisible barriers,
social barriers.

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And their job
is to reinforce that barrier.

00:09:54.167 --> 00:09:56.233
(Ron) We\'d get stopped.
We\'d get harassed.

00:09:56.267 --> 00:09:57.767
\"What are you doing here?

00:09:57.800 --> 00:09:59.600
You\'re supposed
to stay in your neighborhood.\"

00:10:06.033 --> 00:10:10.367
(Bird) One time, I was walking down
the street on 77th and Central,

00:10:10.400 --> 00:10:13.267
and the man said,
\"Hey, you.\"

00:10:13.300 --> 00:10:15.500
I heard him, but I kept walking.

00:10:15.533 --> 00:10:16.900
He said, \"Hey, you.\"

00:10:16.933 --> 00:10:18.133
And they ran on the curb,
jumped out the car, and said,

00:10:18.167 --> 00:10:19.800
\"Didn\'t you hear us
calling you?\"

00:10:19.833 --> 00:10:22.567
I said, \"I heard you say \'you, \'
but my name is not \'you.\'\"

00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:25.200
So, you know, get up against the wall
and such and so on.

00:10:25.233 --> 00:10:27.700
And they tell me
I look like I\'ve been robbing.

00:10:27.733 --> 00:10:29.233
I said, \"Well,
how does a robber look?\"

00:10:29.267 --> 00:10:31.167
He said,
\"Looks just like you.\"

00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:43.033
(Ron) And so you feel
this sense of alienation.

00:10:43.067 --> 00:10:45.033
You\'re culturally disoriented.

00:10:45.067 --> 00:10:47.467
You don\'t have
a sense of identity

00:10:47.500 --> 00:10:49.367
in terms of who you really are.

00:10:56.733 --> 00:10:58.767
(Horne)
So the idea

00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:01.767
was to create
not only a segregated society

00:11:01.800 --> 00:11:04.700
but the idea
that those of darker hue

00:11:04.733 --> 00:11:07.567
were inferior
and should be treated as such.

00:11:07.600 --> 00:11:10.367
[camera clicking]

00:11:12.300 --> 00:11:15.833
(Ron) And after a while,
you began to internalize this.

00:11:15.867 --> 00:11:19.667
And you would develop
a deep-seated self-hatred

00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:23.267
because you see yourself
as having almost no value.

00:11:27.467 --> 00:11:30.267
(man) Up against the wall.
Don\'t move.

00:11:31.500 --> 00:11:34.533
(Kumasi) In a free society,
I\'m walking down the street,

00:11:34.567 --> 00:11:36.100
and police
got the nerve to ask me,

00:11:36.133 --> 00:11:37.533
\"Where you going?
Where you com\" -

00:11:37.567 --> 00:11:40.433
Ain\'t none of your damn business
where I\'m going.

00:11:40.467 --> 00:11:43.600
It ain\'t none of your damn business
where I came from.

00:11:43.633 --> 00:11:46.300
[...] you talking about,
\"Where are you going?\"

00:11:46.333 --> 00:11:48.533
He gonna ask me,
\"What are you doing here?\"

00:11:48.567 --> 00:11:52.367
You go anywhere and ask anybody else
what they doing there?

00:11:52.400 --> 00:11:55.033
Do you stop and ask anybody else
in this society, man,

00:11:55.067 --> 00:11:57.700
\"Why do you exist?\"

00:11:57.733 --> 00:11:59.400
You understand what I\'m saying?

00:11:59.433 --> 00:12:01.767
But you got the nerve to ask me that
all day every day.

00:12:01.800 --> 00:12:04.633
Now, what do you think
that does to me psychologically?

00:12:04.667 --> 00:12:05.733
What does that tell me?

00:12:05.767 --> 00:12:08.767
What message
am I being fed every day?

00:12:08.800 --> 00:12:10.700
See, you don\'t understand
that every day,

00:12:10.733 --> 00:12:14.267
he\'s feeding me
a spoonful of hatred.

00:12:14.300 --> 00:12:16.567
Every day, that\'s my diet,

00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:20.500
a spoonful of hatred.

00:12:20.533 --> 00:12:22.267
You see?

00:12:22.300 --> 00:12:25.767
And it\'s just a question of,
when is this going to erupt,

00:12:25.800 --> 00:12:29.967
and upon whom
is it going to erupt?

00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:32.333
Am I going to attack myself?

00:12:32.367 --> 00:12:34.167
Am I going to attack my brother?

00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:35.233
You understand?

00:12:35.267 --> 00:12:38.400
Am I going to attack
my own image in the mirror?

00:12:38.433 --> 00:12:41.067
Or am I going to eventually attack

00:12:41.100 --> 00:12:46.100
the cause of my anger
and my frustration?

00:12:46.133 --> 00:12:49.200
But the point is,
I\'m a walking time bomb.

00:12:49.233 --> 00:12:54.400
I\'m going to go off
someday somewhere on somebody.

00:12:54.433 --> 00:12:56.900
The question is, upon whom?

00:12:59.400 --> 00:13:02.467
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:13:09.633 --> 00:13:13.400
(Whitaker)
At 7:00 p.m. on August 11, 1965,

00:13:13.433 --> 00:13:15.933
near the corners
of 116th and Avalon,

00:13:15.967 --> 00:13:19.000
21-year-old Watts resident
Marquette Frye

00:13:19.033 --> 00:13:21.333
was pulled over
by the California Highway Patrol

00:13:21.367 --> 00:13:23.867
on suspicion of drunk driving,

00:13:23.900 --> 00:13:25.400
a routine traffic stop

00:13:25.433 --> 00:13:28.500
until police insisted
on impounding Frye\'s car

00:13:28.533 --> 00:13:31.367
despite being less
than two blocks from his home.

00:13:31.400 --> 00:13:33.700
Frye\'s mother, Rena,
who owned the car,

00:13:33.733 --> 00:13:36.200
joined the rapidly growing crowd,

00:13:36.233 --> 00:13:39.633
who, along with Marquette,
grew increasingly belligerent

00:13:39.667 --> 00:13:43.233
over what they thought
was the heavy-handed police response.

00:13:43.267 --> 00:13:45.533
LAPD reinforcements
were called in,

00:13:45.567 --> 00:13:46.967
a scuffle broke out,

00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:50.267
and Frye, his mother, Rena,
and brother Ronald

00:13:50.300 --> 00:13:53.800
were all taken into custody.

00:13:53.833 --> 00:13:55.667
The squad cars rolled away,

00:13:55.700 --> 00:13:58.233
but the crowd continued to swell

00:13:58.267 --> 00:14:00.567
as word of the incident
swept through the neighborhood.

00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:02.800
When I walked up
on 115th and Avalon,

00:14:02.833 --> 00:14:04.800
Charles McQuarter
from the D\'Artagnans -

00:14:04.833 --> 00:14:06.400
I said, \"Man, what happened?\"

00:14:06.433 --> 00:14:08.133
He said,
\"They jumped on Marquette.\"

00:14:10.733 --> 00:14:12.667
(Ron) We just got
more and more upset.

00:14:12.700 --> 00:14:14.200
It was a cumulative thing.

00:14:14.233 --> 00:14:16.933
It was one
racist traffic stop too many.

00:14:20.767 --> 00:14:24.067
(Whitaker)
By 8:15, over 1,000 Watts residents

00:14:24.100 --> 00:14:26.633
were surging up and down
Avalon Boulevard.

00:14:26.667 --> 00:14:29.667
[people yelling]

00:14:34.367 --> 00:14:35.667
About 1:00 a.m.,

00:14:35.700 --> 00:14:39.767
despite 29 arrests
and sporadic reports of vandalism,

00:14:39.800 --> 00:14:42.133
the situation
was assessed by the LAPD

00:14:42.167 --> 00:14:44.933
as being under control.

00:14:47.467 --> 00:14:49.667
(man)
Clear the sidewalks up ahead.

00:14:49.700 --> 00:14:51.867
Please go in your homes.

00:14:51.967 --> 00:14:54.167
Please go in your homes.

00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:57.500
(Whitaker) Thursday morning dawned tense
but relatively quiet.

00:14:57.533 --> 00:15:00.300
At 2:00 p.m.,
a meeting was called

00:15:00.333 --> 00:15:02.067
at a neighborhood rec center,

00:15:02.100 --> 00:15:05.200
assembling representatives
from various community groups,

00:15:05.233 --> 00:15:09.033
elected officials,
the LAPD, the media,

00:15:09.067 --> 00:15:10.833
and even Rena Frye.

00:15:10.867 --> 00:15:12.567
I think that we must
stay off the streets.

00:15:12.600 --> 00:15:15.500
I think the Civil Rights drive
in America

00:15:15.533 --> 00:15:19.300
has demonstrated that violence
will never be the just end

00:15:19.333 --> 00:15:20.833
to the grievances we have.

00:15:20.867 --> 00:15:22.800
(Whitaker)
But cutting through a call for order

00:15:22.833 --> 00:15:25.233
came a voice
that only the night before

00:15:25.267 --> 00:15:27.533
was raised by thousands
in the street.

00:15:27.567 --> 00:15:28.900
See, and I\'m going
to tell you something.

00:15:28.933 --> 00:15:31.667
Tonight there\'s going to be another one,
whether you like it or not.

00:15:31.700 --> 00:15:33.167
No, no.
Wait. Wait. Wait.

00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:34.600
Listen.
Listen.

00:15:34.633 --> 00:15:40.700
We, the negro people down here,
have gotten completely fed up...

00:15:40.733 --> 00:15:44.767
(Kumasi) Our elders felt you should
bite the bullet, suck it up.

00:15:44.800 --> 00:15:46.100
We know it\'s wrong,

00:15:46.133 --> 00:15:49.800
but you can show that you\'re greater
than oppression by outliving it,

00:15:49.833 --> 00:15:52.233
show that it doesn\'t work;
it doesn\'t destroy you.

00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:57.367
But in the process,
we will take the beatings.

00:15:59.367 --> 00:16:01.167
The parents
are coming from places

00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:04.067
where black men are expected
to step off the street

00:16:04.100 --> 00:16:09.300
and say, \"Yes, sir,\"
to a 12-year-old white boy,

00:16:09.333 --> 00:16:12.100
where black men are lynched
with regularity.

00:16:14.867 --> 00:16:18.300
And so from their perspective,
Los Angeles looks wonderful.

00:16:18.333 --> 00:16:20.533
They\'re certainly aware
of the flaws,

00:16:20.567 --> 00:16:22.400
but they recognize
it\'s such an improvement.

00:16:22.433 --> 00:16:25.067
Their children, however,
have a very different perspective.

00:16:27.567 --> 00:16:29.867
(Kumasi) We come along and say,
\"We ain\'t gonna take [...].

00:16:29.900 --> 00:16:33.433
You took it,
and we\'re not.\"

00:16:33.467 --> 00:16:37.900
[police radio chatter]

00:16:37.933 --> 00:16:39.500
(Whitaker)
By that afternoon,

00:16:39.533 --> 00:16:44.467
crowds of African-Americans
again filled the streets,

00:16:44.500 --> 00:16:48.200
but this time
facing over 200 LAPD

00:16:48.233 --> 00:16:52.000
and deputy sheriff officers.

00:16:52.033 --> 00:16:55.067
So here we are
in a crowd at night

00:16:55.100 --> 00:16:56.567
on Imperial and Avalon.

00:16:56.600 --> 00:16:58.033
Things were in such disarray,

00:16:58.067 --> 00:17:00.133
and we\'re facing cops
in the street.

00:17:03.467 --> 00:17:06.200
(Bird) And they went
to move the crowd back.

00:17:06.233 --> 00:17:08.600
See, so when the man moved on us,
we moved toward him.

00:17:08.633 --> 00:17:12.433
[people yelling]

00:17:12.467 --> 00:17:14.400
(Ron) And so you\'re looking
at one another,

00:17:14.433 --> 00:17:16.800
and you\'re reading the eyes
of people in the crowd.

00:17:16.833 --> 00:17:20.900
There\'s the body language that says,
\"Let\'s go on and do this.\"

00:17:23.767 --> 00:17:25.833
(Bird) And then they fired
some rounds in the crowd.

00:17:25.867 --> 00:17:27.100
[gunshot]

00:17:27.133 --> 00:17:29.100
Say, \"All right,
it\'s on now.\"

00:17:29.133 --> 00:17:32.267
[gunshots]

00:17:32.300 --> 00:17:33.400
(man)
You\'re under arrest.

00:17:33.433 --> 00:17:36.700
Get on the ground.
Get on the ground.

00:17:36.733 --> 00:17:38.300
Back up.
Back up.

00:17:38.333 --> 00:17:40.567
Get on the ground right now.

00:17:40.600 --> 00:17:42.267
You\'re under arrest.

00:17:43.600 --> 00:17:46.600
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:17:48.633 --> 00:17:51.733
(Ron) We were throwing rocks at police
who were in the street.

00:17:51.767 --> 00:17:55.767
And they were taking position
up behind their cars and firing.

00:17:55.800 --> 00:17:57.000
[gunshot]

00:17:57.033 --> 00:17:59.633
And I said, \"Damn,
they\'re shooting at us.\"

00:17:59.667 --> 00:18:02.133
The cops have weapons,
and they had the law behind them.

00:18:02.167 --> 00:18:04.500
The citizens don\'t have
anything behind them

00:18:04.533 --> 00:18:06.467
but their own heart,
their own desire,

00:18:06.500 --> 00:18:08.200
their own determinations.

