Olympia High School Property Vandalized with Racially Biased Graffiti

Olympia High School Property Vandalized with Racially Biased Graffiti

students  

Above: Colorful rocks at Olympia High School are usually spray painted with positive messages, like above, but on Saturday night, were defaced with racially biased messages. 

By Janine Gates

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The frequently spray painted, brightly colored rocks by the bus loading zone off Carlyon Street at Olympia High School is a place for positive messages, but on Saturday night, someone defaced one of the rocks with profanity and racially biased messages of hate.

Little Hollywood is choosing not to publish pictures of those words.

Olympia High School principal Matt Grant said that when he heard about the situation on Saturday night, he made sure the graffiti was removed and replaced with supportive messages for students of color. Mr. Grant called the police and asked them to keep an eye on the rocks. 

“Olympia High School does not tolerate hate. The words that defaced the rock are not, and will never be, reflective of our ideals as a community,” said Grant on Monday.

“The fact that people in this community felt that this language was acceptable tells us that we at Olympia High School have work to do in helping every single one of us understand why statements like those made last weekend are not tolerable in our community.

“But our words today are not enough. We will have to show...that we mean what we say through our actions, through more learning opportunities, and through the conversations we will have over the next few weeks, months, and even years to come,” Grant said in his message to the school community.

The school will share information with staff and students about a community forum on March 2 at Capital High School from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. in the Commons at Capital High School. The event is open to the public and sponsored by the Black Alliance of Thurston County, in cooperation with the Olympia Police Department.

Grant also said that the school will have a student-led forum about race on March 4, develop a committee to make sure school curriculum represents people and ideas from all cultures, and plan for additional professional development opportunities and diversity training so faculty are better equipped to address concerns and issues that emerge about race.

“Every one of us in this community is going to have to dig as deeply as we can to commit to the difficult work ahead of repairing the pain and hurt that racism has caused in this community,” said Grant. 

Ad Hoc Committee on Policing Meets Again

Ad Hoc Committee on Policing Meets Again

windows  

Above: Not everyone wants to attend a meeting in a government building. While the Ad Hoc Committee on Policing and Community Relations group has expressed a sensitivity to different communication styles and a desire to reach a variety of ages and cultures, the meetings thus far have not captured community interest. 

By Janine Unsoeld

www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com

The Ad Hoc Committee on Policing and Community Relations met again Monday night, this time at Olympia City Hall.

Their last meeting was September 9 at the Church of Living Water. About 13 people were in attendance at that meeting.

In order to appear more welcoming, the group paid attention to their physical presence. Without microphones or tables in front of them, members met in a semi-circle.

Only two members of the public were in attendance: Jim Johnson, a man who lives near the location of the police officer involved shooting that occurred on May 21, and Little Hollywood. 

Johnson expressed that he was disappointed with the continued low turnout at Ad Hoc Committee meetings. He also attended the September 9 meeting. He suggested that an Olympia-style potluck was in order to bring the community and conversation together to talk about the Ad Hoc Committee’s goals.

The group continued to discuss the logistics of their first community forum, which will be held on Saturday, October 10. The place and time is still to be determined. 

Committee member Alejandro Rugarcia said that he is not able to make the October 10 forum, and expressed a need to know in advance when future forums might be held.

The group explored several questions to pose to the public in a large plenary gathering. 

The proposed questions for the larger group were:

1.       Share your experiences with the Olympia Police Department;

2.       How can the Olympia Police Department build better understanding and trust with all people?

Proposed small group discussion questions were:

1.       How can the Olympia Police Department more effectively reach out to underrepresented people and groups in the community (ethnic or racial minorities, LGBT, homeless, crime victims, persons arrested or convicted of crimes)?

2.       The vision of the Olympia Police Department is to provide policing services through trust and partnership: a. What does that look like to you? b. How can the Olympia Police Department better meet your expectations for an ideal department?

3.       How can we help community members feel safe when interacting with the Olympia Police? How can we build trust and what are the barriers to trust?

