4. 2 THE PLAIN DEALER, MONDAY, MAY 13, 1991- 4 -5-C 3 COMMENT 1 Anatomy of the D.C. riot By ANDREW SULLIVAN The first moment I noticed anything odd was' when I got off my regular No. 42 at around 8:30 p.m. It was Monday, and, after two weekends out of town, I had to get some groceries at the local supermarket.
Crossing the street, Ir noticed out of the corner of my eye a few policemen with helmets milling among a small crowd of people. I then found that the Safeway had just closed. The security guard was standing the. locked glass door, urgently gesturing to me to leave. Then I heard a strange whirring noise and a sharp crack as a small rock whizzed past my head and landed in the window of the clothing store nearby.
I looked around to find the crowd suddenly larger than I remembered and bolting toward me down the hill. My neighborhood is Adams Morgan, the ethnically integrated pride of D.C. Young, single whites, Hispanic families, American blacks, Ethiopians, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and others live in what is widely touted as interracial harmony. The previous night, however, a riot had broken out in the adjacent, more heavily Hispanic neighborhood of Mount Pleasant. A couple of black female had told a Hispanic man to stop drinking in public.
According to the police, they had then shot and wounded him when he lunged at them with a knife. In the context of long-standing tension and perhaps just as intense black-Hispanic enmity a riot ensued. I live on the fifth floor of a building overlooking the main strip a block away from the Safeway. As the riot set in, it was a vantage point for both real fear and curious voyeurism. In my few blocks, the actual grievances of Hispanics are not as real as nearby, and the neighborhood is more diverse, but the violence was just as tangible.
Youths suddenly emerged to patrol the streets with scarves tied around their faces, lobbing bottles at storefronts; bursts of tear gas filled the street; helicopters with spotlights shone through the gas from overhead, like disco lights. Throughout the melee, white forayed into the scene with video cameras and flash bulbs. Reporters wandered the blocks; ricoters milled with impunity among worried merchants who stood out03 side their stores in a vain attempt to protect them from looting. So far as I could tell, none of the incidents I watched had any motivation other than the thrill of violence and pettiest of theft. Once it was clear police were brandishing nothing more than restraint, a battalion of criminal entrepreneurs showed up to party.
And despite 4 STOP ONE MAT Policemen in riot gear near a the press accounts of this as entirely an outbreak of police-Hispanic enmity, all the violence I saw in my part of town was by young blacks. After three days of tension, this fact had yet to make it into the Washington Post. In the first wave of smashing down my street, a bunch of about 20 kids I'd guess between the ages of 13 and 16 took out the Korean businesses. They ransacked the garbage cans for projectiles, and pounded the Korean grocery across the street for five minutes, until they finally smashed it open with a crate used for stacking beer cans. Then they piled in, smashing more windows, emerging with a few co*ke bottles and some bags of Doritos.
The Korean health food store was next. Occasionally a police car would drive down the street, watching the looting and cruising slowly on. The rioters ignored them, correctly guessing that they were no threat at all. A couple of Hispanic residents leaned out from their windows to protest the police inaction. "These are not Spanish people," a woman shouted into the air.
"These are American people doing this." The police drove slowly on. In a brief lull I ventured outside. I walked past stunned neighbors, interspersed with youths wearing bandanna masks, who gave the impression of owning the sidewalk. No one challenged them. Civility still blended with the knowledge that some of these people had just robbed and destroyed our local UPI burning car during the May 5-6 disturances in Washington, D.C.
stores. A bare-chested white guy colored inflatable balls, which told us he'd lent his shirt to some- bounced serenely through the one wounded in the stone-throw- streets, casting strange shadows being. neath the street lights. A pile of As I neared the local liquor store, toys was placed on a parked car's owned roof, and the kids flirted with some white man, by a a pillar particularly of the angry local young Hispanic girls on the stoop neighborhood, four plainclothes po- of them my from building time to by time. tossing dolls to dishing what looked a like van, sawed-off bran- After the first major licemen piled out of tear-gas shotguns.
