Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Police Brutality, Corruption, and Systemic Racism
Healing, Progress, and Collective Consciousness
Justice, Perspective, and Ambiguity
Individuals vs. Institutions
Action vs. Symbolic Gesture
Summary
Analysis
Smith interviews Michael Zinzun, a representative for the Coalition Against Police Abuse. Zinzun sits in his office, which is filled with disturbing, graphic images of victims of police abuse. One features a man with part of his skull and chest blown off. There’s a Black Panther Party banner on the wall. Zinzun recalls witnessing an instance of police abuse. He had been sleeping when he heard a man cry out for help, and he and some other neighbors came out in their pajamas to investigate. They saw the police brutally beating a handcuffed Black man named Eugene Rivers across the street from the community center.
That police would continue to beat a handcuffed man despite a crowd of witnesses assembling to watch shows how comfortable law enforcement is using excessive force on minorities. It also shows how their status as police officers gives them institutional protection to commit such injustices. They don’t worry about getting caught because their badge gives them authority and the backing of a powerful institution.
Themes
Zinzun and some others approached the police and begged them to stop. The police began to mace the crowd, claiming that they were “hostile.” They singled Zinzun out and handcuffed him, led him to an unlit area away from the crowd, and proceeded to stomp on his back. One officer lifted him up and hit him across the head with a billy club. Another hit him across the eye with his flashlight, which resulted in permanent blindness. Afterward, he received two million dollars from the city, which he funneled into his organization.
Zinzun’s account expands on Salas’s and shows how widespread corruption was in the LAPD in the late 20th century. Zinzun’s decision to funnel his settlement to his organization demonstrates his dedication to a broader cause. Rather than focus just on himself and on what he suffered, Zinzun tries to create something positive from the trauma he experienced—and hopefully, help others from suffering as he did.
Themes