Lt. Aaron Jelcick, an ex-officio member of the Ad Hoc Committee said there’s value in the whole group conversation and was not in favor of breaking up into small groups.

 

Ad-Hoc Committee member Clinton Petty said that the group is ignoring the young members of our community and expressed a strong desire to explore Washington State’s law about the use of excessive force.

“Something has got to be done about changing portions of this law,” said Petty.

Group co-chair Reiko Callner gave an overview of the law and suggested that the community may need a citizen’s law and policy forum about why it is difficult to bring criminal charges against a police officer in Washington State.

Group co-chair Curt Pavola distributed a draft list of who the city needs to engage in the conversation.

The group is expected to report to the Olympia City Council on October 20 with its progress.

The next Ad-Hoc Committee meeting day, time and location was not set. 

Above: Several broken windows at Olympia City Hall will cost at least $10,000 - $15,000 to replace.

Assault and Property Damage to City Hall

On Saturday evening, September 5, around 7:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m., a group of individuals dressed in dark clothing near Percival Landing carried bats and golf clubs. Their faces covered with scarves, they marched through Fourth Avenue.

In an interview last Thursday with Olympia Police Department Lt. Aaron Jelcick, Jelcick said the police diverted traffic around State and Cherry, where a peaceful group was gathered.

The first group grew to about 50-60 people and converged on a man on a motorcycle with a Confederate Flag. The police received numerous 911 calls of the man being beaten and the situation became a riot. The man was taken to St. Peter’s Hospital where he was treated.

No one was arrested. The police are asking for help to identify the suspects, and can call (360) 753-8300 or Crimestoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS with any information.

“As we were responding to the assault, the same group continued on Fourth Avenue to City Hall. We were within a half block (of City Hall) but couldn’t prevent the damage. We used pepper ball guns and other impact weapons to quickly disperse the crowd….A lot of people don’t understand police tactics – we don’t just run into a crowd. It has to be organized…otherwise we put everyone at risk,” said Lt. Jelcick.

The damage to the windows at City Hall, which also houses the Olympia Police Department, is estimated to be between $10,000 - $15,000 dollars, said Lt. Jelcick. 

City manager Steve Hall confirmed tonight that the cost will be at least that much because the windows are not standard, and replacements will need to be custom made.

Above: Broken windows at Olympia City Hall, which also houses the Olympia Police Department, as seen late last week, will take time to replace.

Upcoming Events:

An Olympia Town Hall meeting on policing will be held Wednesday, October 14, 7:00 p.m., Traditions Café, on the corner of 5th and Water Street.

Several organizations involved in policing issues have been invited to participate including the YWCA, Students for Unity & Racial Justice (SURJ), Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Media Island, Justice Not Jails coalition, Interfaith Works, Cop Watch, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Policing and Community Relations.

Several Ad-Hoc Committee members said they may be in attendance.

James Ellroy: The Hollywood Interview

James Ellroy: The Hollywood Interview

The Black Dahlia  

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Paul Haggis: The Hollywood Interview

Paul Haggis: The Hollywood Interview

television  

Writer/director Paul Haggis confers with actor Don Cheadle on the set of Crash.


PAUL HAGGIS: CRASH COURSE
By
Alex Simon

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the December/January 2005-06 issue of Venice Magazine.