The liquor store owner drop breaking on the glass block, subsided the and sound the of. had obviously warned the police he prepared to shoot looters. It 11:30. street I was went emptier. downstairs It was again.
about Sevwas police the seemed only threat willing of to violence respond to eral Koreans were out the sweeping up in three hours of looting. Then the streets. There were piles of came a shot of tear gas, and I of the beer-soaked glass Waiters in front at a of most local ment. walked briskly back to the apart- restaurant, Cafe Atlantico, whose stores. customers had watched the vioThe next wave began a few min- lence over their entrees, stood utes later, when most of the other around, dazed.
storefronts on my block were A young black man, who was a smashed by a gang, which ran in regular worker at the Korean deli, one sweep from the corner of the went next door to help another block toward my building. I looked Korean store owner with his mess. down to see a local Spanish "Hypocrite! Hypocrite!" the Korean restaurant, La Plaza, broken into, shouted. The man recoiled limply the kids grabbing bottles of wine backward. and champagne, drinking them, My neighbor and I were joined in brandishing them aloft tri- elevator afterward by an old, umphantly.
white friend of the drugstore The Korean-owned deli a fa- owner. He remarked: "There were vorite among locals was only three police cars for the whole The looters smashed the window, block, and one paddy wagon, and ransacked for a while, and came out all Korean of them were And over there Korean at that in trophies the store's neighborhood team had won a Washington was over there holding the softball place. every to help few summers back. them out as well. It makes no sense to me at all." Then the sports store and the drugstore, owned by an elderly Sullivan is deputy editor of the white couple.
Here the trophies New Republic, in which this article were large cuddly toys and brightly first appeared. 7. A holler for the Massacusetts tts Mauler By JEFF GREENFIELD The wrestlers appear on packaged "talk shows" Instead, he should dress himself up like a to insult their rivals, to predict mayhem at the Pilgrim, re-name himself "The Massachusetts NEW YORK next edition of Wrestlemania ($35 on pay-per- Mauler," and try out a text like this: don't want to hear another word about the ap- view), to enact "spontaneous" battles of Arma- palling ignorance of our young people today. I geddon-like proportions. "Listeri up, you Demo-punks! I'm gonna be in can personally attest to their encyclopedic Iowa.
I'm gonna be in New Hampshire. And if information about some things, at least. Each week, something literally unforgettable Doug 'The Gov' Wilder or Mario 'No Guts' Cuomo happens. Perhaps the Bushwhackers will sneak up or any other so-called candidate wants to come out For instance, they know everything about the behind the Rockers and pummel them into tempo- and mix it up, I'll show 'em that a long shot can intricacies of the struggle World for rary unconsciousness. make mincemeat out of a big shot any day!" Federation.
Perhaps Smash and Crush of supremacy within the Wrestling They the Demolition And if we want our young people to follow concan chart the battle for the Instead of Chuck over the Nasty Boys while the gressional debates, let's skip the Roberts Rules of will jump all championship among, the Schumer whipping out referee unaccountably misses Order stuff. Instead of Chuck Schumer whipping Ultimate Warrior, Under- some statistics when these outrageous infractions. out some statistics when Newt Gingrich starts taker (managed by a gen- talking about capital gains tax cuts, let's see him tleman named Paul Bearer), Newt Gingrich starts Now imagine what would Big Boss Man and, of course, happen if these boys had to. jump on his back and apply a Vulcan Death Pinch. Hulk Hogan.
talking about capital learn these facts. out of books, Let's see the next presidential primary debate They of can recount the de- him jump on his back. discussion on PBS. What would from any public speech for gains tax cuts, let's see or by watching some desiccated run as a tag-team career bout losers to refrain tails the titanic battles the happen? a year. way earlier generations could and apply a Vulcan And just to spice things up, make them fight it recount the Battle of Absolute, abysmal ignorance.
out inside a steel cage. Antietam or the results of Death Pinch. What's the point of all this? Pickett's Charge at Gettys- Simple. If we want our young. I guarantee that not only will the voter turnout.
burg. people to take an interest in serious public policy jump to but we'll be able to cut billions off They know international events: the comings matters, all we have to do is to change a few stylis- the deficit by putting the conventions on pay-perand goings of Col. Moustafa and his manager, Gen. tic details. view.
Adnon. For instance, if Paul Tsongas wants to inspire Why do they know these things? Because they some real excitement on the campaign trail, he's Greenfield is a columnist for the Universal Press are packaged in truly interesting ways. got to stop handing out those 85-page booklets. Syndicate. India sees crisis for democracy By BHABANI SEN GUPTA versity far too complex for even the three days in May, the 20th, most subtle Indians to comprehend.
