America 1987

Chapter 119 Semi-Public Event

"You'd better hold your partner back, lest he kill someone."

David, who was busy at his typewriter, heard a reminder from Spacey behind him.

"It's finally my turn," David thought to himself.

Stans led the way into the prison cell, and without saying a word, he slammed one of the prisoners against the iron bars. "This is to avenge our brothers, you bastards."

The screenwriter reiterates the police officer's motive for assaulting the person, making it as easy as possible for the Los Angeles Police Department's censors to accept the final product.

A fist the size of a sandbag slammed into the prisoner's face. "Go for it, Stans!" someone nearby cheered.

"Let me through!" Pierce was about to go over to stop them when he was stopped by two police officers guarding the door.

Seeing the fight getting more and more intense, David pushed aside the police officers blocking the way, rushed over, grabbed his partner Stans, pulled him away, and pinned him against the fence.

David was about to calm his partner down when the Mexican prisoner who had just been beaten ran over and started yelling at Stans.

"Don't cause trouble, step back."

David had just pulled the man away when the man cursed, "fucky your mother."

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He was enraged because of the childhood experiences of Bud, played by David, which were mentioned earlier.

"Go to hell!" David immediately went from trying to break up the fight to starting it himself, grabbing the other man and smashing him in the nose with a headbutt.

However, this is definitely not a real headbutt; it's just an effect created by using body misalignment during filming. The person was just there to play a nameless extra role, so there was no need for them to suffer like this.

Seeing this, Pierce gritted his teeth in exasperation. "Stop! That's an order."

David headbutted the man a few times and threw him aside. By sheer coincidence, the man landed headfirst on Spacey, who had just come in to break up the fight, and his white undershirt was instantly stained with blood.

He couldn't help but punch the other person.

It's said that these extras have a high screen presence and get beaten up quite a lot.

Feeling that one punch wasn't enough, Spacey went up and landed another punch, knocking the man to the ground.

"I'll write all of you down!" Pierce, who was on duty tonight, shouted angrily.

However, his words were clearly inappropriate. Upon hearing this, the two police officers standing next to him quickly dragged him into a small cell and locked the door to prevent him from leaving.

It's likely that after hearing what he just said, they resorted to this tactic to prevent the other side from remembering all the police officers involved in the brawl.

The reporter who had been following them slipped in when no one was at the door, raised his camera, and took a panoramic close-up of the scene inside the cell.

"Was police brutality considered a very serious mistake in the United States at that time?"

Back at the hotel, Catherine, unable to resist picking up the script again to read the rest of the plot, asked curiously.

She learned from the script that the incident later caused a huge uproar, and the police chief had to find two of the three main characters to act as witnesses in order to quell public opinion.

So she naturally assumed that this was a very serious mistake at the time, but David's answer surprised her.

"Does not belong to it."

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In the 50s, the law enforcement training system for American police was extremely inadequate, with no clear boundaries for the use of force. Police officers who used batons to beat suspects had little to no fear of serious disciplinary action.

Moreover, the police department's internal investigation mechanisms at the time generally favored protecting colleagues, and even if there were complaints from victims, it was difficult to push for substantive accountability, and the violent demands of unknown individuals were often directly rejected.

As for torture and forced confessions, those are commonplace, and not just among Americans.

Most importantly, the United States was in the midst of the McCarthyist "Red Scare" at the time, and journalists who dared to investigate police corruption were easily labeled by the authorities as "sympathizers of a certain ideology."

Because they risk public backlash and professional retaliation, many media outlets choose to self-censor or self-censor, avoiding in-depth coverage of such sensitive events.

As for what McCarthyism is, you'll know pretty much after reading Nolan's "Oppenheimer".

It doesn't matter if you haven't seen it. You know Qian Xuesen, right? After he completed his studies in the United States, he planned to return to China. However, before he boarded the plane, he was detained by the US military on the grounds of espionage and was imprisoned for almost a year before being released.

David vaguely remembers this story as being a non-compulsory article in his junior high or elementary school Chinese textbook.

This is essentially another form of McCarthyist persecution.

"Didn't you say that this was based on a true story?"

"Yes, it really happened."

"Then why did you say it doesn't belong?"

"Because it's a rare thing."

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In fact, the Los Angeles Police Department leadership did initially try to cover up the truth of the incident, and had successfully covered it up for nearly three months. Early media outlets, under pressure from the authorities, only focused on the one-sided narrative of "police officers being attacked."

However, those seven people were beaten so badly that they have not recovered even after three months. It is said that many of them suffered serious injuries such as fractures and organ ruptures.

Moreover, because five of the seven victims were of Mexican descent, the Mexican community launched a strong lobbying and protest campaign, pushing for the incident to be fully exposed by the media and creating enormous public pressure.

As a result, the Los Angeles Police Department chief had no choice but to take concrete action and deal with hundreds of officers involved. It seems that no matter the era, the thing America fears most has always been racial discrimination.

"Let me ask you," David stepped forward and took the script from the other person's hand, "what kind of things in real life are worth adapting into a movie?"

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"Um--

Catherine sat barefoot on the light gray solid-color bed, her legs naturally crossed, one leg stretched forward and the other lightly placed to the side. Her arms were bent and gathered in front of her, her elbows resting lightly on her knees. Her left hand brushed a strand of hair that had fallen down, and her right index finger lightly tapped her chin.

"Something with strong dramatic conflict?" she asked somewhat uncertainly.

Why?

Catherine, who had just been smiling gently, suddenly changed her calm and gentle demeanor and asked incredulously, "Is it to make it easier for you to look up information?"

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"No, it should be something that was widely reported by the media."

"genius!"

David gave her a very affirmative gesture. "I'm asking you, what is the historical context of the story of 'L.A. Confidential'?"

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"Hollywood in the 1950s—" At this point, Catherine realized what was going on, "Oh, you mean that because it's so old and historical records are scarce, you chose something that was once a sensation and was widely reported in the media as your creative material?"

"Yes, mostly correct."

In fact, David speculated that the reason why the original author of the novel chose this event as the basis for his story was largely because it was a semi-public event.

A semi-public event refers to an event that is neither completely covered up nor unknown, meaning that it has a certain scope of awareness and is not completely unknown.

At the same time, it is not a well-known event that has been over-consumed and lost its creative space; that is, it has not reached the point of being widely known and discussed, and has not been explored to the point of leaving no room for creative expression.

Therefore, it exists in a state between complete secrecy and complete openness, which is called the "semi-public" property.

This so-called "bloody Christmas Eve incident"—let's just call it that for now—can barely be considered a criminal case.

No matter how much of a stir it caused back then, it has been more than 30 years since then. Who still remembers a criminal case from more than 30 years ago?

But it did cause a sensation at the time and left behind a lot of information, like the Nanjing University dismemberment case, which is why David called it a semi-public event.