Paul Haggis is the living definition of a writer who has paid his dues. After arriving in Hollywood from his native Canada while still in his 20s to pursue his dream of being a screenwriter, Haggis initially found work at the bottom of the television barrel: writing for Saturday morning kids’ shows like Scooby-Doo. After working his way up the food chain, penning scripts for 70s stalwarts like One Day at a Time, The Love Boat, Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life, Paul Haggis’ talent was recognized and he soon found himself one of TV’s top “prestige” writers, working on upscale titles such as Thirtysomething, and L.A. Law. In 1993, he created the Chuck Norris hit Walker Texas Ranger, which ran for eight seasons, all the while working as a writer-for-hire on other television series of varying quality.
In 2000, at age 47, Haggis had a revelation: that he “didn’t want the epitaph on his tombstone to read: ‘Creator of Walker Texas Ranger.’” A lifelong movie buff who had always dreamed of writing and directing features, Haggis walked from his very lucrative position in the world of television, and decided to write two scripts “on spec” (for no pay): Crash (co-written with Bobby Moresco) and Million Dollar Baby (adapted from two short stories in F.X. Toole’s book Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner). Baby, of course, swept last year’s Academy Awards (although Haggis lost in a very tough race to Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor for Sideways) and Crash, a Picaresque story of racism and life in contemporary L.A., is creating strong Oscar buzz of its own. He most recently finished the screenplay for Eastwood’s latest film: the WW II drama Flags of Our Fathers.
Paul Haggis sat down in his Santa Monica home (one of the shooting locations for Crash: it was Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock’s house. “We couldn’t afford to rent a real house,” Haggis says with a smile) to speak with us about his new, very successful career shift.

I’m very jealous that you’ve now gotten to work twice with Clint Eastwood. I got to spend a day on the Million Dollar Baby set last year, and I learned more in that day than I did in four years at USC.
Paul Haggis: Isn’t it amazing to watch him work? I actually finished shooting Crash before they began work on Million Dollar Baby, and so unfortunately I didn’t get to learn those same lessons until afterwards. But the next thing I directed was this TV pilot I recently finished which I also wrote, with Bobby Moresco in 1996. NBC suddenly decided they wanted it, which was great. I took a lot of those lessons I learned from that set: I shot in shorter days, got better performances, and it was an easier, quieter set because of it.

What were those lessons that you took away?
Well, Clint’s been working with the same people for years, and while I haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet, I was able to work with James Muro for the second time, who was my D.P. on Crash. I earned his trust, so he immediately came to mind, but once you have a rapport with someone it’s much easier to have that kind of shorthand. Jimmy’s such an artist with the camera. So I would definitely like to have a “team” in place like Clint does, that I can work with consistently.

One thing I liked about Crash was that I didn’t notice you or the D.P. until the third time I saw it.
Good! Thank you for saying that. It’s funny, I love cranes, and love crane shots, and movement, and there was one great crane shot I had at the end of the film. It started at the skyline, then it came down to Don Cheadle, then it came up and around and back and forth…it was just a breathtakingly beautiful shot. Then I looked at it and said ‘Ah, it’s too fancy.’ So I used the beginning and end of it, but the rest of the time, I stayed on Don’s close-up. My editor--Hughes Winborne, a great editor--and I finished cutting the whole movie, and he turned to me and said “You made a huge mistake: you have to put that shot back in. It’s just too fuckin’ beautiful, man.” I said “Fine.” So we put it back in, and we cut the negative. Now on a low budget film like this one, we had $6.5 million, so we didn’t have anything to cut other than the negative. So when you do that, you destroy frames. When I saw the entire crane shot put back in the film I said ‘I can’t do that. I have to put the close up back in.’ Hughes said “You destroyed the negative! You cut it out!” I said ‘I know,’ so we went back in and digitally created those frames, which you can do now, and we put Don’s close-up back in, because that told the story, and didn’t scream “Look at me, I’m a director!”

You directed television prior to this, but never a feature. Is television as fluid a medium as film for a director?
No, not at all. You have a great freedom in film, especially independent film, to express things the way you want. There are a lot of great directors in television, and I got to work with many of them, and you soak in so much watching them work as writers or directors. In fact, if you look at a lot of the work on television today, it’s fabulous filmmaking. It feels more like you’re watching a film, instead of watching television.

