'12 Years a Slave': New video explores legacy of Solomon Northup

While the film's story — based on the autobiography by Solomon Northup, a free black man from the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the antebellum South — is remarkable, perhaps even more astonishing is that the story is so little known. An exclusive new video, embedded above, sheds some light on the historical context and legacy of "12 Years a Slave."

In the video, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a historical consultant for the film, explains, "Between 1760 and the end of the Civil War, there were 101 books written or dictated by people who once were slaves and then escaped to the North. The only one that addresses the experience of a free man or woman in the North who was kidnapped into slavery in the South and then made it back to freedom in the North is Solomon Northup."

PHOTOS: Behind the scenes of movies and TV

David Fiske, a Northup biographer, adds, "It's very interesting because [Northup's] attention to detail in the book shows just how curious he was and what an intelligent person he was, because he records every little detail that happens to him."

"No man writing in upstate New York could have fabricated this scenario," Gates says.

Steve McQueen, the director of the film, discusses his motivation for bringing the book to the big screen. "I couldn't put it down," McQueen says in the video. "It's an astonishing story of one man who holds on to his faith, holds on to his humanity through the worst kind of experience one can think of. And it was something I thought the world should know about. It was an amazing discovery for me."

Chiwetel Ejiofor, the actor who plays Northup, adds, "There are so many levels to this book and to this story. And for me, Solomon's book is a gift. It is a gift from the middle of the 19th century right into the present day. It's a story that speaks to these ongoing debates as we grapple with what it means, what human dignity and human respect really mean, and how do we apply that on any given day."

For more on the legacy of "12 Years a Slave," watch the full video above.

ALSO:

A turn, a snap, a fall: Signatures of the stars

Films inspired by true events walk a tricky line

Spirit Award noms a timely stamp of approval for deserving films

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Charities hope to make 'GivingTuesday' as big as Black Friday

Thousands of the nation's charities are hoping you have a lot of money left over after the first big days of holiday shopping and have an urge to consider the needy.

They are also hoping to make the second iteration of "GivingTuesday" as big an event in philanthropy as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are for shopping.

GivingTuesday, which will be held Dec. 3, is a daylong national event designed to help charities raise money online.

Last year, GivingTuesday drew donations to about 2,600 nonprofits, according to event sponsors.

PHOTOS: Thanksgiving Day shopping

That first GivingTuesday was very much a grassroots-style event organized on the fly by co-founders like Henry Timms of 92Y, a New York nonprofit cultural and community center in New York City.

Blackbaud, a founding partner of the event and a global provider of software and services to nonprofits, said it processed $10 million in online donations on the inaugural GivingTuesday.

This year, more than 6,000 charitable groups have bigger goals and started planning as early as summer.

Stacey Stewart, U.S. president of the nation's biggest charity, United Way Worldwide, said the event was an attempt to focus attention on giving back at time when people are often focused on consumer spending.

"GivingTuesday is a movement of more than 6,000 partners who are collectively redefining what it means to 'give,'" said Stewart.

In California, one GivingTuesday event will be held at Riviera 31 at the Hotel Sofitel in Beverly Hills.

Ken Brenner, Founder of Interactive Donor Corp., is using the event to unveil a new widget for smartphones called iDonor, which allows users to easily give to the cause of their choice.

Brenner said in an interview, "We are extremely proud part to be partners in this, activating and igniting the next generation of philanthropists across the country, a movement for people to give back during the holiday season."

ALSO:

Trump settles lawsuit on latest bad business deal

Protestors rally outside Ontario Wal-Mart on Black Friday

Southwest Airlines is raising the fee on transporting pets by $20 to $95

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

'12 Years a Slave': New video explores legacy of Solomon Northup

While the film's story — based on the autobiography by Solomon Northup, a free black man from the North who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the antebellum South — is remarkable, perhaps even more astonishing is that the story is so little known. An exclusive new video, embedded above, sheds some light on the historical context and legacy of "12 Years a Slave."

In the video, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a historical consultant for the film, explains, "Between 1760 and the end of the Civil War, there were 101 books written or dictated by people who once were slaves and then escaped to the North. The only one that addresses the experience of a free man or woman in the North who was kidnapped into slavery in the South and then made it back to freedom in the North is Solomon Northup."

