After the Simi Valley Verdict

"Riot is the language of the unheard."

- Martin Luther King Jr.

The stunning April 29 acquittal of four white police officers charged with assaulting black motorist Rodney King took Los Angeles literally by storm. In its wake this storm left 58 people dead, more than 5,000 buildings torched, and a city in a state of shock. Now it is incumbent upon those of us who reside here to make sense of these dramatic events.

We are a group of concerned Christians, lay and clergy, who have devoted ourselves to the work of justice, peacemaking, and service in this city. We are part of a group that has met regularly for several years to reflect theologically and politically on our work. Many of us are, like the Simi Valley jury, persons who by race and class inheritance belong to the dominant culture. We feel compelled to make this public statement because those in this city with race and class privilege are avoiding taking responsibility for the violence and disruption.

Therefore, we make this confession: The Simi Valley verdict revealed the truth--not the truth about what happened to Rodney King, but the truth about the dominant culture. Sadly, history has yet again demonstrated that the dominant culture remains blind to race and class oppression and deaf to the cries of the disenfranchised unless and until there is a riot. As people committed to nonviolent social transformation, we cannot endorse the recent violence; indeed we are profoundly saddened by it, particularly the loss of life and jobs and hope. But we must recognize that we too bear responsibility for it. Indeed, as long as violence remains the language by which the dominant culture maintains its power, the unheard will be forced to use violence to reach us with their demands for justice.

The rebellion we have just witnessed compels us to acknowledge the judgment of the gospel in this historical moment. In light of it, we seek to repent (literally, to "change directions"). In our tradition this also requires that we make judgments of our own about some issues which arise out of the immediate aftermath of the rebellion.

Why did this happen?

Some of the religious leaders said to Jesus, "Teacher, command the crowds to be quiet." Jesus retorted, "I tell you, if my disciples keep silent, the stones will cry out!"

- Luke 19:39-40

Anticipating the possibility of an unjust verdict in the LAPD officers' trial, religious and civic leaders urged residents to remain calm, admonishing protesters to vent their anger in socially acceptable ways. It was not to be: With every fire set and every stone hurled, the silenced anguish of the marginalized cried out.

In the aftermath we continue to hear a double refrain from the politicians, media commentators, and other moralists. They lament the verdict but condemn the riots: "Nothing justifies such behavior," they scold. But why wasn't the daily cycle of violence experienced by the poor of our city enough to command their attention?

Our churches are particularly culpable. "If my disciples remain silent, the stones will cry out." Why have we Christians learned to live with the injustices that became intolerable for those who rebelled? Why do we remain silent about the daily violence that the poor must live with, and speak out only when property is burned and looted, and white lives are lost? And does not our endorsement of the militarization of our city suggest that we are captive to the values of the dominant culture, that we too will go to great lengths to protect privilege rather than stand in solidarity with the poor?

We Christians need to repent of our silence. This means intensify our efforts to identify and address the roots of injustice in our city. It means opening up the conversation about the problems, not shutting it down through heavy-handed law and order. The liturgical season of Pentecost is the time when the church remembers its vocation to carry on the work of Jesus in the power of the Spirit. We therefore call on our parishes and our denominational leaders to devote the entire season of Pentecost to sober reflection upon the meaning of these riots, in order to deepen our comprehension of their rootedness in structural injustice.

We believe that our reliance on federal troops revealed our lack of moral imagination, and call on the churches to support long term efforts to promote community policing strategies.

We urge state and federal legislators to enact and enforce strict gun control laws.

Who is responsible?

"As for the people killed when the building fell on them, do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in the city? I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all share the same fate!"

- Luke 13:45

Many, particularly politicians and the press, are trying to avoid responsibility for the riots by perpetuating a discourse that divides city residents into "bad people" (looters and 'hoodlums') and "good people" (clean-up brigades and 'law-abiding citizens'). Such false distinctions only mask the complicity of all who live in the city.

How can those in unaffected neighborhoods lament that "they are only hurting themselves," when the message of arson is precisely that people feel disowned in their own city? How can we call the looters "hooligans" when they have learned to "take what you can when you can" from white collar criminals, such as those involved in the Savings and Loan scandal? When executives of our major corporations increase their salaries while exporting jobs to the Third World and laying off workers at home, who is looting whom? How can we call those using fire or guns "thugs" when they have learned from U.S. foreign policy to prosecute grievances with violence? "Violence must always be condemned," said President Bush while in LA; was he including Panama and Iraq? The actions of the disenfranchised in our society only mirror the moral climate modeled by those in power.

