Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992: Messages Summary & Analysis

Smith interviews Tom Bradley, the former mayor of Los Angeles. They sit in his City Hall office. A woman from the public relations department sits in on the interview. Bradley sits in an armchair, his long legs outstretched. He remembers how he and his department had drafted statements to release to the press in advance of the Rodney King trial verdicts. They drafted different messages for a guilty verdict, a partial verdict, and verdict of acquittal on all counts, though Bradley drafted the latter as “a precautionary measure,” doubting acquittal would happen.

When they received news of the acquittal, Bradley addressed the public directly to express his outrage. However, he urged people not to erase the progress society had made by responding to the injustice with violence—even if the jury’s verdict was “completely / disconnected with the TV shots that you saw.”