PHOTOS: Behind the scenes of movies and TV

David Fiske, a Northup biographer, adds, "It's very interesting because [Northup's] attention to detail in the book shows just how curious he was and what an intelligent person he was, because he records every little detail that happens to him."

"No man writing in upstate New York could have fabricated this scenario," Gates says.

Steve McQueen, the director of the film, discusses his motivation for bringing the book to the big screen. "I couldn't put it down," McQueen says in the video. "It's an astonishing story of one man who holds on to his faith, holds on to his humanity through the worst kind of experience one can think of. And it was something I thought the world should know about. It was an amazing discovery for me."

Chiwetel Ejiofor, the actor who plays Northup, adds, "There are so many levels to this book and to this story. And for me, Solomon's book is a gift. It is a gift from the middle of the 19th century right into the present day. It's a story that speaks to these ongoing debates as we grapple with what it means, what human dignity and human respect really mean, and how do we apply that on any given day."

For more on the legacy of "12 Years a Slave," watch the full video above.

ALSO:

A turn, a snap, a fall: Signatures of the stars

Films inspired by true events walk a tricky line

Spirit Award noms a timely stamp of approval for deserving films

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Once Upon a Time': It's Regina vs. Peter Pan, and Pan never fails

In this "Save Henry" episode of "Once Upon a Time," we wrap up our stay in Neverland, but not before getting all the details about how Evil Queen Regina adopted Henry. And just because we're leaving Storybrooke doesn't mean the end for Peter Pan.

Back to where it all started. In the Enchanted Forest past, the Evil Queen and Rumpelstiltskin chat as the curse that will place them all in Storybrooke envelops the land. She seems to want to gloat to Rumpel about the fact that she has cast this spell, remaking the world as she sees fit. He wonders why she would come back to tell him, and also reveals that even if this succeeds, she still has a "hole in her heart" and will come back to him to help her fill it. Rumpel's sing-songy "You shall see, you will come to me ..." was eerily foretelling.

In present-day Neverland, Pan gloats over the fact that Henry gave his heart of his own free will, making Pan immortal. Emma nicks Pan with her blade. He says it doesn't hurt and flies away. Regina notices that he bled on the blade, so they can kill him until the heart has totally become his own.

PHOTOS: The funny, the spooky and the ugly of TV witches

In Storybrooke, Regina is visited by Dr. Hopper, who notices that she seems to lack something that could make her happy. They surmise that a child could be the thing that Regina desires most, but adoption is not a quick process, even for an evil queen. Regina goes to Mr. Gold for help in adopting a child. Of course, Gold is able to find one; a child whose adoption fell through. Regina travels to Boston with impeccable credentials for adoption. She names him Henry.

In order to find Pan in Neverland, Emma appeals to the Lost Boys' sense of family; their desire to go back to their parents or at least to leave Neverland. Being a lost girl (no relation to the Syfy show) herself, she knows what will work. It works better than Regina's desired torture route, and they find that Pan is most likely in his thinking tree. Teams of heroes split -- Regina, Emma and Snow go after Pan as the others prepare to leave the island on Hook's ship -- and a showdown approaches.

In Storybrooke past, Granny advises Regina to read Henry a story to help stop his crying. She doesn't know why Henry is crying, and being a protective new mom, takes him to Dr. Whale. Dr. Whale says he's just crying and it's normal, which is not good enough for Regina. But in order to do a proper diagnosis, she'd have to have access to Henry's biological parents. She doesn't, but she'll try to find them anyway. She does figure out, though, that it's really not a medical problem. She just hasn't bonded with him yet. A wholly regular problem, with a magical solution? No, not this time. She finds that all she needs is love. Even after discovering that Henry is Snow White's child, and even after taking him back to Boston to return him, the cute kid wins her over and a mother is born.

TIMELINE: Snow White through the years

Long live the queen!! So back in Neverland, Pan thought he'd captured Regina, Emma and Snow with his "tree of regret."  The three mothers may question the choices they've made and what paths they set their children on. Not so fast, Petey. Regina doesn't regret what she's done -- torture, murder, cursing an entire realm to make her life more bearable, etc. -- because it brought her Henry. She easily breaks free and grabs Henry's heart right from Pan's chest! Regina is just awesome. Anyway, they return Henry's heart to his chest and Neal, with Regina's help, somehow uses Pan's captured shadow as sails on Hook's ship to make it fly them back to Storybrooke. Yeah, that will take some more explaining (to me), so let's just go with it.

