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Life & Times Transcript
03/16/06 Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times -- Serving time is bad enough, but what if racial tensions are running high and you're outnumbered? Michael Fisher>> You see a lot of Hispanics running the building and only these few little straggly, like ten Blacks in the building. It's like forty Hispanics and like ten on each inmate just assaulting them, you know. Val Zavala>> And then, a tobacco lobbyist, a comic criminal and a lonesome cowboy. It's quite a cast of characters for our movie critics. [Film Clip] Val Zavala>> It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times. Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Val Zavala>> Blacks know what it's like to be a minority in American society, but to be a minority in prison is an entirely different proposition, a more dangerous one. Latino inmates in California far outnumber Blacks and we met one young African American man who spent more than ten years in prison and gave us some very personal insight about what it's like to be Black behind bars. Michael Fisher grew up on the rough streets of Rubidoux. His uncles were from gangs and his grandmother was called the godmother of the hood. Michael Fisher>> I remember the time when we was little, we used to make jokes about the gangbangers, homies and stuff when we was like nine and ten, like they're stupid. Lo and behold, seventeen or eighteen, I'm young and I lived right next to them, you know, knee deep in the same activity which led me to prison for a murder. Val Zavala>> It was a drug deal gone bad. The charge was manslaughter. He got twelve years in prison on a plea bargain. Michael Fisher>> That attorney just give it to me blunt. He's like the only reason they doing this is because you just killed another Black dude that would be a dope dealer. If it would have been a white dude, we'd be going to trial. Val Zavala>> Whites, Blacks, Hispanics. Michael would soon learn that, in California prisons, Blacks are at a distinct disadvantage. In Los Angeles County jails and state prisons, Latino inmates outnumber Blacks by about two to one and inevitably the tensions erupt in violence. [Film Clip] Gregory Johnson>> This is the result of the things that are going on in the streets. When you have gang warfare going on in the street, they get arrested, they come to jail and the gang warfare carries over into the jail system. Lee Baca>> The Latino inmates have been asked and directed by the Mexican Mafia to attack a Black randomly, to show superiority not only in the streets, but in the jails. Mark Valente>> You have the southern Hispanics which are mainly from Fresno to the south. You have the northern Hispanics from Fresno up. You have the Blacks. You have the Crips. You have the Bloods. You have white Arian Brotherhood type gangs. And the inmates fight for control of what they have in here. Val Zavala>> Michael says the Hispanics have the upper hand and not just because of their numbers. Michael Fisher>> We're way more unorganized than they are, clearly. The Mafia, they got one head, one unit, whereas the Blacks as a whole, we're all over the place, Los Angeles, IE, this kind of Crips, that kind of Crips, that kind of Blood, you know. We got that attitude where nobody can tell us what to do, so we're not really -- Val Zavala>> You guys aren't unified. Michael Fisher>> Not at all. It's amazing the structure that they have. Blacks believe that Hispanics like love that world, like their whole prison world, because, you know, they're just like way more of a force in there. Najee Ali>> "People in our jail come from your community." Val Zavala>> After racial violence broke out in Los Angeles County jails, a group of clergy and community leaders visited the facility in Castaic, north of Los Angeles. Najee Ali>> "Good morning. We are back, and I brought some guests, some good friends, to see you." Val Zavala>. Najee Ali, the Director of Project Islamic Hope, urged Blacks to help each other by uniting. Najee Ali>> "You all have to stick together and be united, no matter what." >> "Excuse me, brother." Najee Ali>> "Yes, sir." >> "We try to stay united as well as possible and set a self-discipline for all the brothers that's around here." Najee Ali>> "Yes, sir." >> "But we're always outnumbered. I know the population of the Spanish are higher, but, I mean, come on, man, not five to one." Najee Ali>> I get upset when I hear the media say they're fighting in the county jails. It's not a fight. It's an assault on these inmates. Val Zavala>> Michael recalls from his time in prison how quickly things can get out of control. Michael Fisher>> I remember this one young guy before I left, he got into a fight with an Hispanic. Val Zavala>> Black and Hispanic? Michael Fisher>> Yeah, a black dude out there trying to impress his homies and assaulted an Hispanic coming back from chow. Now I guess he didn't know no idea about the numbers or whatever and, as soon as he did that, it was a mess. A lot of the Blacks were watching the Lakers game and we heard the alarm go off and we go look at the door and see what's up. You could see a lot of Hispanics just run in the building and only a few little straggly like ten Blacks in the building. It's like forty Hispanics and ten on each inmate just assaulting them, you know. Gregory Johnson>> It's my belief that maybe as much as ninety-five percent of the inmates in this county jail system just want to do their time and go on to wherever they're going, whether that's back on the streets or one of the state prisons. But you have groups or you have people that rise up and become ring