Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992

The voice of this section is Harland W. Braun, Counsel for defendant Theodore Briseno. Braun, who confesses reluctance to taking the case because he did regard the King beating as a “racial beating” (239) and had personal reasons for acknowledging the reality of racial profiling and race-based antagonism by police officers, raises serious questions about whether “an entire historic event”—this or any other—has been “misperceived” and who, if any, can “know” the “truth”. Without calling it a “twilight” state, Braun confesses the need to live within “the ambiguity” of circumstance (241). What, after all, is “justice”? “‘What is truth?’” (243).Recalling Pontius Pilate’s dilemma—in which he must weigh Christ’s innocence (and the upholding of principle) against “the fact that there would be public disorder if this man wasn’t condemned” (in effect, a “riot”)—Braun asks a crucial question: “Is it the truth of Koon and Powell being guilty or is it the truth of the society that has to find them guilty in order to protect itself?” (243).

The title of this section refers to a threat made by an LAPD officer to Braun’s son, when his son and a black friend were pulled over in an upscale neighborhood and his son chose to challenge the officer (240).