A look at the charges brought against the six officers in the Freddie Gray case and community reaction, Vietnamese artists and their work in Southern California.
Freddie Gray case: Implications of the charges against the officers
The Freddie Gray case took a dramatic turn Friday morning, when six officers were charged in Gray's death.
Baltimore State Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby announced the list of charges, ranging from manslaughter and assault to second-degree depraved heart murder.
The state alleges that the officers failed to secure Gray in the back of the police van after he was handcuffed and shackled. They have also been charged with illegally arresting Gray without probable cause, and denying multiple requests for medical attention.
Melech Thomas is a community activist in Baltimore. He tells Take Two that many people in the community are elated:
“Some police departments have this tactic called a 'rough ride,'" he explained to Take Two. “[When] a suspect gives the police a hard time, they put them in the back of the paddy wagon, [and] they refuse to put a seat belt around the person. And they’re not allowed to get any medical attention until they finally get to the precinct. Finally, this has come back to bite the police. … Now we’re waiting to see if the conviction is going to be served.”
Connie Rice is a longtime civil rights attorney and co-director of the Advancement Project. She says she’s surprised that the indictments came so swiftly:
“Most prosecutors wait for the police report before they even begin an investigation. This prosecutor not only didn’t wait for the police report, she went out and got a separate agency and did her own independent investigation. That’s very unusual.”
Professor Jody Armour with the USC Gould School of Law says the second-degree depraved heart murder charge against one officer says a lot about what the investigation into Gray’s death revealed:
“You had to have to have malice in your heart before could be guilty of murder. If you kill without malice, you’re just guilty of manslaughter. So malice for murder when you’re talking about murder [means] you acted with a depraved heart. You were reckless, you generated excessive risk and you did so with a malignant and depraved and indifferent heart. “
Eugene O’Donnell is a former police officer with the NYPD and teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and he says Gray’s death exposed a systematic flaw with way Baltimore operates:
“Ultimately, I don’t know if they’re gonna prove these charges, all of them or some of them, but I do know that we’re looking at a spectacular institutional failure in the city of Baltimore, in the police department and I think city hall. A situation in which somebody is arrested for running … where are the managers? Where are the leaders? Who are the people that are supposed to step in and say, ‘end this now. Stop this now. Release this guy?’’
Press the play button above to hear more analysis on the charges announced against six officers in Baltimore today.
2 moms on raising black sons in Baltimore
One of the most stirring images from the Baltimore riots was the viral video of mother Toya Graham giving her son a smack down after seeing him throw objects at police officers.
Earlier this week, she appeared on CBS and explained her actions. "That's my only son. And at the end of the day, I don't want him to be a Freddie Gray," she said.
Many hailed Graham as "Mom of the Year," and many have also been critical of her actions.
Tenille Patterson is the Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Urban Families in Baltimore and is the mother of three sons, ages 12, 10 and 5. She told Take Two that when she saw the video of Graham reprimanding her son, she understood where she was coming from.
"I understood her fear. I understood her pain and her reaction," Patterson said. "My husband and I parent three boys and it takes a village."
Fatima Wilkerson is a single mom raising two sons, ages 12 and 15, in the Patterson Park neighborhood of Baltimore. She told Take Two that she would have reacted as Graham did.
"There's this fear that overwhelms you and that mamma bear instinct kicks in," Wilkerson said.
"You really have to try to maintain a balance between giving [your sons] the freedom to grow up and become men and make their own decisions, and making sure that that one decision that they make won't cost them their life," she said.
Click on the player above to listen to the entire interview.
Freddie Gray: Baltimore residents react to criminal charges brought against six officers
Earlier today in Baltimore, Maryland, State Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced criminal charges against six officers who were suspended following the death of Freddie Gray.
Mosby declared Gray's arrest illegal because the officers didn't have probable cause to detain him. She added that the officers' treatment of Gray while he was in their custody warranted charges of murder and manslaughter, and called on the public to remain calm.
Kenneth Burns, a reporter with NPR station WYPR in Baltimore, joined Take Two for a look at how Baltimore residents have been reacting to the news.
Cambodians in Long Beach mark genocide: 'These are the survivors'
Four decades after the Khmer Rouge seized control of Phnom Penh, Cambodians in Long Beach are still coming to terms with the tragic events that sent thousands fleeing their homeland.
"It was really chaotic," said Lian Cheun, who escaped from a prison camp in Cambodia as an infant along with her parents. "Everybody had survival in their mind, trying to figure out how to reconnect with family, trying to find family that are missing."
In some cases, family members were split up in the labor camps set up by the Khmer Rouge. When the regime fell in 1979, the country was in turmoil, prompting many to make for the border with Thailand, where they spent time in refugee camps on the way to the U.S.
In Long Beach, Cambodians have established a close-knit community and a busy business district, but the experience of the past is often never far behind.
US war in Vietnam spills into Cambodia
"The Vietnam War spilled over into Cambodia starting in the mid 1960s when the U.S. escalation in Vietnam began to build up," said Ben Kiernan, a history professor and director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. carried out an extensive, and then-secret, bombing campaign in neighboring Cambodia and Laos. The rationale was to pursue North Vietnamese forces, or paramilitary groups, as they crossed borders. That campaign dropped some two million tons of bombs on Cambodia – more than the total amount dropped during all of World War II, according to an analysis of government data released by the Clinton Administration in 2000.