Back to past Storybrooke... Upon her return, and in order to raise Henry properly without the fear of Emma coming back into their lives, Regina actually made herself forget that Emma was even out there. An act of true love, actually, though no one was around to see it.

Still protecting Henry, Regina casts a spell so that no one will ever be able to take his heart again.  Of course, right after she leaves, Pan appears and tries to do just that but gets zapped. He can't take the heart, but maybe he can nab Henry's shadow. Rumpelstiltskin, newly released from Pandora's Box and reunited with Neal, appears and puts Pan in the box instead. Sadly, not before Pan has had a chance to switch bodies with Henry, unbeknown to anyone on board the Jolly Roger. So Henry is the one who ends up in Pan's body in Pandora's Box. Pan does reveal his switcheroo to his most loyal underling Lost Boy Felix, though. Shenanigans will occur.

We have no idea how long Pan will stay in Henry's body once they get back to Storybrooke, but he's bound to cause some trouble. #PanNeverFails, indeed.

ALSO:

'Once Upon a Time': A 'Lost Girl' in Neverland

Lana Parrilla: An evil queen and a Brooklyn hippie

'Once Upon a Time': A spotlight on Emma Swan's past

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Stocks mixed after long holiday weekend

Stocks were mixed in early trading as investors weighed encouraging news about the economy against weaker holiday shopping sales.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 30 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,055. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was little changed at 1,806. The Nasdaq composite was also little changed at 4,060.

After dropping at the open, stocks reduced their losses after the government reported that developers boosted construction spending in October at the fastest pace in more than four years. A separate survey showed that manufacturing activity rose at its fastest pace in 2 1/2 years.

The stock market has surged 27 percent this year as the economy maintains a slow but steady recovery and corporations keep growing their earnings. Demand for stocks also has been bolstered by Federal Reserve policies that have held down interest rates, making bonds less attractive investments than stocks.

Retail stocks fell Monday after a disappointing kickoff to the holiday shopping season for stores.

Shoppers spent less over the Thanksgiving weekend than they did last year, even though they turned out in record numbers. It would be the first decline in Thanksgiving weekend spending since a retail trade group began tracking it in 2006.

Urban Outfitters fell 91 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $38.16. Coach fell $1.22, or 2 percent, $56.68.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year note climbed to 2.79 percent, from 2.75 percent.

Among the biggest decliners on Monday were power and phone companies. Investors typically buy those stocks because the pay big dividends, providing an income. But when interest rates climb investors sell them because that income is less attractive in comparison to higher bond yields.

In commodities trading, the price of oil rose 60 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $93.33 a barrel. Gold fell $14.80, or 1.2 percent, to $1,235.60 an ounce.

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Afghans describe relatives' deaths in recent U.S. drone strike

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Miya Jan was filling potholes on the rutted trail that leads to his village in rugged eastern Afghanistan when he heard the whine of a drone aircraft overhead.

The sunburned 28-year-old farmer looked up and saw a gray, narrow-winged drone circling the village. A few minutes later, he said, it fired a missile that landed with a tremendous thud across a stony ridge line.

Jan ran to the explosion site and recognized the burning frame of his cousin's blue pickup truck. Inside, he said, he saw blackened shapes — people whose torsos had been sheared off. He recognized the smoking remains of his brother, his brother's wife and their 18-month-old son. Jan and other villagers say 14 people were killed in the attack; U.S. and Afghan officials place the toll at 11.

"There were pieces of my family all over the road," said Jan, recalling the deadly Sept. 7 late afternoon incident in an interview last week. "I picked up those pieces from the road and from the truck and wrapped them in a sheet to bury them.

"Do the American people want to spend their money this way, on drones that kill our women and children?" he asked.

The repercussions of such strikes are felt far beyond the dark escarpments of Kunar province. The grief and rage of Jan and his relatives help explain the approval among some Afghans of President Hamid Karzai's thus far non-negotiable demand that civilian casualties cease if he is to sign a proposed 10-year security agreement with the United States.