0 23rd North and will 26th, burn when from the the' But election three The sheer features stand magnitude out: of the merciless summer sun as the South process. In the last election, is: cooled by monsoon rains, and in November 1989, 300 million peopeasants will have harvested another ple U.S. population. more than the entire voted Indian bumper voters wheat will crop, cast 500 ballots for million the The uninterrupted continuity of; second time in 18 months to elect democratic process. This will be their all-powerful lower house of par- the 10th election for the parliament." liament.
Some 40 elections have taken place Two elections, at the state level. another, imply a so crisis in close the upon political one Most importantly, the progresprocess. India has been ruled for sive awakening of the giant electo; almost all of its 45 years of indepen- rate demanding, assertive; dence by the Party in its from judgmental. perfect. Indian elections are far changing incarnations.
Now India is tices All kinds of malpraccaught in the turmoil of transition to booth-capturing to blood-leta multiparty system. The nation's ting to open use of black money president in his Republic Day mar each poll. Political parties whip address Jan. 26 warned that the up popular passions and trivialize years of single party rule were over. issues.
But the spider of people Indians must be mentally and politi- power spins. its own wise and somecally ready for coalition regimes. times stern judgments. The electoForeigners see a' period ahead of rate has felled mighty oaks Indira "unstable" governments with politi- Gandhi in 1977 and her son Rajiv in cal and 'economic squalls. Indians 1989.
Voters have seldom decided see a torturous, conflict-strewn quest unwisely. 1 A for a new, just social equilibrium. Two political trends that have de: Unlike totalitarian systems, demo- veloped over the past two decades cracies are fortunately informed with will clash head-on in the coming imagination and therefore free of elections. predictable certainties. Less than a One, created by the two Gandhis, month from the polls, observes are is the rise of a majestic, imperial far from certain about the results.
Delhi that smothers federalism and Three groups, each with a variety of decentralization and seeks to make local supporters, contend for power: India a regional superpower: Its sothe Congress Party, India's tradi- cial base is the 120 million uppertional rulers, under Rajiv Gandhi; a caste, upper middle-class power. center-left coalition under V.P. structure produced by an elitist edu: Singh, and a Hindu nationalist right- cation system. This entrenched wing group. Three possible group is reluctant to share its power outcomes, in descending order of and privileges with the masses now probability, are being projected: stirring in the basem*nt of Indian Another hung parliament, with ciety.
no party or coalition strong enough The opposing trend stands for to form a government. federalism, decentralization, the A bare working majority for the spreading of power right up. to the center alliance that is mobilizing frontier village, greater participatory poor and minorities, flying the democracy, opening up the power banner of structural political and so- structure to deprived and excluded cial change. people by implementing affirmative A narrow victory for the Con- action programs, and cordial relagress Party and its local allies, whose tions with all South Asian electoral slogan is stability. Naturally, a single election will not The relatively new Hindu party decide forever the future of these the BJP and its allies riding the competing trends.
Voting, however; crest of whipped-up Hindu funda- is the only nationally recognized enmentalism will probably fare rather gine for social and political change in poorly. It is true that the Indian India, and this election will for the masses do not comprehend the first time present a major battle of meaning of secular democracy political issues more than personalienshrined in the constitution and ties. The result will affect not, only practiced imperfectly by Congress India but a host of other countries. governments. But the average Hindu Can significant social change be is firmly attached to an ancient tradi- achieved through the democratic tion of tolerance and political liber- process in a developing country with alism.
He is unlikely to cast his ballot the world's largest mass of poor peofor Hindu power in Delhi, expecting ple? That is the question that may be the magic arrival of a mythical raj answered this month in the world's under the god Ram. most populous democracy. For 45 years, democracy has nourished more political deals than eco- Dr. Sen Gupta is senior research nomic progress in India. The result professor at the Center for Policy Reis a system of social and political di- search in New Delhi.