But they often hit indiscriminate targets.
"The bombs hit weddings, funerals, village communities. Sometimes many, many houses and villages were destroyed while people were inside them," said Kiernan. He estimates that the U.S. bombing killed 100 to 150,000 people in four years.
Soon after, the Khmer Rouge took over control of the country, launching a reign of imprisonment and killing that left some 1.7 million Cambodians dead and many more displaced.
Transmission of trauma
"We are now seeing the transmission of trauma, from the first generation to the second generation and it’s coming out in different ways," said Cheun, who today runs a non-profit called Khmer Girls in Action in Long Beach.
More than 60 percent of Cambodians in the area reported post-trauma symptoms and more than half showed major depression, according to a 2005 RAND study.
"I grew up really rejecting my identity," said Kelley Pheng, 26, a student at California State University, Long Beach.
As a young Cambodian American, the weight of the past was often difficult to cope with, she said.
"The confusion and grasping and accepting the history of our people, the things that my parents really did go through, the suffering that they had to endure," she said. "A lot of our people are not here with us today and those are the people we can't forget."
Reclaiming culture
Som-Rothmony says she fled Cambodia as a young girl herself, after being separated from her father when she was six. She remembers Khmer Rouge raids in her village that forced her to rush underground for safety.
"Sometimes, we didn't have any food so we would eat a bowl of rice with salt," she said. "But in the village the resiliency, the healing process was phenomenal."
Today, she draws on traditional healing – such as gardening and meditation – to teach Cambodian elders and youth at the MAYE Center in Long Beach.
At a recent evening at the Long Beach Expo Center, she joined families from the Cambodian community to commemorate the anniversary of the genocide. She stood next to a stage, where 32-year-old Andrew Yinn played traditional music that was once banned during the Khmer Rouge regime.
The scene of about 300 Cambodians listening intently to the music was a sign of hope, she said.
"For me it means we have overcome the atrocity of the genocide [to] bring back our culture," said Som-Rothmony.
Listen to more stories featured in Take Two's "After Saigon" series
New generation of Vietnamese art explores past, pushes boundaries
For some Vietnamese Americans, art can be a way to mine memories, celebrate struggle and pose difficult questions. We sit down with three Vietnamese American artists, who are using art to explore new territory.
Trinh Mai is a visual artist, Lan Tran is a writer / performer and Cara "TK" Le is a poet.
Artist Trinh Mai used her own finger prints to create this portrait of her grandmother, Bà Ngoại (Grandmother), 2015, ink (fingerprints) on paper. (Image courtesy of Trinh Mai.) View more of Trinh Mai's work here.
More stories from Take Two's series, "After Saigon"
Augie 'Kid Vegas' Sanchez and his win over Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
This weekend is the highly-anticipated match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao.
Many are calling it the greatest boxing match of this generation. But while many may comment on the skill of both fighters, there are only a handful of people that can say they’ve faced them, and won.
Although Mayweather is unbeaten as a pro, in 1996 he faced Augie "Kid Vegas" Sanchez at the United States Olympic trials. And Sanchez came out on top.
Although Sanchez didn't make the Olympic team that year, Mayweather would avenge the loss and go on to win a bronze medal.
Sanchez now lives and works in Las Vegas as a coach for Barry's Boxing Center.
Sanchez spoke to host A Martinez, and explained what he was thinking in that last round.
"Just keep throwing, I wanted to represent the USA in the Olympics and he was in front of me so that’s what I kept doing. Constant punching, pressure … everything I could do."
Sanchez didn’t make the Olympic team that year, but he went on to have a very successful career as a featherweight - with 28 wins and only 3 losses. He fought major contenders like Jorge Paez, Luisito Espinosa and "Prince" Naseem Hamed.
"Pressure and punching, I’m a hard puncher," Sanchez said of his style.
AM - What does that mean, because everyone assumes that all boxers are hard punchers … what does that mean for you?
"Getting respect in the ring. You know, my opponents respecting my power. Them having to figure out a different way of boxing me."
AM - So if someone were trying to beat you, what would their strategy be back then?
"Uh, move … hit and move, the way Floyd fought me."
Boxing judge explains how Pacquiao-Mayweather decision could come down
Most spectators of the upcoming fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. are probably hoping for a dramatic ending - a win by knockout. But there's a good chance the bout could come down to a decision by the judges. Duane B. Ford, a boxing judge in Las Vegas and the President of the North American Boxing Federation, joins the show to explain what goes into judging the sport.
Mayweather-Pacquiao fight draws huge bets in Vegas
Boxing fans are gearing up for what's being hailed as the fight of the century.
Saturday, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather face off in the long-awaited bout. It's a huge deal for boxing fans and gamblers alike.
John Avello runs the sports book at the Wynn Las Vegas, and he provides a look at the busy business of betting ahead of the fight.
Reading by Moonlight: David Kipen's literary picks for May
David Kipen, founder of Libros Schmibros lending library in Boyle Heights, returns to offer his roundup of the best literary happenings this month.
- Jane Jacobs' "The Death and Life of American Cities"
- Cari Beauchamp "My First Time in Hollywood"
- May 2, National Indie Book Store Day
- Kansas Anymore, guide to classic movie screenings