Cleaning Up Riot Aftermath
Through the blackest cloud, a silver ray of light shines. Edward James Olmos leads a band of youths, cleans up a neighborhood and restores its soul (May 2).
Was the only lesson of the Rodney King verdict that police can beat African-Americans with impunity? Or was the 14-month suspension of four officers, without pay, the ordeal of one trial, with federal and civil action still to come, a warning to all police officers that they must recognize the humanity of all suspects?
We fear man’s inhumanity to man so much that the fear makes us act inhumanly. Can we, after all this, begin to recognize that we are all children of the same God, and that we cannot hurt others without hurting ourselves in the process?
ANN SHAFTEL
North Hills
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