Another avoidance is race-scapegoating. The images captured make it clear that this was a truly "multicultural riot." Race is not the issue; but racism is. The dominant culture is deliberately playing on racial tensions in order to obscure the deeper issues of class disparity (e.g. the way in which the media played upon already extant tensions between African Americans and Korean Americans in its coverage of the riot). The looters were from all ethnic backgrounds--but most were poor. The welfare system, contrary to Reagan-Bush apologists, is not the issue; long-smoldering resentment at institutionalized economic inequity is.

We Christians need to repent of the compulsion to blame others. We must instead take our share of responsibility for a system that is simply not working for a large sector of our population. Only then can we resist the logic of those now clamoring to make examples of rioters. We believe that extraordinary security measures, as well as vindictive punishment of the some 17,000 arrested during the rebellion, only serve to entrench the cause of the riot in the first place: official brutality and the absence of equal justice under the law. If our churches truly desire healing in our city, we must work for reconciliation, not criminalization and revictimization of those driven by racial and economic injustices to riot.

Therefore we decry the imposition of a state of emergency and its suspension of basic civil rights.

It is unconscionable that the same judicial system which could not convict four white policemen of beating King is now pressing for maximum sentences for looters. We therefore urge that amnesty be offered to those charged with nonviolent crimes.

We call for an immediate end to LAPD-INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service] collaboration, and the release of all undocumented persons not charged with crimes who were caught up in these sweeps.

What should be done?

Jesus saw the city and wept over it, saying, "If only you knew the things that make for peace--but now they are hidden from your eyes....Not one stone will be left upon another because you did not recognize the moment of your visitation."

- Luke 19:41f, 44

Many of us joined in the volunteer initiatives to help clean up after the rebellion, to distribute food and clothing to the hardest-hit areas, and to raise money for rebuilding. Important as these efforts are, we acknowledge that they are not by themselves enough to loosen the yoke of oppression under which the poor of our city labor.

We Christians need to repent of our failure "to recognize the time of visitation." We must better understand how discriminations based upon race and class are mutually reinforcing in our society and our churches. Above all, if we are to help ensure that a genuinely new social order is constructed from the ashes of this uprising, we must listen to and forge a practical partnership with the poor. We call on the churches to think creatively how we can produce jobs and contribute to grassroots development in our own work. We must also participate in and critically monitor official efforts to rebuild the affected communities.

We call for all decisions concerning major reconstruction efforts to be subject to input and direction from residents of the affected areas and to focus on human resources and not just businesses and infrastructure.

We urge that as reconstruction contracts are awarded, primary consideration should be given to contractors and firms owned and operated by people of color, and local residents, especially unemployed at-risk youth, should be hired to carry out the work.

Together with the leaders of our churches and all people of faith, we seek to discover the crucial role we might play in the rebellion's wake. Instead of scolding others, let us see how the seeds of injustice lie within us and the dominant culture from which we benefit. We are disheartened by the violence that has overtaken our city; but we know that because we were silent, the stones cried out in anger against an unjust system. May we come to truly "know the things that make for peace," and give flesh to them in our life and work.

Drafters: Rev. Gregory Boyle, S.J., Leonardo Vilchis, Dolores Mission; Rev. Louis Chase, Lynwood United Methodist Church; Marty Coleman, All Saints Episcopal Church; Rev. Don Kribs, St. Camillus Center for Pastoral Care; Ched Myers, American Friends Service Committee; Rev. Luis Olivares, C.M.F.; Rev. Chris Ponnet, Our Lady of Assumption; Kieran Prather, Sandra Huckaby, LA Catholic Worker; Freddie Schrider, Epispocal Diocese Peace and Justice Commission; Rev. Jim Schrider, Christic Institute; Brian Sellers-Petersen, Bread for the World; Rev. Thomas Smolich, S.J., Sandy Perluss-Lejune, Proyecto Pastoral; Rev. Jane Turner, St John's Episcopal Church; Mary Brent Wehrli, So. Calif. Interfaith Task Force on Central America.