DOONESBURY By G.B. Trudeau SO HOW HARD? WELL, GREAT! ARE YOU COME ON! WANT TO GO THE DOING, BABE? I'VE BEEN DOWN TO THE BEACH? IS IT HARD. DREAMING BEACH TODAY? BEING HOME? ABOUT THIS 4' 'FOR MONTHS! 5-3 HAS IT BEEN YES, THE SWEPT FOR IT'S PEOPLE AMAZING! AT BEACH. MINES? HOME TAKE EVERYTHING FOR GRANTED! mO If you must write dialect, lie down or get it right By JAMES J. KILPATRICK his hilarious essay on the literary offenses of James Fenimore Cooper an essay that every novelist should read Mark Twain laid down 18 rules that govern the writing of romantic fiction.
This was Rule No. 7: "It requires that when a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a Negro minstrel in the end of it." was reminded of Rule 7 the other day in reading William F. Buckley's dew novel, "Tucker's Last Stand." It is the ninth in his series starring CIA Blackford Oakes, and it is -Buckley at his best. Believe me, his is very good indeed. 1: But you could feel the "but" sonant in "telling" and "going." In coming but my beloved friend ne- the same fashion, Barry Goldwater glected Rule 7.
One of his principal sometimes says "them" and somecharacters is President Lyndon John- times says "'em." All the other charson. Buckley undertook to capture acters speak like Oxford dons. the president's speech. He might with equal success have attempted to The trouble is that the rendering catch a soap bubble in a butterfly of speech is a fearfully difficult task, net. in part because most of us vary our speech patterns to the occasion at Thus we observe that sometimes hand.
Lyndon Johnson was no excepLyndon says and sometimes tion. When he was in his molasses Lyndon says "Ah." On Page 147 the mode, seeking cajole a waffling president is thinking of sending a senator, he spoke as if he had a ripe note to Hanoi: "Ah know we never plum in his mouth. On other done it before. That's one of the rea- occasions, when the cactus juice was sons I want to do it now." Over the flowing, he spoke Texan. I would not course of two pages, Lyndon says attempt to reproduce Lyndon's six times and nine times.
lities. He had a large nose, packed In Buckley's dialectal spelling, with resonant cavities, and the sound Johnson sometimes says "an" and chambers did odd things- to his then inexplicably reverts to "and." speech. The president drops a in "talkin' Let it be said that Bill Buckley, as and "confusin'" but sounds the con- always, is in distinguished company. Not long ago I had occasion to reread don't" and "he don't," and then he Louis Stevenson's "Kid- forgets and says "it doesn't" and "he napped." It remains a great yarn. doesn't." Early in the novel, David Balfour be- A few writers have looked at the friends Alan Breck.
Alas, Stevenson challenge of dialect and brought it 'could not decide whether Alan says off. Twain himself had a fine record "you" or "ye." Sometimes Alan of consistency. Huck Finn speaks in speaks in "hoot, mon" Scottish, and the same voice, and in the same sometimes not. spelling, throughout the novel. liam Faulkner accurately caught the Owen Wister also neglected Rule 7.
cadence and verbal structure of Off and on throughout "The much black speech. Virginian," Wister spelled "you" as My command of Irish stops with "yu." It is not clear why he used this "Erin go bragh," but I am told by repeculiar orthography, for of liable sons of the old sod that Finley English-speaking people pronounce Peter Dunne had it right in his tales "you" as "yu." On one page the hero of Mr. Dooley. This is Mr. Dooley says "an." On the same page he says speaking Bill McKinley: "and." The Virginian usually is "What's this counthry comin' to, readin', sayin', goin' and doin', but annyhow, that a man that's out fr to intermittently he is fearing, fanning, be Prisident has to set up on a high meeting and getting.
He. talks cow- chair an' be questioned on his record hand part of the time, saying "it be a lot iv la ads that hasn't had any. thing to do since th' carpet-beatin' season's ended?" Dialectal writing demands more than an ear for individual words. There are regional vocabularies as well as regional accents. In.
some parts of the country the hour of 9:45 is a quarter to 10, in others, it is a quarter of 10. Many Southerners carry groceries in a tote bag; Midwesterners carry groceries in a sack. In Arkansas a conceited person is a bighead; elsewhere the term is swellhead. Mastering these nuances is the work of a lifetime. Sometimes, I know, the impulse to write dialect is Let me offer a word of sound advice: When the impulse strikes you, lie down until it goes away.
Kilpatrick is a columnist. for the Universal Press Syndicate..