00:18:08.233 --> 00:18:10.267
And they\'re really
fighting to survive.

00:18:10.300 --> 00:18:13.333
(Kumasi)
And you cannot whup us.

00:18:13.367 --> 00:18:15.033
We\'re already dead.

00:18:15.067 --> 00:18:16.233
We\'re already beaten down.

00:18:16.267 --> 00:18:18.367
We been beaten down
for 400 years.

00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:22.033
We already got the wounds
inside and outside our bodies.

00:18:22.067 --> 00:18:23.367
How you gonna hurt us?

00:18:23.400 --> 00:18:24.933
You cannot threaten us.

00:18:24.967 --> 00:18:26.433
You cannot frighten us.

00:18:26.467 --> 00:18:28.700
We live in the most
frightening places

00:18:28.733 --> 00:18:30.933
under the most
frightening conditions.

00:18:30.967 --> 00:18:32.833
We are immune to fear.

00:18:32.867 --> 00:18:34.600
We are immune to harm.

00:18:34.633 --> 00:18:35.767
You see what I\'m saying?

00:18:35.800 --> 00:18:38.133
You have stepped
into a cesspool.

00:18:38.167 --> 00:18:39.700
You the only one
gonna get infected.

00:18:44.833 --> 00:18:46.133
(Whitaker)
By Friday morning,

00:18:46.167 --> 00:18:48.500
additional police were called in
from all points of L.A.

00:18:48.533 --> 00:18:51.633
to squash what authorities
were now terming

00:18:51.667 --> 00:18:54.667
\"a full-scale riot.\"

00:18:54.700 --> 00:18:56.133
(Bird)
You see, they called it a riot.

00:18:56.167 --> 00:18:57.233
There was no riot.

00:18:57.267 --> 00:19:00.233
We knew what the hell
we were doing.

00:19:00.267 --> 00:19:01.700
(man) What you\'re seeing
is guerilla warfare.

00:19:01.733 --> 00:19:03.600
But the reason
that you can\'t say it

00:19:03.633 --> 00:19:05.967
is because you never gave
the so-called negro credit

00:19:06.000 --> 00:19:08.433
for having enough intelligence
to be strategist enough

00:19:08.467 --> 00:19:10.733
to practice guerilla warfare.

00:19:10.767 --> 00:19:13.467
[siren wailing]

00:19:16.433 --> 00:19:19.433
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:19:21.600 --> 00:19:26.233
But then what happens is that it becomes
a big newspaper story,

00:19:26.267 --> 00:19:31.200
which increases political pressure
on the authorities to do something.

00:19:39.967 --> 00:19:42.000
And then they brought in
16,000 National Guard

00:19:42.033 --> 00:19:43.333
who don\'t know the terrain.

00:19:46.667 --> 00:19:49.333
(Horne) The National Guard in particular
is not necessarily trained

00:19:49.367 --> 00:19:53.033
to engage
in civilian crowd control.

00:19:57.833 --> 00:19:59.933
(Ron)
We wanted to drive them out.

00:19:59.967 --> 00:20:02.300
And so the question then is,
what do we do?

00:20:06.533 --> 00:20:08.933
(Kumasi) And we were
opportunistic fighters.

00:20:08.967 --> 00:20:10.533
We didn\'t need stockpiles.

00:20:10.567 --> 00:20:12.067
We got dilapidated buildings.

00:20:12.100 --> 00:20:15.267
There\'s a brick pile just waiting
to be thrown at your ass.

00:20:15.300 --> 00:20:16.533
Here\'s a dilapidated building.

00:20:16.567 --> 00:20:17.933
Ain\'t nobody living there.

00:20:17.967 --> 00:20:20.133
You didn\'t fix it.
You didn\'t remove it, okay?

00:20:20.167 --> 00:20:22.033
It ain\'t nothing
but a pile of bricks anyhow.

00:20:22.067 --> 00:20:23.100
That\'s coming at you.

00:20:23.133 --> 00:20:25.600
That whole building, brick by brick,
is coming at your ass.

00:20:25.633 --> 00:20:28.367
That\'s what we throwing at you,
the building, the [...],

00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:30.867
the rubble, the rubbish
that we live in.

00:20:30.900 --> 00:20:32.200
That\'s what\'s coming
at your ass.

00:20:32.233 --> 00:20:33.833
Those are our weapons,

00:20:33.867 --> 00:20:36.367
the filth, the funk,
the [...] you can\'t stand,

00:20:36.400 --> 00:20:39.100
that you defend, that you put a barrier
between us and yourself.

00:20:39.133 --> 00:20:41.167
That\'s coming at you.

00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:42.467
It\'s coming at you.

00:20:42.500 --> 00:20:44.567
(all)
One, two, three, four.

00:20:44.600 --> 00:20:47.133
One, two, three, four.

00:20:47.167 --> 00:20:49.800
(Horne) At that point,
they went to the other extreme,

00:20:49.833 --> 00:20:53.067
which was the iron fist,
the iron hammer.

00:20:53.100 --> 00:20:54.333
[gunshot]

00:20:54.367 --> 00:20:58.433
And this leads
to a virtual free-fire zone,

00:20:58.467 --> 00:21:03.400
where people could be shot

00:21:03.433 --> 00:21:06.900
for making the wrong turn
at the wrong intersection.

00:21:06.933 --> 00:21:08.500
[gunshot]

00:21:11.167 --> 00:21:13.900
The claim by police
is that these were looters

00:21:13.933 --> 00:21:16.800
that were
refusing orders to halt.

00:21:18.933 --> 00:21:22.567
The autopsies clearly show
that people were shot in the back.

00:21:26.833 --> 00:21:29.800
One has to really question
whether or not a human life

00:21:29.833 --> 00:21:34.533
is worth a bottle of beer
or a case of beer.

00:21:34.567 --> 00:21:36.833
That is to say,
people were being killed

00:21:36.867 --> 00:21:40.800
for what, in retrospect,
were the most trivial of offenses.

00:21:40.833 --> 00:21:42.533
[gunshot]

00:21:42.567 --> 00:21:44.333
(Boyd) Looting didn\'t
undermine anything,

00:21:44.367 --> 00:21:46.700
because we\'re talking
about desperate people.

00:21:46.733 --> 00:21:49.167
We\'re talking about people
who have nothing,

00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:50.700
who see no hope.

00:21:50.733 --> 00:21:55.067
[glass shattering]

00:21:55.100 --> 00:21:57.200
(Yorty)
This is a criminal,

00:21:57.233 --> 00:22:00.467
a lawless element
with which we\'re confronted

00:22:00.500 --> 00:22:03.600
and that the only thing they understand
is force and power.

00:22:03.633 --> 00:22:05.300
[glass shattering]

00:22:05.333 --> 00:22:06.733
[gunshot]

00:22:09.433 --> 00:22:12.433
(Ron)
That\'s been the one taboo

00:22:12.467 --> 00:22:16.233
is that black people and other
oppressed people in this country

00:22:16.267 --> 00:22:22.433
are never to use violence
to achieve what it is they want.

00:22:24.367 --> 00:22:27.967
But this country uses violence
whenever it chooses.

00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:30.933
And then it legitimizes
the violence.

00:22:47.700 --> 00:22:51.267
When you send me the message
that my life is of no value,

00:22:51.300 --> 00:22:54.433
then how can your property,
how can your society,

00:22:54.467 --> 00:22:55.967
how can your civilization,

00:22:56.000 --> 00:22:58.100
how can any of the mores
or the rules

00:22:58.133 --> 00:23:00.567
or any of the monuments -

00:23:00.600 --> 00:23:04.367
how can any of that
be of any value to me

00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:08.967
when all it has on the door for me
is a rejection notice?

00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:11.300
I\'m not allowed to look.
I\'m not allowed to touch.

00:23:11.333 --> 00:23:14.767
I\'m not allowed to partake.
I\'m not allowed to participate.

00:23:16.967 --> 00:23:20.500
All my life - I was rejected
before I was born.

00:23:20.533 --> 00:23:22.433
I am the most rejected.

00:23:22.467 --> 00:23:25.467
Nothing is open to me.

00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:28.000
And every time I knock on the door
and get rejected,

00:23:28.033 --> 00:23:31.100
it takes
a little something out of me.

00:23:31.133 --> 00:23:33.400
So how does it
mean anything to me

00:23:33.433 --> 00:23:38.000
that I should try to salvage it
or I should respect it

00:23:38.033 --> 00:23:40.967
or I should try to preserve it?

00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:43.667
It stands
as a barrier before me.

00:23:43.700 --> 00:23:45.433
It was there when I was born.

00:23:45.467 --> 00:23:47.867
It will be there when I die.

00:23:58.967 --> 00:24:02.000
[The Chambers Brothers\'
Love, Peace, and Happiness playing]

00:24:02.033 --> 00:24:05.900
♪ ♪

00:24:05.933 --> 00:24:06.967
(Boyd)
The fact that it took them

00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:10.767
five days to shut down something
they thought they could shut down in a day

00:24:10.800 --> 00:24:14.733
is a testament
to that revolutionary spirit.

00:24:14.767 --> 00:24:17.867
♪ ♪

00:24:17.900 --> 00:24:19.667
(Ron) As so there was
this sense of pride

00:24:19.700 --> 00:24:21.567
that we had taken a stand

00:24:21.600 --> 00:24:24.067
and that we had sent
a message out to the world.

00:24:24.100 --> 00:24:27.733
(man)
♪ It\'s a small step for a man ♪

00:24:27.767 --> 00:24:32.233
♪ But it\'s a giant leap
for all mankind now ♪

00:24:32.267 --> 00:24:35.067
(Ron) Newspapers in Europe
and other parts of the world

00:24:35.100 --> 00:24:38.433
carried the story,
carried these images.

00:24:38.467 --> 00:24:42.767
And so in a sense,
it unmasked this country.

00:24:42.800 --> 00:24:44.867
It showed this country
for what it really was.

00:24:44.900 --> 00:24:46.667
Prior to the 1960s,

00:24:46.700 --> 00:24:50.200
race riots, as they existed,
were really riots of white people

00:24:50.233 --> 00:24:52.200
marauding through neighborhoods
where blacks were living

00:24:52.233 --> 00:24:53.600
and attacking blacks.

00:24:53.633 --> 00:24:56.733
The riots of the \'60s -
Detroit, Chicago, New York, L.A.,

00:24:56.767 --> 00:24:58.867
these riots
are completely different,

00:24:58.900 --> 00:25:02.133
because they\'re really
manifestations of black anger,

00:25:02.167 --> 00:25:03.400
black hostility.

00:25:03.433 --> 00:25:05.433
And that\'s very new.

00:25:05.467 --> 00:25:13.467
♪ ♪

00:25:13.500 --> 00:25:17.233
What distinguished Watts
from the riots in Chicago and Detroit

00:25:17.267 --> 00:25:19.833
is that nobody thought
it could happen here.

00:25:19.867 --> 00:25:21.467
(Boyd)
The whole environment of L.A.

00:25:21.500 --> 00:25:26.067
was supposed to be so much nicer
than other parts of the country.

00:25:26.100 --> 00:25:28.900
But yet that image of L.A.
that\'s in the public mind

00:25:28.933 --> 00:25:31.667
had nothing to do
with the large numbers of black people

00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:34.367
living here
in segregated conditions.

00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:41.900
(man)
♪ Peace and happiness ♪

00:25:41.933 --> 00:25:45.667
[Stevie Wonder\'s Higher Ground playing]

00:25:45.700 --> 00:25:48.633
(Ron) The other thing that the rebellion
represented for us

00:25:48.667 --> 00:25:51.567
was, it helped
accelerate our consciousness.

00:25:51.600 --> 00:25:54.900
From \'65 until about \'71,

00:25:54.933 --> 00:25:58.267
gang activity in L.A.
was at an all-time low

00:25:58.300 --> 00:26:01.000
because so many young people
were joining organizations

00:26:01.033 --> 00:26:03.233
like the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee,

00:26:03.267 --> 00:26:05.000
like the Panther Party.

00:26:05.033 --> 00:26:07.700
(Wonder)
♪ People ♪

00:26:07.733 --> 00:26:10.400
♪ Keep on learnin\' ♪

00:26:10.433 --> 00:26:12.533
(Whitaker) This growing
black pride movement

00:26:12.567 --> 00:26:16.033
saw the development of dynamic
African-American organizations

00:26:16.067 --> 00:26:19.833
committed to instigating change
from within.

00:26:19.867 --> 00:26:23.033
(Wonder)
♪ World ♪

00:26:23.067 --> 00:26:26.367
♪ Keep on turnin\' ♪

00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:28.500
♪ \'Cause it won\'t be too long ♪

00:26:28.533 --> 00:26:32.367
(Whitaker) Former street fighters
like Kumasi, Bird, and Ron

00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:35.433
now fought the power
rather than other gangs,

00:26:35.467 --> 00:26:38.633
working alongside groups
like the Black Panthers

00:26:38.667 --> 00:26:41.533
on civic programs that ranged
from free breakfasts

00:26:41.567 --> 00:26:44.767
to neighborhood restoration
to political activism.