leaders or, as we call them, shot-callers, in charge. You have orchestrated and organized gangs within the system who become very organized and they devise plans to assault a member of the other race and that's really precisely what happened here. Lee Baca>> If the offender is a Latino, you're required to back up that Latino if you're a Latino. And until the Latinos decide to stop attacking the Blacks, we're almost powerless to stop this from happening. Michael Fisher>> It's really just one-sided. The Blacks really don't want no part of that stuff. Val Zavala>> And what about the smallest racial group, whites? Officials say that whites tend to ally with Latinos only because Latino numbers are greater. Add to this explosive mix, prison guards. Michael says, although many just do their jobs, there are some correctional officers, or COs, with biases of their own. Michael Fisher>> Blacks got CO problems with some Crips or whatever, the Hispanics and the whites. The whites got some race society and be kicking like all racist inmates. They can create, you know, a lot of chaos too. So the COs can play a big part, a major part, in that, you know. Val Zavala>> Michael managed to survive twelve years behind bars and it was in his last year in the lockup that his life changed. That's when he met this man, Renford Reese, a professor of political science at Cal Poly Pomona. Reese had written several books, including one about young African American men. Renford Reese>> And this book looked at how young Black men had embraced one monolithic model of Black masculinity and that's the gangster thug model. Val Zavala>> Someone gave Michael a copy of one of Renford's books. It made a huge impact on him. Michael Fisher>> I wrote him a letter telling him that I felt where he was coming from even though we came from different walks of life. He grew up with his mother and father and went to all these colleges and was well-educated. I had no beef with that. I feel we're all in this together for the bigger picture. Renford Reese>> I was struck, one, by how eloquent the letter was and, two, by how candid he was, so I decided to go visit him. Were you actually in the cell or you were out? Michael Fisher>> When I wrote that? I mean, I wrote some of them pieces when I was a clerk. Renford Reese>> And he has so much talent and he has so much potential, so I told him when he paroled in March of 2005, I said I will mentor you. I will guide you. I will make sure you don't go back and get caught up in the system. Val Zavala>> In fact, one of Michael's letters describing different kinds of prison guards is now part of Renford's latest book. The book is called "Prison Race". Renford Reese>> What are we talking about when we say prison race? You know, young Black men are six times more likely to go to prison for some crime than someone who is white for the same crime. Val Zavala>> Renford is not surprised by the racial violence in our prisons. He says the system is bursting at the seams, that politics and special interests like prison guard unions have blocked reform and that education and rehabilitation programs have been taken away. Renford Reese>> And in some cases, you even take away recreational opportunities from inmates. What do they have to embrace? They have nothing to embrace but bravado and you see the consequences of this hyper machismo manifested in the prison riots. Val Zavala>> So how do we curb racial violence in our prisons and jails? Sheriff Lee Baca says the answer is not more prison guards. Lee Baca>> The whole dorm on the Black side is going to line up behind the Black guy, and the entire dorm of Latinos is going to line up on the Latino side. Twice as many deputies are not going to stop that fight. Val Zavala>> But separating the races might and, for the time being, he has put African American and Latino prisoners in separate areas. But complete segregation isn't practical. Gregory Johnson>> You can't run a jail like that. It's far too difficult to keep the different races segregated because, as you can see, this place is like a big city. There's a lot of inmate movement in here. We transport hundreds of inmates to court every day back and forth. We have a clinic where they get medical services. They go to different programs. It's not only a pain in the neck, but I think ultimately different races are going to have to learn to coexist. Val Zavala>> As for Michael Fisher, he completed his sentence a year ago. He now works for a moving company, talks to students about his experiences and writes rap music. Michael Fisher>> "Like I said before, going back to prison just isn't crackin'. A brother that's lazy and slackin' and lackin' ambition and drive. I see it as a easy mission making this transition from the pen to outside." Val Zavala>> With Renford's help, Michael hopes never to see the inside of a prison cell again. Michael Fisher>> I've been out a year. Been working ever since then. You got to want to help yourself and, when that happens, doors open up. [Film Clip] Announcer>> Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, plus transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org, scroll down the page and click on "Life and Times". Val Zavala>> It was an idealistic experiment in housing the homeless. Take them and put them into a tent-like village until more permanent housing could be found. Well, that experiment came to be and the Dome Village has been helping the homeless for the past ten years. So why is it closing down? Sam Louie has the story. Sam Louie>> It looks like a cluster of igloos nestled near downtown Los Angeles under a busy branch of the 110 Freeway. It's called Dome Village, an experiment