Tell us about how Crash was born.
There were several jumping off points, one being when I was carjacked back in 1991. I was coming home with my then-wife after the opening of Silence of the Lambs. We were film junkies and one film was never enough, so we stopped off at the video store to get something else. We went to the video store and got some obscure Finnish movie we’d never seen. We were coming out to where we parked my first new, expensive car: a white Porsche, and suddenly two men with guns walk up. “We’ll take the car.” I said ‘Absolutely,’ and told Diane to get out of the car. Then they told us to walk towards this dark alley that was behind us. I thought that was a poor choice so I stood in front of my wife, shielding her, and pushed her towards Wilshire Boulevard. We got about 25 feet and I heard “Stop!” And I hear running behind me, and I feel a gun in my back. The guy reached down, and grabbed the video that was in Diane’s hand, turned around, hopped in the car, and they drove off. So the cops come, very quickly. I described the young men, the car and all the information. Then I decide to give them my theory of the crime. I said ‘I think those fellows have been here quite often. I get that feeling. I think they were here looking for that video. They’ve been here several times, and it was never in. They saw us coming out with it, felt it was too much to take, and they took the car to make their getaway.’ (laughs) Of course the cops are just staring at me as if I’m in shock, which of course I am. They were nice enough to drive us home. Then we called a locksmith, because they had our housekeys, and our address, and our locks got changed at 2:00 in the morning. Over the next ten years, I thought about those two kids a lot, and they wouldn’t let me alone. They kept popping up in my head, mostly late at night: who would do that? What did they think of themselves? Did they think of themselves as criminals? Were they best friends? What did they do with the car? 10-12 years later, I woke up in the middle of night again, thinking about them again. I went ‘Fuck!’ So I finally decided to sit down, and write about it. But I decided to use them as my protagonists, rather than my villains, and tell the story from their point of view. I recently had become intrigued by how we affect strangers. You and I, driving down the streets, I yell at you, you flip me the finger, you go right, I go left. What happens to you? Do you go home and do the emotions that the incident has caused you to carry cause you to have a tiff with your wife? Or do you stop two or three blocks later and save someone’s life? But we judge people so quickly, based on so little evidence. So I asked myself those same questions: What did we do after we had the encounter with those two young guys? We went home and changed the locks. Then I asked myself, how would I have felt if that kid had come to change the locks at two in the morning? What if he was Hispanic? What if he had buzzed hair and what looked like gang or prison tattoos. Would I have felt safe? Being a liberal guy, you’re always spouting off on these things, would you have felt safe in that situation? ‘Fuck! I hate that! I hate asking that question!’ So I decided to put Sandra Bullock’s character in that position of having to admit it. But then wait, what happens to that kid who comes to change the locks? So I followed him. And by ten in the morning, I had the whole story completed, with all these characters who’d come to me over the years.

At first you tried to do it as a TV series, right?
Yeah, and the networks weren’t particularly interested. Then I went off to write Million Dollar Baby, after I got the rights from F.X. Toole, and I wrote it on spec, so when I was finished, I was still unemployed. I decided to take a pass on television for a while, called my friend Bobby Moresco and said ‘I’ve got these pages here, and I think it’s a movie. I also know two things: no one’s going to pay us and once it’s done, it’s probably never going to get made.’ He said “Sounds cool.” So we got together and wrote the script in two weeks. It just flew out of us, unlike Million Dollar Baby, which I struggled with for eight months.

Why was it so much harder to adapt Million Dollar Baby?
Well, it was culled from two short stories from Toole’s book, Rope Burns: “Million Dollar Baby,” which was just about the relationship between Maggie (Hilary Swank) and Frankie (Clint Eastwood), there was no Scrap (Morgan Freeman) character, no priest, no deep belief in Catholicism, no estranged daughter and nothing he was haunted by. It was just Frankie and Maggie, and him trying to train her. The other story was called “Frozen Water.” So I had to take those beautiful short stories and somehow surround them with a world and find a way to tell it. I knew I had to have narration, but I usually hate narration, because it’s such an easy tool. I knew I had to come up with some emotional way to justify it. I had a situation when I went through a very long, painful divorce and I was estranged from my youngest daughter for some time. It was horrible. So I took those feelings and experiences I had and put them in the story as something that maybe Frankie couldn’t forgive himself for. I decided on not telling the audience what that was, so that’s when I said “Ah ha!” and I got the hook, and was able to write it. It’s always an emotional reason that you get the story’s hook, never an intellectual one. If there’s not an emotional reason for an element to be in a script, then it doesn’t belong there.