00:26:44.800 --> 00:26:47.000
♪ ♪

00:26:47.033 --> 00:26:49.600
(Wonder)
♪ Believers ♪

00:26:49.633 --> 00:26:53.433
♪ Keep on believin\' ♪

00:26:53.467 --> 00:26:55.200
(Kumasi)
All them youngsters were busy

00:26:55.233 --> 00:26:58.133
trying to rebuild their communities,
trying to build a future,

00:26:58.167 --> 00:27:01.833
trying to figure out, \"Where the [...]
do we go from here, together,

00:27:01.867 --> 00:27:04.267
and how do we give ourselves
some kind of a future?\"

00:27:04.300 --> 00:27:06.933
(Wonder)
♪ Gonna keep on tryin\' ♪

00:27:06.967 --> 00:27:09.667
♪ Till I reach
the highest ground ♪

00:27:09.700 --> 00:27:11.700
(Whitaker)
But this new black power structure

00:27:11.733 --> 00:27:13.500
quickly found itself
in the crosshairs

00:27:13.533 --> 00:27:17.433
of government agencies
like the FBI.

00:27:17.467 --> 00:27:20.400
According to recently
declassified documents,

00:27:20.433 --> 00:27:22.800
FBI director J. Edgar Hoover

00:27:22.833 --> 00:27:25.433
launched a covert
counterintelligence operation

00:27:25.467 --> 00:27:28.433
against the Black Panthers,

00:27:28.467 --> 00:27:31.733
an organization he described
as the greatest threat

00:27:31.767 --> 00:27:34.200
to the internal security
of the country.

00:27:34.233 --> 00:27:35.867
[gunshots]

00:27:35.900 --> 00:27:38.700
(Wonder)
♪ Powers ♪

00:27:38.733 --> 00:27:40.367
♪ Keep on lyin\' ♪

00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:42.933
They turned around
and squashed those movements.

00:27:42.967 --> 00:27:46.167
(Wonder)
♪ While the people ♪

00:27:46.200 --> 00:27:48.533
♪ Keep on dyin\' ♪

00:27:48.567 --> 00:27:50.833
(Whitaker) Former Slauson
and Panther chapter founder

00:27:50.867 --> 00:27:53.333
Alprentice \"Bunchy\" Carter
and John Huggins

00:27:53.367 --> 00:27:56.767
were gunned down
at a UCLA black student meeting

00:27:56.800 --> 00:27:59.800
while Black Panther founders
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale

00:27:59.833 --> 00:28:02.600
faced arrest
and lengthy jail sentences.

00:28:02.633 --> 00:28:04.467
(Wonder)
♪ Oh, no ♪

00:28:04.500 --> 00:28:09.000
♪ Till I reach
the highest ground ♪

00:28:09.033 --> 00:28:10.700
(Whitaker)
Within a few short years,

00:28:10.733 --> 00:28:14.333
many of America\'s most influential,
iconic black leaders

00:28:14.367 --> 00:28:18.100
had either been incarcerated
or assassinated.

00:28:18.133 --> 00:28:20.267
[gunshot]

00:28:20.300 --> 00:28:21.833
They ran \'em down.
They chased \'em down.

00:28:21.867 --> 00:28:22.867
They hunted \'em down.

00:28:22.900 --> 00:28:24.467
They murdered everybody
that they could

00:28:24.500 --> 00:28:26.600
and made everybody else
either go to exile,

00:28:26.633 --> 00:28:28.367
or they locked them up
in the penitentiary.

00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:30.333
And when all that was over with,

00:28:30.367 --> 00:28:35.500
a new element rose up
called The Crips.

00:28:35.533 --> 00:28:37.100
You see?

00:28:37.133 --> 00:28:38.667
And the [...] started again.

00:28:38.933 --> 00:28:41.900
[dramatic music]

00:28:41.933 --> 00:28:49.933
♪ ♪

00:28:59.900 --> 00:29:04.567
The original Crips
came out of our neighborhood.

00:29:04.600 --> 00:29:06.733
They were the children
we passed by every day

00:29:06.767 --> 00:29:09.400
and paid no attention to,
but they watched us.

00:29:13.500 --> 00:29:16.167
We had the generation
our parents came from,

00:29:16.200 --> 00:29:21.900
and we had the great personalities
of their generation to connect with.

00:29:21.933 --> 00:29:25.567
We had something
to attach ourselves to.

00:29:25.600 --> 00:29:27.800
They didn\'t.

00:29:30.767 --> 00:29:34.667
They were born in a state
of suspended animation.

00:29:37.500 --> 00:29:41.600
They were totally disconnected
and disenfranchised.

00:29:41.633 --> 00:29:44.033
They\'re like a planet
out of orbit.

00:29:47.533 --> 00:29:49.200
(Whitaker)
In the late 1960s,

00:29:49.233 --> 00:29:51.967
from the blacktop playgrounds
of Fremont High School

00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:53.967
emerged this new order

00:29:54.000 --> 00:29:57.067
led by South L.A. teenager
Raymond Washington,

00:29:57.100 --> 00:30:00.367
generally credited
as the Crips\' founding member.

00:30:04.600 --> 00:30:08.233
In response, a number of rival gangs
formed an alliance,

00:30:08.267 --> 00:30:10.867
calling themselves Bloods,

00:30:10.900 --> 00:30:13.500
a moniker adopted
by African-American soldiers

00:30:13.533 --> 00:30:15.267
serving in Vietnam.

00:30:17.467 --> 00:30:21.967
With the opposing armies now in place,
battle flags were raised:

00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.700
blue for Crips
and red for Bloods.

00:30:25.733 --> 00:30:28.600
Yet exactly which set,
or neighborhood,

00:30:28.633 --> 00:30:33.400
drew first blood and why
may never be known.

00:30:33.433 --> 00:30:36.500
Much of the firsthand knowledge
has been taken to the grave

00:30:36.533 --> 00:30:39.033
by gang leaders
like Raymond Washington,

00:30:39.067 --> 00:30:42.667
who was shot and killed
on the corner of 64th and San Pedro.

00:30:44.867 --> 00:30:46.400
Gangs don\'t fight anymore.

00:30:46.433 --> 00:30:47.400
They don\'t use the fists.

00:30:47.433 --> 00:30:49.300
We used to fight,
but they don\'t do that anymore.

00:30:49.333 --> 00:30:50.333
We use the guns.

00:30:50.367 --> 00:30:52.600
All about shooting, taking \'em out.

00:30:54.033 --> 00:30:59.100
Part of the mechanics
of oppressing people

00:30:59.133 --> 00:31:02.467
is to pervert them to the extent

00:31:02.500 --> 00:31:06.533
that they become the instruments
of their own oppression.

00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:12.600
[gunshots]

00:31:16.300 --> 00:31:20.400
(Whitaker) Over the next four decades,
warring Crip and Blood sets

00:31:20.433 --> 00:31:25.333
would carve the streets of South L.A.
into a grid of rival territories.

00:31:37.700 --> 00:31:39.967
Today these fractured communities

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:43.567
are home to five generations
of urban soldiers.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.367
These are Crips and Bloods
of all different eras and ages

00:31:54.400 --> 00:31:58.400
from different neighborhoods,
loyal to different sets,

00:31:58.433 --> 00:32:00.967
yet they share
one thing in common.

00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:05.267
All have grown up at war
on the streets of L.A.

00:32:06.767 --> 00:32:09.433
If you ain\'t from where I\'m from,
[...] you.

00:32:09.467 --> 00:32:11.500
That\'s just how it is
where we come from.

00:32:11.533 --> 00:32:14.300
That\'s just the whole motto,
\"Kill or be killed.\"

00:32:26.567 --> 00:32:29.000
(Gee Active) Once you go to enemy turf,
anything can happen to you.

00:32:29.033 --> 00:32:31.767
Come across Normandy, you die.

00:32:31.800 --> 00:32:34.633
Come across Vermont,
I feel bad for you.

00:32:34.667 --> 00:32:36.867
(James)
When I was gangbanging,

00:32:36.900 --> 00:32:39.367
if you weren\'t from my hood,
you don\'t come to my hood.

00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:41.567
If you come to my hood
and you don\'t know nobody in my hood,

00:32:41.600 --> 00:32:43.600
then you die.

00:32:43.633 --> 00:32:45.233
(Young Dre)
West side of us is Bloods.

00:32:45.267 --> 00:32:46.667
On the east side of us is Crips.

00:32:46.700 --> 00:32:48.533
We\'re just surrounded in a box,
you know what I mean?

00:32:48.567 --> 00:32:50.633
We\'re surrounded by enemy sets.

00:32:50.667 --> 00:32:53.367
This was created
over 20 years ago

00:32:53.400 --> 00:32:55.267
to where the geographics
in the neighborhoods

00:32:55.300 --> 00:32:57.233
have been separated by gangs.

00:32:59.900 --> 00:33:02.433
(Nikko De)
Certain streets, certain alleys,

00:33:02.467 --> 00:33:05.267
certain stores, certain schools,

00:33:05.300 --> 00:33:08.733
certain parks
were claimed as turfs.

00:33:12.767 --> 00:33:15.767
(Bow Wow) You can\'t to this gas station
and put some gas in your car.

00:33:15.800 --> 00:33:19.267
You can\'t go to that Burger King over there
\'cause you in the wrong neighborhood.

00:33:19.300 --> 00:33:22.300
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:33:24.267 --> 00:33:27.467
You got some [...]
that\'ll ask you, \"Where you from?\"

00:33:27.500 --> 00:33:29.600
And you could tell them, you know,
\"I ain\'t from nowhere, homey.\"

00:33:29.633 --> 00:33:30.633
You know what I\'m saying?

00:33:30.667 --> 00:33:32.733
But you got some [...]
that won\'t ask you [...],

00:33:32.767 --> 00:33:34.767
just blow your head off
just \'cause where you at.

00:33:34.800 --> 00:33:36.967
I done been jammed up,
guns all in my face,

00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:38.167
\"Where you from?\"

00:33:38.200 --> 00:33:39.700
I had to tell them,
you know what I mean?

00:33:39.733 --> 00:33:41.733
Told \'em where I was from,
the guns come down,

00:33:41.767 --> 00:33:43.233
and I\'m out of the situation.

00:33:43.267 --> 00:33:44.467
(B-4)
I wish I can just go

00:33:44.500 --> 00:33:46.500
and just be wherever
I want to chill with, man.

00:33:46.533 --> 00:33:48.300
There\'s other girls
in other projects, man,

00:33:48.333 --> 00:33:50.300
I just want to go through
and just see, man.

00:33:50.333 --> 00:33:51.567
You feel what I\'m saying?

00:33:51.600 --> 00:33:53.100
My little young hotties, man.

00:33:53.133 --> 00:33:55.767
I can\'t even go over there
and see my young hotties.

00:33:55.800 --> 00:33:57.600
Oh, everything -
I can\'t, man.

00:33:57.633 --> 00:33:59.133
You can\'t do it.

00:34:03.100 --> 00:34:05.867
My little brother
walk out the door to school,

00:34:05.900 --> 00:34:07.133
6:00 in the morning,

00:34:07.167 --> 00:34:08.967
and they shoot at him
as he\'s going to school.

00:34:11.300 --> 00:34:14.000
(Young Dre) We\'ve been burying one
of our friends, one of our comrades,

00:34:14.033 --> 00:34:16.100
and we\'ve had shootouts at the funeral

00:34:16.133 --> 00:34:19.967
where another one of our homeboy
gets killed at the funeral.

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:21.000
You dig?

00:34:25.767 --> 00:34:28.933
So as we live
amongst each other,

00:34:28.967 --> 00:34:31.533
there might be one street,
it might be one gas station

00:34:31.567 --> 00:34:34.700
that service
two or three different gangs.

00:34:34.733 --> 00:34:37.267
Well, when I get to the gas station,
I have to find out,

00:34:37.300 --> 00:34:40.767
\"What are your intentions with me
while I\'m pumping gas?\"

00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:43.033
So I cannot turn my back
and allow you to shoot me

00:34:43.067 --> 00:34:44.467
or hit me
in the back of the head.

00:34:44.500 --> 00:34:47.300
I have to look you in your eyes
and see your intentions.

00:34:47.333 --> 00:34:50.267
And when I look you in your eyes,
I\'m looking to see if you\'re a wolf.

00:34:50.300 --> 00:34:52.800
If you\'re a wolf and I\'m a wolf,

00:34:52.833 --> 00:34:54.733
then we need to come
to some sort of agreement

00:34:54.767 --> 00:34:57.500
so we can both
get out of here peacefully.

00:34:57.533 --> 00:34:59.833
And if you\'re a pork chop,
I\'m happy.

00:34:59.867 --> 00:35:01.567
Let me go on and get my gas,
pork chop.

00:35:01.600 --> 00:35:03.867
I appreciate you being here.

00:35:03.900 --> 00:35:07.200
When I was in the communities
talking to guys in the gangs

00:35:07.233 --> 00:35:09.100
in Watts and Compton
and Inglewood -

00:35:09.133 --> 00:35:12.967
that so many of these,
particularly the younger guys,

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:15.633
had never seen the Pacific Ocean.

00:35:15.667 --> 00:35:17.733
In a gang-infested community,

00:35:17.767 --> 00:35:20.300
there are situations
where people will not leave

00:35:20.333 --> 00:35:22.833
a given ten-block radius
for years.

00:35:22.867 --> 00:35:24.600
Put it like this, man.

00:35:24.633 --> 00:35:26.067
For those that don\'t go nowhere,

00:35:26.100 --> 00:35:28.100
they got a [...]-up attitude
about a lot of [...].

00:35:28.133 --> 00:35:29.267
Why?

00:35:29.300 --> 00:35:30.933
Because they don\'t know
nothing else.

00:35:32.100 --> 00:35:33.500
(Kumasi)
And he\'s been taught, man,

00:35:33.533 --> 00:35:35.033
that if you ain\'t quick,
you dead.