in housing, simple, ecological living for the homeless. But after thirteen years, this experiment is coming to an end. Ted Hayes is the founder. Ted Hayes>> Dome Village was birthed out of a plan to end homelessness called the National Homeless Plan, which we've been promoting for years. Sam Louie>> The goal was to use the village as a temporary home and transition people from the village into permanent housing. Was it successful? In a word, no. Ted Hayes>> I would say maybe one percent, if not less than that, has actually been able to get on their feet, as it were, get a job, get a house, without government assistance. Very, very few. That's just not true of Dome Village. It's true of all the programs in Los Angeles. Sam Louie>> Since its inception, Hayes estimates that more than four hundred people have transitioned out of the village, but very few became independent. Hayes believes that it's not for lack of will power by the homeless, but a lack of affordable housing. Ted Hayes>> Once you get them in and you so-call rehabilitate them and prepare them, where are they going to live? You cannot put all these people in permanent houses in Los Angeles County. It creates more density. They can't afford it. These people have got to go somewhere other than to jail. Sam Louie>> The community itself has worked fairly well for more than a decade. The twenty fiberglass domes are fuel-efficient and set clear boundaries between neighbors. Ted Hayes>> We like the structure. It forces us to use space. Too often, homeless are stacked on top of each other, beside each other, underneath each other. That is not psychologically good. Too much density. We have a mixture of men and women here. Most shelters don’t do that. They separate men and women, especially single people. We have married people mixed with single people. We have children. We have senior citizens. We have pets. Sam Louie>> So if Dome Village residents fail to move into permanent housing, is there another solution? Hayes believes there is. It's a bold idea that would need cooperation from the federal government. Ted Hayes>> But that's calling for ultimately the transitioning of people from the urban center to former military bases that we transform and to charter townships, and you mix that homeless population with non-homeless people and professionals. Basically, you break off a piece of Los Angeles and you transplant it at this former military base turned into a township. Sam Louie>> Hayes would like to see the residents of Dome Village be the first to live on a former military base, but setting up a township would be complicated. He admits that it doesn't seem likely. In the meantime, this long-time temporary housing is slated to shut down by July. The landowner is asking for a significant rent increase beyond what the village can afford. Hayes says that they had advanced warning and the residents here will manage to find shelter elsewhere. But for Hayes, something larger is lost. Ted Hayes>> What I'm concerned about is the idea that will lead to plan to end homelessness. The billboard, as it were, will be removed. As wonderful as Dome Village is, it's the most unique, innovative approach to homelessness in the modern western world, yet we cannot mainstream these people. There's no place I can send them to. I can get them in and work on them, but no place for them to go. Sam Louie>> Dome Village has succeeded in one respect. It has put a roof over the heads of hundreds of homeless people for thirteen years. Still, it's clear that finding permanent housing for Los Angeles County's eighty-eight thousand homeless will take more than a village. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times. Announcer>> To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us by mail at this address: Life and Times 4401 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, California 90027 You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org. Ted Chen>> Welcome to FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Ted Chen in for Larry Mantle. Our first film this week was written by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the team behind the "Matrix" trilogy. Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman star in "V for Vendetta". [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> And joining me this week are critics Jean Oppenheimer from New Times and Andy Klein from City Beat and Valley Beat. Jean, we'll start with you first. What did you think of "V for Vendetta"? Jean Oppenheimer>> It was a real mixed bag. I liked the look of it, which was very sort of soviet propaganda, poster art/Fritz Lang metropolis look. And I actually thought this film was quite entertaining for a while, but the ideas behind it were so muddled. I mean, in the end, I really sort of rejected it. It's set in London just a little bit in the future, but it's clear from the references in the film that this is Margaret Thatcher's very conservative London as well as contemporary America. It's not quite clear who the protagonist is, but we have this mysterious man behind the mask, V, and he wants to rally the masses against this totalitarian state. The methods he chooses are very destructive and very violent and I thought there was sort of a mixed message in a lot of this. Ted Chen>> Andy, what about you? Andy Klein>> I actually thought the message was pretty clear, which was that violent revolution is absolutely justified in the face of fascist oppression and it's a message that a lot of people, I think, can be uncomfortable with. For me, the film needed to be even more stylized than it was. I've read the book and a lot of things that work on the page don't