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Anonymous Male Juror
Gil Garcetti became the district attorney of Los Angeles in 1992, replacing Ira Reiner, who had been in office during the Rodney King beating and the ensuing public unrest. Garcetti defends the jury who delivered the not guilty verdict in King’s Simi Valley trial, citing the “really extremely high” burden of proof required in criminal cases. His statements expand on those of the anonymous male juror, who sees himself and the other jurors as being set up by the system to deliver a not guilty verdict and then abandoned and scapegoated by that same system when the public rejected the verdict. Garcetti also describes the “magic” police officers possess on the witness stand, emphasizing that most people want to trust that the police are there to protect and help them. This, Garcetti insists, is why police so often make believable, effective witnesses.
Gil Garcetti Quotes in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
The Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 quotes below are all either spoken by Gil Garcetti or refer to Gil Garcetti. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Magic Quotes
At least in a courtroom setting
that magic comes in.
You want to believe the officers
because they are there to help you,
the law-abiding citizen,
because most jurors have not had contacts
with police—
if they have
it’s a traffic ticket
or they did a sloppy job
investigating their burglary
but not enough that it sours them on the police.
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Gil Garcetti Character Timeline in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992
The timeline below shows where the character Gil Garcetti appears in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Magic
In the spring of 1993, Smith interviews Gil Garcetti, who came into office as district attorney for Los Angeles in 1992. He replaced Ira...
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...them. And people want to believe that the police officers are there to protect them, Garcetti notes, because people today “liv[e] / in a state of fear.” While the credibility of...
(full context)