00:35:35.067 --> 00:35:36.900
It\'s what they call \"slippin\'.\"

00:35:36.933 --> 00:35:39.600
Don\'t get caught slippin\'.

00:35:39.633 --> 00:35:44.967
\"Slipping\" means relaxing,
being off guard, not on point,

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:48.467
not always hostile, hard,
ready to do or die

00:35:48.500 --> 00:35:51.567
and be the one who does
instead of the one who dies.

00:36:01.767 --> 00:36:03.467
(Scrap)
You can\'t have heart living there.

00:36:03.500 --> 00:36:05.733
You have to be
on your toes at all times, man,

00:36:05.767 --> 00:36:08.233
because anything at any time
can happen to you.

00:36:08.267 --> 00:36:10.167
(Peralta) Wait a minute.
You can\'t have a heart?

00:36:10.200 --> 00:36:12.067
No, no, no.

00:36:12.100 --> 00:36:15.100
You can have a heart,
but you better not show it.

00:36:15.133 --> 00:36:16.867
It\'s sort of never
letting yourself be weak,

00:36:16.900 --> 00:36:21.800
never letting yourself be seen
as someone with feelings, emotions,

00:36:21.833 --> 00:36:25.600
except for brutal force.

00:36:47.633 --> 00:36:50.100
In the ghetto,
you will be taken advantage of.

00:36:50.133 --> 00:36:51.500
You will be targeted.

00:36:51.533 --> 00:36:52.900
The sharks will just eat you up.

00:36:52.933 --> 00:36:55.400
So out here
in the concrete jungle,

00:36:55.433 --> 00:36:57.467
you got to be respected
as a man.

00:36:59.867 --> 00:37:01.533
(T. Rodgers)
But in most cases,

00:37:01.567 --> 00:37:07.233
respect is actually fear.

00:37:07.267 --> 00:37:08.767
You better respect me.

00:37:08.800 --> 00:37:10.333
You better fear me.

00:37:11.900 --> 00:37:14.433
(Famous) You want to have that hard look.
Everything is hard.

00:37:14.467 --> 00:37:16.100
You want to be
in that right state of mind.

00:37:16.133 --> 00:37:17.900
If you\'re feeling good
about your dress code,

00:37:17.933 --> 00:37:19.333
you\'re going to represent
to the fullest.

00:37:19.367 --> 00:37:21.000
[echoing] Feeling good about
your dress code. State of mind.

00:37:21.033 --> 00:37:23.533
Feeling good about your dress code,
dress code.

00:37:23.567 --> 00:37:25.833
You don\'t want
to dress like no sucker,

00:37:25.867 --> 00:37:27.667
not out in the world,
not in the gang.

00:37:27.700 --> 00:37:30.300
[Famous, echoing] State of mind, state
of mind, state of mind, state of mind.

00:37:30.333 --> 00:37:32.067
State of mind, state of mind,
state of mind.

00:37:32.100 --> 00:37:34.367
(B-4) And that\'s all we know, man,
is looking good.

00:37:34.400 --> 00:37:36.867
[Famous, echoing] Feeling good about
your dress code, dress code, dress code.

00:37:36.900 --> 00:37:38.933
And do whatever it takes
to look good.

00:37:38.967 --> 00:37:42.300
[Famous, echoing]
Feeling good about your dress code.

00:37:42.333 --> 00:37:44.200
I was on a book tour,

00:37:44.233 --> 00:37:48.233
and two guys were with me
in San Francisco to be interviewed.

00:37:48.267 --> 00:37:51.033
I knocked on the door of their hotel room,
and they said, \"Come in.\"

00:37:51.067 --> 00:37:52.333
(man)
What\'s up, yo?

00:37:52.367 --> 00:37:54.833
(Bing) And here are two
of the most hard-core gang members,

00:37:54.867 --> 00:37:58.100
and one of them
has got his ironing board out,

00:37:58.133 --> 00:38:00.967
and he\'s got his traveling iron,
and he\'s ironing his clothes.

00:38:04.767 --> 00:38:06.400
(Flipside)
It\'s the look, man, you know?

00:38:06.433 --> 00:38:08.600
We just get some starch,
and we iron our [...].

00:38:11.667 --> 00:38:16.433
It was, like, fashion to make your pants
stand up in the corner with nobody in them.

00:38:16.467 --> 00:38:19.133
[laughs]

00:38:19.167 --> 00:38:20.567
How about that?

00:38:20.600 --> 00:38:22.000
You know what I mean?

00:38:35.900 --> 00:38:38.033
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:38:47.467 --> 00:38:50.967
(Peralta) For somebody that has no idea
why a young man would do it,

00:38:51.000 --> 00:38:52.500
what is the allure and stuff?

00:38:52.533 --> 00:38:54.700
I joined the gang
not only for the protection

00:38:54.733 --> 00:38:57.433
but for the love, for the unity,
to be a part of a family.

00:39:02.367 --> 00:39:04.800
(James) If you living in the ghetto
and you living in an environment

00:39:04.833 --> 00:39:06.667
where you\'re being assaulted
like I was -

00:39:06.700 --> 00:39:08.167
I just got tired
of being a victim.

00:39:08.200 --> 00:39:11.767
It\'s like, either you the victim
or you the victor.

00:39:14.267 --> 00:39:15.733
(B-4)
You\'re raised into it.

00:39:15.767 --> 00:39:17.367
It\'s not like you\'re going
to get out of it some way.

00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:18.700
You raised into it.

00:39:18.733 --> 00:39:20.767
Like, this is what they teach you
at a young age.

00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:22.867
(Bandana)
I was really a good dude.

00:39:22.900 --> 00:39:24.833
And then, you know,
getting chased out of school,

00:39:24.867 --> 00:39:26.967
getting shot at all the time.

00:39:27.000 --> 00:39:29.733
And you like, \"[...] it.
I\'m damned if I do, damned if I don\'t.\"

00:39:29.767 --> 00:39:31.667
[man speaking indistinctly]

00:39:31.700 --> 00:39:33.367
(Caddy)
I didn\'t get jumped in this.

00:39:33.400 --> 00:39:35.133
I grew up in this.

00:39:35.167 --> 00:39:37.533
My mom grew up
in my neighborhood.

00:39:37.567 --> 00:39:39.533
My dad from my neighborhood.

00:39:39.567 --> 00:39:41.600
All my uncles
from my neighborhood.

00:39:41.633 --> 00:39:44.100
So I don\'t look at it
as, like, no gang thing.

00:39:44.133 --> 00:39:45.667
It\'s just family.

00:39:52.900 --> 00:39:55.833
(Bandana) And that\'s why
when he\'s hooked up with his crew,

00:39:55.867 --> 00:39:56.867
they feeding him.

00:39:56.900 --> 00:39:58.833
They looking out for him
and putting clothes on his back.

00:39:58.867 --> 00:40:00.600
Okay, but now it\'s time
to get in this car

00:40:00.633 --> 00:40:02.933
and go get these [...]
that just shot up my house.

00:40:02.967 --> 00:40:05.300
What you gonna do?

00:40:05.333 --> 00:40:06.967
What you gonna -
you obligated to do.

00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:09.533
That man just fed you all month.

00:40:09.567 --> 00:40:11.667
So how can you say no to that?

00:40:11.700 --> 00:40:13.133
Let\'s go kill these [...],

00:40:13.167 --> 00:40:14.667
because, man, [...],
you feeding me.

00:40:14.700 --> 00:40:17.533
[guns cocking]

00:40:23.667 --> 00:40:25.633
(Peralta) How old were you
when you first got a gun?

00:40:25.667 --> 00:40:26.967
My first gun, I was, like, ten.

00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:29.733
I probably was about 12.

00:40:29.767 --> 00:40:32.100
Man, I got my first gun
when I was 13 years old.

00:40:32.133 --> 00:40:34.167
We got guns just to go to school,
you know?

00:40:34.200 --> 00:40:36.433
If you don\'t have one, you got to be
around somebody that got one.

00:40:36.467 --> 00:40:37.833
I carry two or three guns,

00:40:37.867 --> 00:40:39.733
\'cause if I run out of one,
I have another one.

00:40:39.767 --> 00:40:40.767
I got a backup.

00:40:42.200 --> 00:40:44.567
(Naji)
The AK-47, the Uzi, the MAC-10:

00:40:44.600 --> 00:40:45.700
you got big guns.

00:40:45.733 --> 00:40:47.700
You ain\'t got .22s
and .38s no more.

00:40:47.733 --> 00:40:50.467
These cats putting out 9-millimeters
with 16 bullets in \'em.

00:40:50.500 --> 00:40:52.667
Come on, man,
how you gonna survive that gunshot?

00:40:52.700 --> 00:40:54.133
[gun clicks]

00:40:54.167 --> 00:40:56.400
(Big Girch) My generation
was the last that fought.

00:40:56.433 --> 00:40:59.433
After my generation,
it was gunplay.

00:40:59.467 --> 00:41:01.167
There was no such thing
to fight.

00:41:01.200 --> 00:41:05.600
The kids today
came right in the game with guns.

00:41:05.633 --> 00:41:07.267
That\'s why there\'s so many murders.

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.500
(T. Rodgers) That\'s made a 12-year-old,
a 13-year-old king for a day.

00:41:14.533 --> 00:41:15.700
Oh, my God.

00:41:15.733 --> 00:41:17.733
Put you in a whole nother state.

00:41:17.767 --> 00:41:20.567
[gunshots]

00:41:23.567 --> 00:41:27.633
Just the sound within itself
says that you cleared the block.

00:41:27.667 --> 00:41:29.567
Pow, pow, pow.

00:41:29.600 --> 00:41:31.333
You cleared the block.

00:41:31.367 --> 00:41:33.833
People close their windows,
shut their doors.

00:41:33.867 --> 00:41:35.500
Car alarms go off.

00:41:35.533 --> 00:41:37.267
The dogs and cats run.

00:41:37.300 --> 00:41:39.233
Ain\'t no rats.

00:41:39.267 --> 00:41:41.833
I mean, you cleared the block.

00:41:41.867 --> 00:41:44.733
And you standing there,
12, 13 years old,

00:41:44.767 --> 00:41:47.167
with the pistol smoking.

00:41:47.200 --> 00:41:49.000
And you stick it in your pocket,

00:41:49.033 --> 00:41:50.467
and you walk on home.

00:41:56.867 --> 00:41:59.500
I think it\'s very hard to use a gun

00:41:59.533 --> 00:42:02.133
against another individual
or a human being,

00:42:02.167 --> 00:42:04.133
but once you block
that part of your mind out,

00:42:04.167 --> 00:42:05.300
it becomes very easy.

00:42:05.333 --> 00:42:07.533
You can watch \'em.
They become numb.

00:42:07.567 --> 00:42:09.933
The first time, they\'re jittery.

00:42:09.967 --> 00:42:12.100
You can just see
the nervousness in them.

00:42:12.133 --> 00:42:14.833
And you come back
and look at that same person

00:42:14.867 --> 00:42:17.533
after being involved
with the hood for a year,

00:42:17.567 --> 00:42:19.233
and, I mean, they soldiers.

00:42:19.267 --> 00:42:21.067
They\'re ready to get down.

00:42:30.900 --> 00:42:33.367
(Pete)
These wars go farther back

00:42:33.400 --> 00:42:34.933
than most
of these kids been around.

00:42:34.967 --> 00:42:38.533
A lot of them not sure about
why the war was going on,

00:42:38.567 --> 00:42:41.833
but they started doing
what was being done.

00:42:44.767 --> 00:42:46.300
(Caddy)
Don\'t nobody like us.

00:42:46.333 --> 00:42:47.600
But that\'s even before our time.

00:42:47.633 --> 00:42:50.700
Before I was born,
it\'s been like that.

00:42:50.733 --> 00:42:55.000
So I just grew up
into making more enemies.

00:42:57.900 --> 00:43:00.467
We at war
with a lot of people right now.

00:43:00.500 --> 00:43:03.833
But being who I am
and the [...] that I been through,

00:43:03.867 --> 00:43:07.100
I got a lot of love for being
a real [...] out here.

00:43:07.133 --> 00:43:09.967
And that has saved my life many times,
you know what I\'m saying?

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:11.433
But at the same time,

00:43:11.467 --> 00:43:13.600
it\'s another generation
that don\'t know me

00:43:13.633 --> 00:43:16.867
and feel like they can get a stripe
if they get rid of me.

00:43:17.733 --> 00:43:19.667
You see me, you give me a pass.

00:43:19.700 --> 00:43:21.600
I see you,
I might give you a pass.

00:43:21.633 --> 00:43:22.867
Depends on how I feel.

00:43:22.900 --> 00:43:24.233
Don\'t give me a pass,

00:43:24.267 --> 00:43:26.587
then you already know what time it is
next time you see me.

00:43:28.233 --> 00:43:31.367
(Nikko De)
The game is to hunt your enemies.

00:43:31.400 --> 00:43:33.300
And whatever they do,
you counterattack.

00:43:33.333 --> 00:43:35.033
They write on the wall,
you write on the wall.

00:43:35.067 --> 00:43:37.000
They beat up somebody,
you beat up somebody.

00:43:37.033 --> 00:43:38.667
They shoot somebody,
you shoot somebody.

00:43:38.700 --> 00:43:43.700
[sirens wailing]

00:43:43.733 --> 00:43:45.233
They come over here
and shoot one of us,

00:43:45.267 --> 00:43:47.467
we go over there and shoot,
like, three or four of them.