really translate very well. But having said that, this is probably as faithful as we're going to see in Alan Moore's adaptation. He's the guy who wrote the graphic novel which is great. The only real problem I had from that perspective was that the ending was a little too optimistic and it reminded me too much of "Braveheart" with its speeches. So I think that that's kind of against the grain of the material. Ted Chen>> Our next film brings together the unlikely pairing of acclaimed director Sidney Lumet and action star, Vin Diesel. "Find Me Guilty" is the true story of a mobster who served as his own defense attorney. [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Andy, what did you think of "Find Me Guilty"? Andy Klein>> Well, I'll tell you. The title of this is really sort of apt. This is a classic guilty pleasure for me. I walked into this film with no expectation. I mean, you have Sidney Lumet who's one of the great directors of the 1950s and 1960s and even into the 1970s. He did "Dog Day Afternoon", "Serpico", The Pawnbroker", Twelve Angry Men", directing a film starring Vin Diesel. Well, that's just too weird to deal with. As it turns out -- surprise, surprise -- it's good for both of them. Vin Diesel is perfect for the part. He's playing this sort of goomba mafia guy who's on trial and who decides to defend himself and turns the trial into something of a circus. Based on a real case, this is the longest criminal prosecution, I think, in the history of this country. It's mostly in the courtroom using a lot of excerpts from the original trial. It's very funny. It's very light and thin. This is not Sidney Lumet being heavy and deep as he usually is. Ted Chen>> Jean, Vin Diesel, Sidney Lumet, good combination? Jean Oppenheimer>> It really wasn't a guilty pleasure for me (laughter), as I roll my eyes. I thought that it was like a two-hour shtick, a comedy shtick, that runs out of steam. Andy Klein>> (Laughter) What's wrong with that? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, the reason I didn't really dismiss it is because it is supposed to have been based on the actual transcripts of the trial. So when you think it's just so far over the top, you're going, no, wait a minute. This is really how it unfolded. Vin Diesel, I do think, does a good job, but it's a terrible makeup job on him (laughter). I think -- Ted Chen>> His hair? Jean Oppenheimer>> No, his face is just -- the makeup is just so caked on that he doesn't even look like a real person. So I didn't enjoy it the way Andy did. I was sort of bored. Ted Chen>> Our next film involves a team that's worked together before. Writer Sam Shepard and German director Wim Wenders wrote the script for "Don't Come Knocking". It stars Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard. [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Andy, your thoughts on "Don't Come Knocking"? Andy Klein>> I wish I'd liked this more. Director Wim Wenders and playwright-actor Sam Shepard collaborated a little over twenty years ago on "Paris, Texas" which was a terrific film. They're collaborating again this time and even some of the scenes seem out of the stuff that's there. Shepard plays a sort of over-the-hill cowboy star who's still making a western -- and I don't know who makes them now -- and he suddenly mysteriously disappears from the set, having some kind of post-midlife crisis and gets on the road and starts searching for the son that he didn't know he had, which makes it a little bit like "Broken Flowers", in fact. It's more cast as though this is supposed to be a comedy and one thing that Wim Wenders has never been really strong at is this topic. He can have some funny things along the way in his dramas, but this, despite a sort of strong, though blank, performance in the center from Sam Shepard, also has Eva Marie Saint, Jessica Lange, Fairuza Balk, all doing terrific work. Ted Chen>> And our final film stars Aaron Eckhart as a spokesperson for the tobacco industry who starts to worry about how his son views his work. It's called "Thank You For Smoking". [Film Clip] Ted Chen>> Jean, what about "Thank You For Smoking"? How was it? Jean Oppenheimer>> Well, I saw this film twice. The first time, I wasn't crazy about it, but the second time I really liked it. I found it to be a really smart, fast-paced comedy that just throws political correctness out the window. It's sort of an equal opportunity satire and the main character is the chief lobbyist for the tobacco industry. He's played by Aaron Eckhart, who's just great in the part. He plays this, you know, very sort of good-looking, smooth-talking spin-meister with very flexible morals. It's key to his character and his sort of genial amorality suffers a little hiccup when he begins to wonder what influence he's having on his twelve year old son. I thought there were some very funny lines in this. There are three people called "the merchants of death" and it's the alcohol, tobacco and firearm industry, and they get together over lunch. There's something to offend everybody in it, but I actually enjoyed it. Ted Chen>> And that's it for another FilmWeek on Life and Times. I'm Ted Chen with critics Jean Oppenheimer from New Times and Andy Klein from City Beat and Valley Beat. Larry Mantle will be back for another FilmWeek on Life and Times next week. Val Zavala>> KPCC radio broadcasts a full hour of FilmWeek Friday mornings at eleven a.m. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education. And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg. With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. Sponsored in part by:  | |
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