00:43:49.467 --> 00:43:52.300
We got to shoot back.

00:43:52.333 --> 00:43:54.267
We got to do
what\'s necessary to survive.

00:43:54.300 --> 00:43:56.200
And it became
a dog-eat-dog war.

00:43:58.667 --> 00:44:02.100
When of your loved ones get killed,
then what you expect to do?

00:44:02.133 --> 00:44:04.067
You got to retaliate,

00:44:04.100 --> 00:44:06.167
because your heart is broken,
not theirs.

00:44:06.200 --> 00:44:08.867
You know what I\'m saying?
You in tears at the funeral, not them.

00:44:08.900 --> 00:44:11.067
So now you got to make them feel
the way you feel.

00:44:11.100 --> 00:44:12.233
And this is a vicious cycle.

00:44:12.267 --> 00:44:14.200
It just goes over and over
and over again.

00:44:14.233 --> 00:44:15.700
[engine revving]

00:44:15.733 --> 00:44:18.167
[gunshot]

00:44:18.200 --> 00:44:20.567
[woman over radio]
98-26, stand by.

00:44:20.600 --> 00:44:23.600
[siren wailing]

00:44:25.533 --> 00:44:26.867
Two suspects.

00:44:26.900 --> 00:44:30.833
Suspect one: a male black,
black hair, dark eyes.

00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:42.600
Dark complexion
and medium-length natural.

00:44:42.633 --> 00:44:47.500
Suspect two: male black,
short black natural,

00:44:47.533 --> 00:44:49.967
white T-shirt,
no further description.

00:44:53.967 --> 00:44:57.667
(Big Girch) Even though I\'m in the game
I\'m in, I pray.

00:44:57.700 --> 00:45:00.633
(Peralta) But how do you deal
with the moral argument, man?

00:45:00.667 --> 00:45:02.300
I ignore it.

00:45:02.333 --> 00:45:03.933
I don\'t pay attention to it.

00:45:03.967 --> 00:45:08.967
There\'s really no room in this world
for soft [...], man.

00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:10.767
Soft [...] don\'t eat.

00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:13.033
I wrestle with my moral issues
a lot, man,

00:45:13.067 --> 00:45:16.800
because I know that ultimately,
this ain\'t the way that God

00:45:16.833 --> 00:45:18.933
or society intended it to be.

00:45:18.967 --> 00:45:20.067
So a lot of times, man,

00:45:20.100 --> 00:45:22.133
I know, morally,
I\'m a good individual,

00:45:22.167 --> 00:45:25.700
but sometimes I got to put
that moral state of mind behind me

00:45:25.733 --> 00:45:26.833
and become an animal.

00:45:50.333 --> 00:45:58.333
(men)
♪ Prettiest train that I ever seen, man ♪

00:45:58.433 --> 00:46:04.767
♪ Prettiest train, Lord,
I ever seen ♪

00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:06.500
Prior to World War II,

00:46:06.533 --> 00:46:11.000
85%, 90% of the black population
of this country lives in the South.

00:46:11.033 --> 00:46:17.167
(men)
♪ New Orleans, New Orleans ♪

00:46:17.200 --> 00:46:18.667
(Boyd)
Black people had primarily

00:46:18.700 --> 00:46:20.833
lived in the South
because of slavery,

00:46:20.867 --> 00:46:23.767
and the South was a rural, agrarian -
a farm economy.

00:46:23.800 --> 00:46:29.033
(men) ♪ Police\'ll get you
and you\'re workhouse bound ♪

00:46:30.567 --> 00:46:33.567
[whistle blows]

00:46:35.567 --> 00:46:37.100
(Sides)
World War II ushers in

00:46:37.133 --> 00:46:38.933
a series of transformations

00:46:38.967 --> 00:46:40.467
that radically change the nature

00:46:40.500 --> 00:46:43.500
of black history
in this country.

00:46:43.533 --> 00:46:46.733
Blacks, for the first time,
are invited en masse

00:46:46.767 --> 00:46:50.600
to work in America\'s
industrial arsenal for democracy,

00:46:50.633 --> 00:46:52.433
building those tanks,
building those planes,

00:46:52.467 --> 00:46:54.000
building those ships.

00:46:58.233 --> 00:47:01.167
Between 1940s and the 1970s,

00:47:01.200 --> 00:47:04.633
you see over 4 million African-Americans
leave the South

00:47:04.667 --> 00:47:08.800
in ways that had
never, never occurred before.

00:47:08.833 --> 00:47:10.900
Head for New York.
Head for Chicago.

00:47:10.933 --> 00:47:12.833
Head for Los Angeles.

00:47:16.200 --> 00:47:18.600
For the first time,
they were integrated

00:47:18.633 --> 00:47:21.233
into the American work economy.

00:47:21.267 --> 00:47:22.367
They were earning enough

00:47:22.400 --> 00:47:25.267
to be lower middle-class
homeowners in L.A.

00:47:25.300 --> 00:47:27.967
and to establish,
if not exactly,

00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:30.967
a very close similarity
to the American dream.

00:47:40.867 --> 00:47:44.733
L.A. didn\'t have
the overt history with racism

00:47:44.767 --> 00:47:46.533
that one had in the South.

00:47:46.567 --> 00:47:50.133
(Sides) There were no laws that said
blacks had to ride on one part of the bus.

00:47:50.167 --> 00:47:52.700
There were no laws that said
blacks had to be in certain schools.

00:47:52.733 --> 00:47:55.633
There were, however,
an extremely exclusive web

00:47:55.667 --> 00:47:57.933
of racially restricted
housing covenants

00:47:57.967 --> 00:48:00.367
that kept blacks
in particular areas

00:48:00.400 --> 00:48:02.967
and out of other areas.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:06.667
(Whitaker) These covenants mandated
the sale of real estate along racial lines

00:48:06.700 --> 00:48:09.400
in an effort to keep
traditionally white neighborhoods

00:48:09.433 --> 00:48:12.333
free of nondesirable homeowners.

00:48:12.367 --> 00:48:14.600
(Sides)
Sometimes \"nondesirable\" meant Latino.

00:48:14.633 --> 00:48:17.033
Sometimes \"nondesirable\" meant Jew.

00:48:17.067 --> 00:48:18.800
Sometimes \"nondesirable\" meant Asian.

00:48:18.833 --> 00:48:21.100
But it always meant black.

00:48:21.133 --> 00:48:23.533
And so those
racially restrictive covenants,

00:48:23.567 --> 00:48:27.100
which didn\'t disappear
until the late \'40s and early \'50s,

00:48:27.133 --> 00:48:29.167
essentially kept blacks
circumscribed

00:48:29.200 --> 00:48:33.567
in a very narrow portion
of the L.A. County region.

00:48:33.600 --> 00:48:38.133
(Boyd) Black people were sort of forced
to live on top of each other

00:48:38.167 --> 00:48:40.533
because it just wasn\'t possible
to live where you chose,

00:48:40.567 --> 00:48:43.733
even though you might\'ve
been able to afford it.

00:48:43.767 --> 00:48:45.500
[horn honking]

00:48:49.000 --> 00:48:50.633
(Whitaker)
South L.A. residents responded

00:48:50.667 --> 00:48:52.833
by transforming
their allotted territory

00:48:52.867 --> 00:48:55.300
into a thriving cultural hub,

00:48:55.333 --> 00:48:59.367
with Central Avenue developing
into a sort of Harlem west.

00:49:01.867 --> 00:49:04.567
(Sides)
West Coast\'s best jazz clubs,

00:49:04.600 --> 00:49:07.733
dozens of black businesses
lining the street,

00:49:07.767 --> 00:49:11.200
people dressed in their Sunday best
on the weekends:

00:49:11.233 --> 00:49:14.900
a period during which the most affluent
and the poorest blacks

00:49:14.933 --> 00:49:16.767
live essentially side by side.

00:49:22.867 --> 00:49:25.433
(Whitaker)
And then with World War II\'s end,

00:49:25.467 --> 00:49:30.000
L.A.\'s wartime economy adapted itself
to a booming automotive industry,

00:49:30.033 --> 00:49:36.300
with major corporations like GM,
Chrysler, Ford, Goodyear, and Firestone

00:49:36.333 --> 00:49:40.633
all establishing factories
in South Los Angeles.

00:49:40.667 --> 00:49:42.707
(Boyd) You work in a factory,
you got good benefits,

00:49:42.733 --> 00:49:43.733
and you could buy a house.

00:49:43.767 --> 00:49:44.767
You could buy a car.

00:49:44.800 --> 00:49:46.233
You could raise a family.

00:49:46.267 --> 00:49:49.167
You could live a working-class
or lower middle-class life.

00:49:54.667 --> 00:49:57.267
(Sides) It was a moment
of unprecedented black prosperity

00:49:57.300 --> 00:50:00.733
in which the trajectory
of black America was on the rise.

00:50:00.767 --> 00:50:02.767
People were getting jobs.
People were buying homes.

00:50:02.800 --> 00:50:05.733
People were buying cars,
sending their kids to colleges.

00:50:05.767 --> 00:50:07.567
It was a moment
of real optimism.

00:50:17.567 --> 00:50:18.867
In the late 1950s,

00:50:18.900 --> 00:50:23.900
you begin to get the first wave

00:50:23.933 --> 00:50:27.200
of what came to be called
de-industrialization.

00:50:35.067 --> 00:50:36.767
The American economy
is changing.

00:50:36.800 --> 00:50:39.067
We\'re moving
from an industrial economy

00:50:39.100 --> 00:50:41.233
to an economy based on service,

00:50:41.267 --> 00:50:44.533
based on information,
rooted in technology.

00:50:44.567 --> 00:50:47.967
(Sides) That is, it\'s high-skilled,
high-wage, high-training on one hand,

00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:51.333
very low-skilled,
sweatshop labor on the other hand.

00:50:53.600 --> 00:50:58.567
Blacks find that their skills
don\'t fit into either of those demands.

00:50:58.600 --> 00:51:01.100
They don\'t have the education
or the skill or the training

00:51:01.133 --> 00:51:05.200
because of historic discrimination
to work in aerospace.

00:51:05.233 --> 00:51:07.967
On the other hand,
they don\'t feel any desire or need

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:10.467
to go into the low-skilled
service sector jobs

00:51:10.500 --> 00:51:14.633
like hotel cleaning,
like sweatshop work in downtown L.A.

00:51:14.667 --> 00:51:18.333
because they don\'t perceive that as jobs
that American citizens should have.

00:51:19.667 --> 00:51:23.067
(Boyd) We\'re not talking about people
who had careers.

00:51:23.100 --> 00:51:25.667
We\'re talking about people
who had jobs.

00:51:25.700 --> 00:51:29.667
If you have a job,
you are dependent upon that job.

00:51:29.700 --> 00:51:33.833
So when that factory closes,
you are, in essence, ass out.

00:51:36.967 --> 00:51:38.100
(Sides)
By the late \'60s,

00:51:38.133 --> 00:51:40.467
you see those plants
beginning to disappear.

00:51:40.500 --> 00:51:41.900
When they disappear,

00:51:41.933 --> 00:51:44.267
there is virtually nothing left
in their wake.

00:51:54.700 --> 00:52:02.700
And so it leaves a gaping hole
in the economy of that region

00:52:04.367 --> 00:52:08.400
with consequences
that are just enormous.

00:52:14.133 --> 00:52:16.067
Generationally, in America,

00:52:16.100 --> 00:52:18.300
it\'s supposed to be
about the American dream.

00:52:18.333 --> 00:52:19.667
People are supposed to move up.

00:52:19.700 --> 00:52:22.200
They\'re supposed to elevate.

00:52:22.233 --> 00:52:26.267
We\'re talking about a situation
where, in actuality, it went in reverse.

00:52:26.300 --> 00:52:30.267
The children, over time,
began to do worse than their parents.

00:52:35.600 --> 00:52:40.800
(Whitaker) In 1975, the Los Angeles Times
sent reporters into the streets

00:52:40.833 --> 00:52:44.067
to assess progress
in the city\'s black communities

00:52:44.100 --> 00:52:47.367
ten years
after the Watts rebellion.

00:52:47.400 --> 00:52:50.400
\"The fearful live behind protective bars
and double locks.

00:52:50.433 --> 00:52:54.533
\"High schools are graduating
functional illiterates.

00:52:54.567 --> 00:52:56.833
\"Some black people
have got businesses;

00:52:56.867 --> 00:52:59.967
\"some professionals
have gotten into significant jobs.

00:53:00.067 --> 00:53:02.033
\"But if you talk about the masses

00:53:02.067 --> 00:53:05.200
\"or that guy who was in trouble
in 1965,

00:53:05.233 --> 00:53:09.067
\"it is more difficult now.

00:53:09.100 --> 00:53:13.033
For the black in the ghetto,
the goal is survival.\"

00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:16.600
(Shakur)
♪ California love ♪

00:53:16.633 --> 00:53:19.600
[hip-hop music]

00:53:19.633 --> 00:53:26.133
♪ ♪

00:53:26.167 --> 00:53:28.567
♪ California ♪

00:53:28.600 --> 00:53:31.700
♪ Knows how to party ♪

00:53:31.733 --> 00:53:34.067
♪ California ♪

00:53:34.100 --> 00:53:37.000
♪ Knows how to party ♪

00:53:37.033 --> 00:53:42.333
♪ In the city of L.A. ♪

00:53:42.367 --> 00:53:47.100
♪ In the city
of good old Watts ♪

00:53:47.133 --> 00:53:51.800
♪ In the city,
city of Compton ♪

00:53:51.833 --> 00:53:54.867
♪ We keep it rockin\' ♪

00:53:54.967 --> 00:53:57.933
♪ We keep it rockin\' ♪

00:53:57.967 --> 00:54:00.133
(Peralta) Can I ask you
a few more questions?

00:54:00.167 --> 00:54:02.300
Yes, definitely.

00:54:02.333 --> 00:54:03.800
Pete, hold on.
Let\'s just set this up.

00:54:03.833 --> 00:54:06.667
I don\'t want to lose
what you say.

00:54:06.700 --> 00:54:09.700
[sirens wailing]

00:54:25.133 --> 00:54:28.000
Huh? Sirens, huh?

00:54:28.033 --> 00:54:32.300
How about if they going on
all night and all day?

00:54:32.333 --> 00:54:34.567
All night.

00:54:34.600 --> 00:54:36.533
All day.

00:54:38.233 --> 00:54:43.500
(man)
♪ You on your own down here, man ♪

00:54:43.533 --> 00:54:47.400
♪ You on, you on, you on,
you on your own down here ♪

00:54:47.433 --> 00:54:51.167
[record scratching furiously]

00:54:51.200 --> 00:54:54.400
Got Hurricane Katrina
going on right here, been going on.

00:54:54.433 --> 00:54:56.533
Gang of refugees,
if you want to call \'em that.

00:54:56.567 --> 00:54:58.867
We displaced like a [...].

00:55:03.100 --> 00:55:04.667
(Skipp)
A helicopter flying overhead

00:55:04.700 --> 00:55:07.233
might not be acceptable
in Brentwood.

00:55:07.267 --> 00:55:11.733
However, it\'s something that occurs
every two or three hours in my community.

00:55:11.767 --> 00:55:14.267
(Basheer)
In the South Central community,

00:55:14.300 --> 00:55:17.100
basically what you have
is empty fields,

00:55:17.133 --> 00:55:19.433
broken-down businesses,
if you have any businesses.

00:55:23.633 --> 00:55:25.167
Every corner,
you got a liquor store.

00:55:25.200 --> 00:55:28.400
You got all the different things
that help make you less stable.

00:55:35.100 --> 00:55:37.600
Take a walk down Adams Boulevard
from Crenshaw to Vermont,

00:55:37.633 --> 00:55:39.733
and you tell me the opportunities
that are available.

00:55:39.767 --> 00:55:42.833
Low-income housing,
five or six churches,

00:55:42.867 --> 00:55:44.400
gang violence, crack.

00:55:48.933 --> 00:55:52.600
(Whitaker) Introduction of crack cocaine
onto the streets of L.A. in 1981

00:55:52.633 --> 00:55:57.467
proved to be a major tipping point
for an already vulnerable community.

00:56:00.700 --> 00:56:03.533
When cocaine came into our area,
it broke up a lot of homes.

00:56:03.567 --> 00:56:07.767
You know, a lot of people just thought
crack was the way out,

00:56:07.800 --> 00:56:09.833
you know, without even
thinking about their kids,

00:56:09.867 --> 00:56:10.833
you know what I\'m saying?

00:56:10.867 --> 00:56:12.733
That what broke a lot of homes up.

00:56:12.767 --> 00:56:15.867
If that crack would\'ve never came,
we\'d probably still have nice little homes

00:56:15.900 --> 00:56:17.467
and nice little families,
you know?

00:56:17.500 --> 00:56:20.433
But when that came,
that, like, tore everything apart.

00:56:21.633 --> 00:56:24.500
(Peralta) Let me ask you, man, did you have
a conventional childhood?

00:56:24.533 --> 00:56:26.400
Hell, no. Dysfunctional-[...] family.

00:56:26.433 --> 00:56:27.700
Can you tell me about it?

00:56:27.733 --> 00:56:29.000
[...] up.

00:56:29.033 --> 00:56:30.167
Father?

00:56:30.200 --> 00:56:31.800
He out of here.
He been gone since \'93.

00:56:31.833 --> 00:56:33.767
I was raised without a daddy,
basically.

00:56:33.800 --> 00:56:35.467
So I had to be a man on my own,

00:56:35.500 --> 00:56:37.733
take care of my mommy and [...],
my G-moms,

00:56:37.767 --> 00:56:39.433
my family,
my little brothers and sisters.

00:56:39.467 --> 00:56:41.233
I had to do this [...]
by myself.

00:56:41.267 --> 00:56:43.267
How do you advise
your little brothers and sisters?

00:56:43.300 --> 00:56:45.133
Do what you do.

00:56:45.167 --> 00:56:46.133
What else can I tell \'em?

00:56:46.167 --> 00:56:47.667
Look at me.

00:56:56.433 --> 00:56:58.200
My mom was on drugs,
you know what I\'m saying?

00:56:58.233 --> 00:57:01.367
Now she cool, you know,
but back when I was younger.

00:57:01.400 --> 00:57:05.467
My dad, he in a federal penitentiary,
12 years, you know?

00:57:07.900 --> 00:57:10.167
I grew up in a house
where my grandmother,

00:57:10.200 --> 00:57:11.800
my uncle,
everybody was selling drugs.

00:57:11.833 --> 00:57:12.933
You know what I\'m saying?

00:57:12.967 --> 00:57:14.767
I grew up to where
when the police raiding,

00:57:14.800 --> 00:57:17.700
they handed me drugs to hide
and all this other stuff.

00:57:19.700 --> 00:57:21.433
I grew up in a home
where my mother worked two jobs

00:57:21.467 --> 00:57:23.000
but had three boys.

00:57:23.033 --> 00:57:25.167
So you can imagine
we were unsupervised,

00:57:25.200 --> 00:57:28.467
so I found my supervision
outside of the home.

00:57:31.500 --> 00:57:38.767
She was too busy making a living
than to love me.

00:57:38.800 --> 00:57:41.567
Even though she tried
and did the best that she could,

00:57:41.600 --> 00:57:43.433
it was not enough.

00:57:43.467 --> 00:57:47.567
I could say that my whole life,

00:57:47.600 --> 00:57:50.533
I was trying to figure out
why my mother didn\'t love me

00:57:50.567 --> 00:57:52.433
or why my mother
didn\'t show me love.

00:57:52.467 --> 00:57:54.933
If she could say it,
she couldn\'t show it,

00:57:54.967 --> 00:57:57.233
meaning that she never once
gave me a hug or a kiss.

00:57:57.267 --> 00:58:01.167
It\'d be $20 because she would
have to go somewhere.

00:58:01.200 --> 00:58:04.367
But all the while,
I saw her chasing other men,

00:58:04.400 --> 00:58:06.267
other people,
and giving them the love

00:58:06.300 --> 00:58:08.133
I thought I should have.

00:58:08.167 --> 00:58:10.733
It made me act out.

00:58:10.767 --> 00:58:14.533
It made me resent her
in a certain way.

00:58:14.567 --> 00:58:17.133
Only because -
I could\'ve resented my dad,

00:58:17.167 --> 00:58:19.233
but he never showed me
the negative imagery.

00:58:19.267 --> 00:58:20.433
He just was gone.

00:58:20.467 --> 00:58:23.900
So all I had was a thought
of who he was,

00:58:23.933 --> 00:58:27.400
and who am I?

00:58:41.300 --> 00:58:43.633
(Big Chan) There was a lot of black kids
in the neighborhood

00:58:43.667 --> 00:58:45.100
that just went the opposite way.

00:58:45.133 --> 00:58:47.300
Or when the gangs was outside,
they didn\'t come outside,

00:58:47.333 --> 00:58:48.567
you know what I\'m saying?

00:58:48.600 --> 00:58:52.367
They had some parents that,
\"Get in your books,\" and stayed on \'em.

00:58:52.400 --> 00:58:54.733
But if everybody had that,

00:58:54.767 --> 00:58:56.700
then a lot of things
would\'ve been different.

00:58:56.733 --> 00:58:59.300
But that wasn\'t the case.

00:58:59.333 --> 00:59:02.100
A lot of minds are messed up
because they don\'t have that support.

00:59:02.133 --> 00:59:04.200
They don\'t have no one
that really got their back.

00:59:04.233 --> 00:59:07.200
They don\'t really have no one
who understand them.

00:59:10.967 --> 00:59:13.267
You got the homies down the alley
drinking some 8-Ball,

00:59:13.300 --> 00:59:14.933
and they tell you,
\"You are something.

00:59:14.967 --> 00:59:16.533
We love you,
and you can be a part of this.\"

00:59:16.567 --> 00:59:17.767
Then where you gonna go?

00:59:28.200 --> 00:59:30.967
(Kumasi) The common thread
throughout all of these conversations

00:59:31.000 --> 00:59:34.000
and throughout our community
seems to be,

00:59:34.033 --> 00:59:37.200
for the most part,
the absence of a father,

00:59:37.233 --> 00:59:40.933
a male figure, a father figure,
in the home.

00:59:49.300 --> 00:59:55.733
I wasn\'t taught at all
about manhood.

00:59:55.767 --> 00:59:57.733
I was raised
by my great-grandmother,

00:59:57.767 --> 00:59:59.533
my grandmother, and my mother.

00:59:59.567 --> 01:00:01.567
There was no male figure.

01:00:01.600 --> 01:00:03.667
There was no role model for me.

01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:17.267
So if you come up in a home
when there is no male influence,

01:00:17.300 --> 01:00:20.233
there\'s no strong male influence,

01:00:20.267 --> 01:00:22.700
then everything
is going to be out of whack.

01:00:22.733 --> 01:00:25.400
The people that taught me
taught me wrong,

01:00:25.433 --> 01:00:26.967
taught me how to be hard,

01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:29.600
taught me
how it was about being tough.

01:00:29.633 --> 01:00:31.567
You gonna teach me
how to be a man by just fighting,

01:00:31.600 --> 01:00:34.233
tell me to fight somebody
or go shoot somebody.

01:00:34.267 --> 01:00:35.907
That\'s the way
they taught me being a man.

01:00:40.833 --> 01:00:44.867
(Brown) You have a subculture
of young black men

01:00:44.900 --> 01:00:48.900
pretending to be men
by killing each other

01:00:48.933 --> 01:00:52.100
or by standing up
in a bravado manner.

01:00:56.467 --> 01:00:58.133
But they\'re misguided.

01:01:06.867 --> 01:01:10.133
Well, I\'ll sit here,
and I\'ll tell you

01:01:10.167 --> 01:01:13.567
that I didn\'t become a man
until I was 38 years old...

01:01:21.800 --> 01:01:27.167
Because I had
to hold the hand of a man.

01:01:27.200 --> 01:01:28.667
It was just that simple.

01:01:28.700 --> 01:01:33.367
A man had to stoop low enough
to take me out of the gutter

01:01:33.400 --> 01:01:35.167
and say,
\"Hey, this is the way to go.

01:01:35.200 --> 01:01:36.533
\"This is what you do.

01:01:36.567 --> 01:01:38.400
This is how it\'s done.\"

01:01:45.600 --> 01:01:49.200
Nowadays, the fathers
or the black men my age

01:01:49.233 --> 01:01:51.133
are either dead or in jail.

01:01:51.167 --> 01:01:54.300
And one of the problems we have is,

01:01:54.333 --> 01:01:56.100
if they\'re going to try
to arrest the problem,

01:01:56.133 --> 01:01:59.433
that means they\'re putting
all the black men in jail.

01:02:06.367 --> 01:02:09.800
(Whitaker)
A 2003 Bureau of Justice report reveals

01:02:09.833 --> 01:02:13.067
that 28%
of African-American men,

01:02:13.100 --> 01:02:14.433
more than one in four,

01:02:14.467 --> 01:02:19.767
will be jailed or sent to prison
in their lifetime.

01:02:19.800 --> 01:02:22.033
We have engaged in this country

01:02:22.067 --> 01:02:25.633
in an absolutely
historically unprecedented

01:02:25.667 --> 01:02:29.333
experiment in mass imprisonment.

01:02:29.367 --> 01:02:32.167
We now have an imprisonment rate

01:02:32.200 --> 01:02:34.233
that is six
to seven times higher

01:02:34.267 --> 01:02:36.567
than it has ever been before
in our history.

01:02:36.600 --> 01:02:38.600
(Ice Cube)
♪ It\'s a hustle called capitalism ♪

01:02:38.633 --> 01:02:40.000
♪ Got my [...] in prison ♪

01:02:40.033 --> 01:02:41.833
♪ Or stuck in the system, yeah ♪

01:02:41.867 --> 01:02:43.867
(Whitaker)
In 2007, California\'s governor

01:02:43.900 --> 01:02:47.767
announced plans
to spend $7.4 billion

01:02:47.800 --> 01:02:49.867
to build 40,000 new prison beds.

01:02:49.900 --> 01:02:51.300
(Ice Cube)
♪ I\'m from a place ♪

01:02:51.333 --> 01:02:54.800
♪ Where the [...] Terminator
is the governor ♪

01:02:54.833 --> 01:02:57.400
(Boyd) If you look at the population
of the people in the penitentiary,

01:02:57.433 --> 01:02:59.900
particularly from the 1980s
going forward,

01:02:59.933 --> 01:03:03.467
black men are
disproportionately represented.

01:03:03.500 --> 01:03:06.533
That\'s the new cotton field
right there, the pen.

01:03:06.567 --> 01:03:09.033
(Ice Cube)
♪ Concrete slave ships never move ♪

01:03:09.067 --> 01:03:11.633
♪ Where [...] like us
get used like a mule ♪

01:03:11.667 --> 01:03:14.333
♪ Don\'t let \'em catch you,
arrest you ♪

01:03:14.367 --> 01:03:15.900
♪ Strip and undress you ♪

01:03:15.933 --> 01:03:18.500
♪ Throw you in a cesspool ♪

01:03:18.533 --> 01:03:20.033
(Gilligan)
What this means is,

01:03:20.067 --> 01:03:23.667
we are breaking up
even the possibility

01:03:23.700 --> 01:03:26.667
of there being intact families

01:03:26.700 --> 01:03:29.000
with a mother
and a father present

01:03:29.033 --> 01:03:30.767
raising a child together...

01:03:30.800 --> 01:03:33.233
(Ice Cube)
♪ The [...] trap ♪

01:03:33.267 --> 01:03:37.367
(Gilligan) Because we are sending
the men off to prison

01:03:37.400 --> 01:03:42.100
at unprecedented rates,
usually for nonviolent offenses.

01:03:42.133 --> 01:03:43.733
(Ice Cube)
♪ The ghetto is a [...] trap ♪

01:03:43.767 --> 01:03:45.033
♪ Take the cheese ♪

01:03:45.067 --> 01:03:47.400
♪ Soon as you do it,
here come the police ♪

01:03:47.433 --> 01:03:50.167
♪ Invented and designed
for us to fail ♪

01:03:50.200 --> 01:03:52.800
♪ Where you gonna end up,
dead or in jail ♪

01:03:52.833 --> 01:03:55.100
(Whitaker)
Even with time served,

01:03:55.133 --> 01:03:57.667
many of those determined
to start a new life

01:03:57.700 --> 01:04:00.533
find little freedom
in their release.

01:04:00.567 --> 01:04:01.567
I go to get a job.

01:04:01.600 --> 01:04:03.233
I\'m working for Xerox.

01:04:03.267 --> 01:04:04.967
And I lied on the application,

01:04:05.000 --> 01:04:06.500
and they found out
I was on parole,

01:04:06.533 --> 01:04:08.133
and I lost my job.

01:04:08.167 --> 01:04:11.800
I used to be jealous of my wife
going to work every day.

01:04:11.833 --> 01:04:13.167
This is my wife,

01:04:13.200 --> 01:04:14.867
a woman that\'s stood by me,
grew up with me,

01:04:14.900 --> 01:04:17.133
been with me
ever since we was kids.

01:04:17.167 --> 01:04:18.833
And she would go out the house
and go to work,

01:04:18.867 --> 01:04:20.567
and I would be mad at her

01:04:20.600 --> 01:04:23.233
because she could go to work
and I couldn\'t go.

01:04:23.267 --> 01:04:24.800
Man, I feel like, man,
we over here, man,

01:04:24.833 --> 01:04:27.033
we locked in a box, man,
no matter what we do.

01:04:27.067 --> 01:04:28.833
You get a record,
you\'re not getting nothing.

01:04:28.867 --> 01:04:30.233
I just got out the pen.

01:04:30.267 --> 01:04:31.667
They don\'t hire me
\'cause I\'m a parolee.

01:04:31.700 --> 01:04:33.267
So what I\'ma do,
just sit out here and be broke?

01:04:33.300 --> 01:04:34.600
Stop it.

01:04:34.633 --> 01:04:36.800
Either I\'ma sell some weed,
some dope, some crystal,

01:04:36.833 --> 01:04:38.933
some heroin,
or I\'m fixin\' to rob.

01:04:38.967 --> 01:04:40.733
- To make ends meet?
- That\'s the bottom line.

01:04:40.767 --> 01:04:43.200
There\'s never no cycle
to get us out of this.

01:04:43.233 --> 01:04:45.467
There\'s just a cycle
to get us back into it.

01:04:45.500 --> 01:04:50.300
So of course people are going to behave
in ways that are antisocial

01:04:50.333 --> 01:04:53.667
if we don\'t let them behave
in pro-social ways.

01:05:00.433 --> 01:05:04.200
When you hear America saying,
\"There\'s gonna be a war on crime,\"

01:05:04.233 --> 01:05:10.467
to a black person, that means
that\'s a war on black people.

01:05:10.500 --> 01:05:12.667
When they say, \"A war on gangs,\"
I say that\'s a war on me.

01:05:12.700 --> 01:05:15.067
When they say, \"War on drugs,\"
I say that\'s a war on me.

01:05:18.233 --> 01:05:20.933
Every war they got is a war
against me and my people.

01:05:20.967 --> 01:05:24.933
We need to come in here
and solve this problem,

01:05:24.967 --> 01:05:26.500
not attack this problem,

01:05:26.533 --> 01:05:28.333
\'cause here\'s a people
that\'s already angry.

01:05:28.367 --> 01:05:31.500
I don\'t have nothing to lose
if you attack me, sir.

01:05:31.533 --> 01:05:33.200
I\'m being attacked
every day anyway.

01:05:33.233 --> 01:05:35.467
I\'m being shot at
every day anyway.

01:05:35.500 --> 01:05:38.067
So you shooting at me,
you putting me in jail

01:05:38.100 --> 01:05:40.967
don\'t mean nothing to me.

01:05:41.000 --> 01:05:43.300
(Hayden) That\'s where the gang problem,
so-called, is.

01:05:43.333 --> 01:05:47.367
It\'s been redefined as a crime problem
and a gang problem.

01:05:47.400 --> 01:05:51.400
But it\'s really
an issue of no work

01:05:51.433 --> 01:05:53.733
and dysfunctional schools
and so on.

01:05:53.767 --> 01:05:57.367
(Gilligan) We know that what we\'ve been doing
to deal with gang violence isn\'t working,

01:05:57.400 --> 01:06:00.200
but we just keep doing the same thing
over and over again.

01:06:00.233 --> 01:06:03.400
And then we say,
\"Well, the fact that it isn\'t working

01:06:03.433 --> 01:06:06.800
\"doesn\'t mean that we\'re acting
out of ignorance

01:06:06.833 --> 01:06:08.900
or maybe we need
to learn something.\"

01:06:08.933 --> 01:06:14.200
We say, \"It just proves
that these kids are unredeemable.\"

01:06:16.867 --> 01:06:18.267
(Hayden)
It\'s a belief

01:06:18.300 --> 01:06:24.100
that our society did not contribute
to the formation of this problem.

01:06:24.133 --> 01:06:27.733
That\'s the story
of the scapegoat.

01:06:27.767 --> 01:06:30.467
The gang member
is the scapegoat.

01:06:30.500 --> 01:06:31.500
Nothing\'s our fault.

01:06:31.533 --> 01:06:33.700
It\'s their fault.

01:06:33.733 --> 01:06:35.667
We didn\'t create them.

01:06:35.700 --> 01:06:37.867
They\'re inevitably incorrigible.

01:06:42.433 --> 01:06:44.500
(Whitaker) This continuing
atmosphere of denial

01:06:44.533 --> 01:06:48.833
virtually guaranteed
that history would repeat itself.

01:06:48.867 --> 01:06:53.333
On April 29, 1992,
27 years and five miles away

01:06:53.367 --> 01:06:57.800
from the flashpoint
of the 1965 Watts rebellion,

01:06:57.833 --> 01:07:00.400
rioting again broke out,

01:07:00.433 --> 01:07:02.967
the most violent,
costly outbreak

01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:06.333
of civil unrest
in U.S. history.

01:07:06.367 --> 01:07:08.767
(Chuck D) ♪ I got so much trouble
on my mind ♪

01:07:08.800 --> 01:07:10.967
♪ Refuse to lose ♪

01:07:11.000 --> 01:07:12.967
♪ Here\'s your ticket ♪

01:07:13.000 --> 01:07:14.900
♪ Hear the drummer
get wicked ♪

01:07:14.933 --> 01:07:16.767
(Whitaker)
The explosion of angry protests

01:07:16.800 --> 01:07:19.000
was touched off by the outcome

01:07:19.033 --> 01:07:21.967
of the controversial
Rodney King-LAPD

01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:23.533
police brutality trial.

01:07:23.567 --> 01:07:25.433
(Chuck D)
♪ Man, I\'ve had it up to here ♪

01:07:25.467 --> 01:07:26.800
(Ron)
The message to the community

01:07:26.833 --> 01:07:29.000
is that the system
does not deliver justice.

01:07:29.033 --> 01:07:30.867
It does not work for us.

01:07:30.900 --> 01:07:32.967
So we have to find our justice
in the streets.

01:07:33.000 --> 01:07:34.667
(Chuck D)
♪ My home is your home ♪

01:07:34.700 --> 01:07:36.800
(all)
No justice, no peace.

01:07:36.833 --> 01:07:38.333
No justice, no peace.

01:07:38.367 --> 01:07:39.733
(Public Enemy)
♪ But welcome to the terrordome ♪

01:07:39.767 --> 01:07:43.967
♪ Come on down ♪

01:07:44.067 --> 01:07:47.867
♪ Come on down ♪

01:07:47.900 --> 01:07:50.167
(Whitaker)
But unlike the \'65 rebellion,

01:07:50.200 --> 01:07:52.400
which was primarily
contained to Watts,

01:07:52.433 --> 01:07:55.000
the flames of \'92
burned their way

01:07:55.033 --> 01:07:58.167
to the very doorstep
of bordering affluent communities.

01:07:58.200 --> 01:08:02.333
♪ ♪

01:08:02.367 --> 01:08:05.200
(man) Would you join me please
in welcoming...

01:08:05.233 --> 01:08:08.033
Marcus Garvey used to say
that when all else fails

01:08:08.067 --> 01:08:10.067
to organize the people,
conditions will.

01:08:10.100 --> 01:08:13.067
(Kumasi)
And therefore, in 1992,

01:08:13.100 --> 01:08:16.867
the reasons
all clustered together.

01:08:16.900 --> 01:08:18.367
And it happened again.

01:08:46.667 --> 01:08:49.467
(Whitaker)
In the aftermath of \'92\'s uprising,

01:08:49.500 --> 01:08:51.900
a high-profile
private-sector initiative

01:08:51.933 --> 01:08:55.367
was formed to create
Rebuild L.A.

01:08:55.400 --> 01:08:57.667
The $6 billion
investment program

01:08:57.700 --> 01:09:02.233
defined its goals
as long-term systemic change

01:09:02.267 --> 01:09:04.767
and promised to create
74,000 new jobs

01:09:04.800 --> 01:09:09.533
within the riot zone
over the next five years.

01:09:09.567 --> 01:09:11.533
At the same time,
a tentative truce

01:09:11.567 --> 01:09:13.900
between several
Crip and Blood sets

01:09:13.933 --> 01:09:15.767
helped establish
a tone of optimism

01:09:15.800 --> 01:09:18.267
for South L.A.\'s
war-weary community.

01:09:20.867 --> 01:09:22.133
But just one year later,

01:09:22.167 --> 01:09:25.700
with many South L.A. neighborhoods
still in ruin,

01:09:25.733 --> 01:09:29.433
Rebuild L.A.
quietly closed its doors.

01:09:29.467 --> 01:09:34.067
(Hayden) A young generation of kids
heard about this promise.

01:09:34.100 --> 01:09:36.667
They momentarily
got their hopes up.

01:09:36.700 --> 01:09:38.800
They committed
to this peace treaty.

01:09:38.833 --> 01:09:40.933
And instead, they learned
that it was just another

01:09:40.967 --> 01:09:44.067
fork-tongued promise
of the man.

01:09:48.700 --> 01:09:50.700
It failed.

01:09:50.733 --> 01:09:53.900
We should\'ve known what the future
would be in other cities

01:09:53.933 --> 01:09:55.633
from here to Baghdad.

01:09:55.667 --> 01:09:58.633
(Ice Cube) ♪ When something happens
in South Central Los Angeles ♪

01:09:58.667 --> 01:09:59.900
♪ Nothing happens ♪

01:09:59.933 --> 01:10:03.700
♪ It\'s just another [...] dead,
dead, dead, dead, dead, dead ♪

01:10:12.200 --> 01:10:18.400
Death is a way of life now
in our communities.

01:10:37.533 --> 01:10:40.733
(Muhammad)
Can you imagine a society

01:10:40.767 --> 01:10:42.800
where mothers
are burying their children

01:10:42.833 --> 01:10:46.367
instead of their children
burying their mothers?

01:12:48.100 --> 01:12:49.867
(Moore)
It\'s okay to cry.

01:12:49.900 --> 01:12:52.733
You have to cry.

01:12:52.767 --> 01:12:58.500
I have to cry
in order to keep going.

01:12:58.533 --> 01:13:00.533
I have to cry,

01:13:00.567 --> 01:13:02.833
\'cause if I don\'t cry

01:13:02.867 --> 01:13:06.167
and I keep all the anger
up in me,

01:13:06.200 --> 01:13:08.000
I may do something.

01:13:08.033 --> 01:13:09.300
You know, people say,

01:13:09.333 --> 01:13:10.467
\"Oh, you can get over it.\"

01:13:10.500 --> 01:13:12.033
Hell, no, we can\'t.

01:13:12.067 --> 01:13:13.367
We just get through it.

01:13:13.400 --> 01:13:14.367
Just get through it.

01:13:14.400 --> 01:13:15.633
We\'ll never get over this.

01:13:15.667 --> 01:13:16.733
You didn\'t take my dog.

01:13:16.767 --> 01:13:18.567
You didn\'t foreclose
on my house.

01:13:18.600 --> 01:13:21.500
You know, you didn\'t,
you know, repossess my car.

01:13:21.533 --> 01:13:22.967
My son was murdered.

01:13:23.000 --> 01:13:24.667
He just didn\'t die.
He was murdered.

01:13:39.633 --> 01:13:41.933
(Sweet) So when I finally
went back to school,

01:13:41.967 --> 01:13:43.400
I was always crying.

01:13:43.433 --> 01:13:45.267
And it\'s amazing, all the kids.

01:13:45.300 --> 01:13:47.700
I look around,
and they\'re like, all -

01:13:47.733 --> 01:13:49.467
you know, a lot of the girls,
all teary-eyed,

01:13:49.500 --> 01:13:50.633
even some of the boys.

01:13:50.667 --> 01:13:51.707
And then I would ask them,

01:13:51.733 --> 01:13:53.800
\"How many of you guys
know somebody,

01:13:53.833 --> 01:13:57.300
\"an uncle, a father,
a friend, a schoolmate,

01:13:57.333 --> 01:13:59.500
who was murdered?\"

01:13:59.533 --> 01:14:01.900
And when at first
I asked that question

01:14:01.933 --> 01:14:04.367
and 3/4 of the class
raised their hand,

01:14:04.400 --> 01:14:05.900
I just broke down in tears.

01:14:44.700 --> 01:14:47.700
(Whitaker) A recent comparison
of twin psychological studies

01:14:47.733 --> 01:14:49.933
by the Lancet and RAND Corporation

01:14:49.967 --> 01:14:52.900
indicates that children
in South Los Angeles

01:14:52.933 --> 01:14:56.633
are exhibiting greater levels
of post-traumatic stress disorder

01:14:56.667 --> 01:14:59.567
than children
of a similar age in Baghdad,

01:14:59.600 --> 01:15:02.233
the war-torn capital of Iraq.

01:15:10.467 --> 01:15:12.867
(Lindsey) And if they don\'t get resources
for these youngsters,

01:15:12.900 --> 01:15:14.033
what\'s gonna happen?

01:15:14.067 --> 01:15:16.633
You got another group
of angry children,

01:15:16.667 --> 01:15:19.000
another group of killers.

01:15:29.533 --> 01:15:32.167
(Peralta) If someone right now said,
\"What do you want in your life?

01:15:32.200 --> 01:15:33.567
I\'ll give you
anything you want.\"

01:15:33.600 --> 01:15:36.267
What would it be?

01:15:36.300 --> 01:15:37.867
Man, one thing?

01:15:37.900 --> 01:15:39.267
Just one thing?

01:15:39.300 --> 01:15:40.633
Freedom.

01:15:40.667 --> 01:15:41.900
(Big Girch)
My wish would be

01:15:41.933 --> 01:15:45.667
for Crips and Bloods

01:15:45.700 --> 01:15:50.967
to realize that everybody else
is against us.

01:15:51.000 --> 01:15:53.967
And if we don\'t come together,

01:15:54.000 --> 01:15:56.233
it\'s gonna be over for us.

01:15:56.267 --> 01:15:57.833
(Peralta)
So if the resources were here,

01:15:57.867 --> 01:15:59.767
you\'re saying these kids
wouldn\'t choose gangs?

01:15:59.800 --> 01:16:01.200
No, man.

01:16:01.233 --> 01:16:03.567
No, man, you choose that
\'cause there\'s no hope.

01:16:03.600 --> 01:16:05.833
You in no-man\'s-land.

01:16:05.867 --> 01:16:07.033
There\'s no hope.

01:16:07.067 --> 01:16:09.033
People taking choices
of going to college,

01:16:09.067 --> 01:16:10.633
and, like, that\'s, like,
making a choice.

01:16:10.667 --> 01:16:11.967
Here, you ain\'t
making no choice.

01:16:12.000 --> 01:16:13.433
There\'s no choice.

01:16:13.467 --> 01:16:15.600
It\'s like you waiting for somebody
to come save you, man.

01:16:15.633 --> 01:16:18.333
And you just ain\'t gonna
never get saved, man.

01:16:18.367 --> 01:16:20.733
I did the gangbanging,
the stomping out the sets,

01:16:20.767 --> 01:16:22.767
the getting shot,
the drive-bys,

01:16:22.800 --> 01:16:25.633
the getting shot in drive-bys
to going to jail

01:16:25.667 --> 01:16:27.133
to all that, right?

01:16:27.167 --> 01:16:30.633
But had I had a chance
or someone else tell me,

01:16:30.667 --> 01:16:33.267
\"Fool, you playing
the devil\'s game.\"

01:16:33.300 --> 01:16:34.667
Since I\'ve been
in the gang, man,

01:16:34.700 --> 01:16:37.800
I done been to the county jails,
to several penitentiaries,

01:16:37.833 --> 01:16:40.700
and back and forth through war,
as far as gunfights and stuff.

01:16:40.733 --> 01:16:43.900
So this perception
that gangbanging is wonderful,

01:16:43.933 --> 01:16:45.200
that it is
the lifestyle to live -

01:16:45.233 --> 01:16:47.667
it\'s no lifestyle to live,
period.

01:16:47.700 --> 01:16:50.700
[siren whooping]

01:17:06.733 --> 01:17:08.533
(Whitaker)
Today the streets of South L.A.

01:17:08.567 --> 01:17:11.067
have given rise
to a new sort of gang

01:17:11.100 --> 01:17:14.567
determined to fight
not simply for turf or colors

01:17:14.600 --> 01:17:18.133
but for the lives
of the next generation.

01:17:18.167 --> 01:17:22.167
(Basheer) I work with about 400 or 500
high-risk youth every month.

01:17:22.200 --> 01:17:24.200
The first thing I do,
I apologize to them,

01:17:24.233 --> 01:17:26.200
because I have to let them know,

01:17:26.233 --> 01:17:28.633
my generation
has failed you miserably.

01:17:28.667 --> 01:17:29.933
See, I\'m 51 years old.

01:17:29.967 --> 01:17:32.667
I\'ve been through decades
of destruction.

01:17:32.700 --> 01:17:35.867
So we let \'em know that,
hey, we have done some wrongs

01:17:35.900 --> 01:17:37.533
just like you doing wrong.

01:17:37.567 --> 01:17:41.033
(Whitaker) These peacemakers, many of them
former gang members,

01:17:41.067 --> 01:17:43.200
have stepped out
from behind the guns

01:17:43.233 --> 01:17:45.333
and are now
standing between them,

01:17:45.367 --> 01:17:48.133
literally risking their lives
with the formation

01:17:48.167 --> 01:17:52.867
of street-level
gang intervention organizations.

01:17:52.900 --> 01:17:55.267
Privately funded,
receiving almost no support

01:17:55.300 --> 01:17:57.367
from either state
or federal governments,

01:17:57.400 --> 01:18:00.933
these grassroots movements
are taking the first crucial steps

01:18:00.967 --> 01:18:04.567
toward stopping the cycle
of gang violence.

01:18:04.600 --> 01:18:06.833
People who care,
who want to see a better community,

01:18:06.867 --> 01:18:08.700
who want to see
a better country,

01:18:08.733 --> 01:18:11.000
we got to start getting together
and having some sit-downs

01:18:11.033 --> 01:18:14.633
so that we don\'t keep breeding
generations and generations

01:18:14.667 --> 01:18:17.433
who only think
that that\'s the way to go.

01:18:21.133 --> 01:18:23.800
An alternative to that lifestyle
has to be put in place.

01:18:23.833 --> 01:18:25.833
And if they want to see change,
then they\'re going to have to be willing

01:18:25.867 --> 01:18:27.633
to invest
in that alternative lifestyle.

01:18:32.700 --> 01:18:35.300
(Raymond) One thing my son told me one day
was, \"Daddy?\"

01:18:35.333 --> 01:18:36.500
I said, \"What\'s up?\"

01:18:36.533 --> 01:18:38.267
He said, \"I know
how you get your money.\"

01:18:38.300 --> 01:18:40.467
I said,
\"How I get my money, son?

01:18:40.500 --> 01:18:41.967
He said,
\"When dirty people come up,

01:18:42.000 --> 01:18:44.500
you give \'em that white stuff,
and they give you money.\"

01:18:44.533 --> 01:18:45.767
I said, \"Is that right?\"

01:18:45.800 --> 01:18:47.533
So he took off
and rode off on his bike.

01:18:47.567 --> 01:18:50.300
And I sat there
thinking and wondering,

01:18:50.333 --> 01:18:52.800
\"Damn, my son
really out here watching me

01:18:52.833 --> 01:18:54.533
doing what I do.\"

01:18:54.567 --> 01:19:00.867
So if I still continue on
robbing, whatever it is,

01:19:00.900 --> 01:19:04.400
he\'s going to do the same thing.

01:19:04.433 --> 01:19:06.533
Right then,
I made a choice in my life,

01:19:06.567 --> 01:19:08.867
whether I was going
to stick by them

01:19:08.900 --> 01:19:10.133
or stick by us.

01:19:10.167 --> 01:19:12.633
\"Us\" is meaning me
and my neighborhood, my gang,

01:19:12.667 --> 01:19:14.333
\"them\" meaning my kids.

01:19:14.367 --> 01:19:16.300
So I chose to stick with them.

01:19:16.333 --> 01:19:18.700
Turned around a little bit.

01:19:18.733 --> 01:19:23.300
Now I\'m a coach,
role model, proud parent.

01:19:23.333 --> 01:19:24.967
And I\'m living.

01:19:27.300 --> 01:19:30.200
(Skipp) I\'m the one
who prevented my own self

01:19:30.233 --> 01:19:31.533
from going to different areas.

01:19:31.567 --> 01:19:33.967
I prevented it
because of my mentality

01:19:34.000 --> 01:19:36.233
and because of what I did,
how I dressed,

01:19:36.267 --> 01:19:38.000
how I carried myself.

01:19:38.033 --> 01:19:40.400
If I went into an area
and I\'m dressed in all red,

01:19:40.433 --> 01:19:41.867
I\'m looking for problems.

01:19:41.900 --> 01:19:43.767
And I would be looking
for problems.

01:19:43.800 --> 01:19:45.267
I\'d be looking
for the guys in blue.

01:19:45.300 --> 01:19:46.933
I\'d be looking
for the guys that look at me.

01:19:46.967 --> 01:19:48.133
And when they looked at me,

01:19:48.167 --> 01:19:49.167
now I\'m ready to deal
with this problem.

01:19:49.200 --> 01:19:50.767
I\'m ready to show my anger.

01:19:50.800 --> 01:19:52.267
I\'m ready to show my ignorance,

01:19:52.300 --> 01:19:55.000
that I can get
just as stupid as you.

01:19:55.033 --> 01:19:56.800
But when I stopped
that mentality,

01:19:56.833 --> 01:19:58.800
when I started
dressing differently,

01:19:58.833 --> 01:20:00.500
I started thinking differently.

01:20:00.533 --> 01:20:03.033
I\'ve increased my freedom
to where I will go anywhere.

01:20:03.067 --> 01:20:05.533
And when I get there
and see certain individuals,

01:20:05.567 --> 01:20:08.800
they will say, \"Well,
that\'s Skipp from over there,\"

01:20:08.833 --> 01:20:10.167
and we can, \"Hey, how you doing?\"

01:20:10.200 --> 01:20:11.433
And we can talk now.

01:20:11.467 --> 01:20:12.500
And it\'s not a problem.

01:20:12.533 --> 01:20:15.400
I go to everybody\'s neighborhood,
and it\'s not a problem.

01:20:15.433 --> 01:20:17.033
(Peralta)
How do you like that?

01:20:17.067 --> 01:20:18.200
Love it.

01:20:18.233 --> 01:20:19.267
I love it.

01:20:19.300 --> 01:20:21.100
I truly enjoy it.

01:20:58.600 --> 01:21:00.467
(Gilligan)
We are a democracy.

01:21:00.500 --> 01:21:02.067
We have the resources.

01:21:02.100 --> 01:21:04.233
We\'re the richest country
on Earth.

01:21:04.267 --> 01:21:06.167
It is absolutely outrageous,

01:21:06.200 --> 01:21:08.300
it is inexcusable,

01:21:08.333 --> 01:21:13.933
that we have failed to meet
the most elementary tests

01:21:13.967 --> 01:21:16.767
of what it means
to be fellow citizens

01:21:16.800 --> 01:21:18.967
and build a community.

01:21:27.033 --> 01:21:32.367
(Brown) See, the ingredient is to care
about people and to love them.

01:21:32.400 --> 01:21:35.000
That\'s the ingredient
across the board.

01:21:35.033 --> 01:21:36.933
And to understand
that they are human.

01:21:36.967 --> 01:21:38.067
They\'re not gang members.

01:21:38.100 --> 01:21:39.500
They\'re human beings.

01:22:22.233 --> 01:22:25.167
The one thing
you have to realize,

01:22:25.200 --> 01:22:26.333
if you opened them up,

01:22:26.367 --> 01:22:28.267
there would be a stamp
under their shirt

01:22:28.300 --> 01:22:31.900
that says,
\"Made in America.\"

01:22:31.933 --> 01:22:33.200
Okay?

01:22:33.233 --> 01:22:34.767
Not no place else.

01:22:34.800 --> 01:22:39.467
They weren\'t made in Taiwan
or, you know, Indonesia.

01:22:39.500 --> 01:22:42.533
They were made in America.