Karzai responded to the Kunar attack by accusing the United States of recklessness and callous disregard for innocent Afghans. After a child died in a drone strike Thursday in southern Afghanistan, Karzai suggested that the attack had ended any chance of an accord.

Civilian deaths at the hands of U.S. forces have long poisoned Karzai's relationship with the United States. That antagonism has hardened this month into a vise that could abruptly end America's 12-year, multibillion-dollar investment in Afghanistan, despite a decline in civilian casualties due to new safeguards by foreign forces.

Civilian deaths in neighboring Pakistan for which the CIA's covert drone program there has been blamed have elicited far more publicity than drone operations by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Many Americans are not aware that dozens of armed drones fly over Afghanistan every day, part of the U.S.-led NATO coalition's 300 to 350 daily aircraft sorties.

The missile that turned the pickup truck into an inferno is symbolic of the mistrust between Karzai and his erstwhile American patrons. As is often the case, the identities of the victims are shrouded in doubt in a nation where the difference between an insurgent and a civilian is measured in degrees.

In cases such as Thursday's airstrike, both insurgents and civilians were said to be killed. The U.S. military typically responds by promising an investigation. Meanwhile, Karzai fans outrage with blistering denunciations of U.S. motives.

After the Sept. 7 attack in the village of Ganbir, the coalition initially said the airstrike killed "10 enemy forces" and emphasized that there were "no signs of civilians in the vicinity."

On Saturday, Col. Jane Crichton, director of public affairs for NATO's International Security Assistance Force, said a preliminary investigation had found that although the airstrike killed eight insurgents, "there were, unfortunately, believed to be three civilian casualties," for which the ISAF expressed "deep regret."

U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Ken Wilsbach, who commands air operations in Afghanistan, said, "Our goal is to eradicate civilian casualties, but that is an incredibly difficult task when the enemy is intermixed with the civilian population. We're here to help the Afghan population, and there is absolutely zero intent to harm civilians."

ISAF commanders often point out that the Taliban, according to the United Nations and other independent observers, are responsible for the vast majority of civilian deaths. Yet Karzai rarely condemns Taliban attacks that kill civilians, and certainly not as vociferously as when civilians are killed by coalition forces.

On Friday, the Karzai-appointed governor of Kunar told The Times that four women, four children and three civilian men were killed in the Sept. 7 strike. But Gov. Shuja ul Mulk Jalala also said he was told by the National Directorate of Security, Afghanistan's CIA, that three of the victims were suspected Taliban fighters.

"Let me tell you, about 70% of the people in that area, especially in Ganbir village, are Taliban," Jalala said. "The mullahs and the praying people are all Taliban."

Four men from the village said in detailed interviews last week that everyone in the pickup was a civilian, all but four from their two extended families. They said the truck picked up four villagers as it returned from taking Jan's sister-in-law to Kabul for medical treatment.

But the governor's account suggests that if some of the truck's occupants indeed were armed insurgents, the drone may have tracked them and targeted the pickup. U.S. Predator and Reaper drones often trail insurgents for hours or even days before an attack is ordered.

Jan and his relatives acknowledge that their village and district are Taliban strongholds. They say they are poor Pashtun farmers struggling to survive the daily grind of war, but now are inclined to support the Taliban. They did not mention civilians killed in Taliban attacks.

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

New unrest hits Cairo as protesters denounce student killing

CAIRO -- Thousands of protesting university students took to the streets of Cairo on Sunday, underscoring the growing role of college campuses as a hotbed of anti-government sentiment.

The protesters were denouncing the death of a student in a demonstration last week. The university's administration has blamed police for the killing, one of two Cairo University student deaths in protests last month.

Sunday's demonstration began on campus but spilled over into downtown Cairo, with some marchers breaking away and torching a police vehicle. A group of students made their way to Tahrir Square, the epicenter of Egypt's 2011 revolution, where they shouted slogans demanding the reinstatement of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.

The latest street drama unfolded as a government-appointed panel was holding a final vote on provisions of Egypt's new constitution, which is to be put to a nationwide referendum early next year. Activists are unhappy with provisions they say will open the door to the trial of civilians by military tribunals -- a tactic already in use by the current army-backed regime.

Meanwhile, an international rights group called for the release of five former senior aides to Morsi, who were arrested when he was toppled in early July. The New York-based Human Rights Watch described the five, who are being held in an undisclosed location, as having been "disappeared" by the interim government.

Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, was ousted in a popularly backed army coup. The government last month put him on trial on charges of inciting murder, and the case was adjourned until January. Morsi said he did not recognize the court's authority.

An ongoing state crackdown against Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has been widening to include secular Egyptians as well. The detention of well-known blogger and activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, who was arrested last week, was extended Sunday for another 15 days, official media reported.

Secular activists, some of whom supported the army's removal of Morsi, have been galvanized by a week-old law forbidding protests not approved ahead of time by the authorities. Security forces last week forcibly broke up demonstrations in opposition to the law.

Laura.King@latimes.com

Twitter: @LauraKingLAT

ALSO:

At least one dead in Thailand protests

Egypt panel votes on constitutional reforms

Death toll rises in crash of police helicopter into Glasgow bar

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Thailand unrest grows as protesters attempt 'people's coup'

BANGKOK, Thailand – Riot police fired tear gas Sunday at anti-government protesters armed with petrol bombs trying to force their way into the prime minister's complex and police headquarters, intensifying Thailand's political crisis and raising fears of extended instability in the Southeast Asian nation.

For most of the last week, protests remained peaceful. But on Saturday, the seventh day of protests, clashes between pro- and anti-government supporters turned violent around Ramkhamhaeng University, with at least three people killed overnight and dozens injured, according to police. Witnesses reported more shots Sunday near the university and an adjoining stadium that's been a base for government supporters.

"We can't take any more of this corrupt government," said Adi Ngo, a fifthysomething protester, as demonstrators nearby tried to breach concrete barriers and razor-wire-lined police barriers around Thailand's seat of government. "This government doesn't obey the law."

Anti-government leaders declared Sunday "victory day" in what they've termed a "people's coup," urging their supporters to take over 10 government offices, six television stations, police headquarters and the prime minister's offices in a bid to undermine the government.

The protest movement, which fell well short of its Sunday "coup" objective, wants to overthrow the administration of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whom they accuse of being a puppet for her older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin remains in self-imposed exile after his 2008 conviction on corruption charges.

Sunday was the first day the police used significant force against demonstrators. "The use of tear gas is part of our procedures," said Piya Utayo, a national police spokesman, on television.

Protesters descended on at least three television networks calling on them to broadcast their views and not those of the government. A government-run station, Thai Public Broadcasting Service, continued with its regular programming even as it attempted to negotiate with protesters.

Continued unrest has led foreign governments to issue travel advisories. Bangkok airports have also advised passengers to allow extra time when catching flights given protracted traffic jams. And several of Bangkok's largest and poshest shopping centers were forced to close.

The prime minister also reportedly fled a police compound and postponed a planned press conference when several dozen protesters attempted to get into her heavily guarded offices. Yingluck's whereabouts were not immediately known.

As she retreated from sight, her critics suggested this showed how weak she was. "The fact that Yingluck is nowhere to be seen is proof that she is now a lame duck Prime Minister," anti-government protesters said in a tweet.

The day saw cat-and-mouse skirmishes between protesters and police in different parts of the city. At one such face-off near the ornate Marble Temple, police let off volleys of tear gas at demonstrators who had commandeered a police truck and were driving it provocatively in front of police lines. As tension mounted, protesters jeered at the police, calling them "lizards" and "buffalo," with police responding in kind.

Elsewhere, in front of police headquarters, demonstrators lambasted officers for their ties to Thaksin, a former policeman. Outside, someone had replaced the "royal" in the "Royal Thai Police Headquarters" plaque with "Thaksin," suggesting the former prime minister and his sister weren't fully loyal to the Thai King, a long-ruling figure whose 86th birthday falls on Thursday.

As darkness fell, several government ministers advised Thais to stay off Bangkok streets until dawn to avoid trouble.

The crisis erupted when Yingluck's government submitted a bill to parliament that would have granted amnesty to Thaksin, a telecommunications tycoon and former premier who was ousted in a coup in 2006, paving the way for him to return to Thailand and potentially run for office.

Although the measure was defeated in the Senate, it shattered an uneasy political calm in place since Yingluck was elected in 2011 between less-educated or prosperous rural voters and more urban Thais more closely associated with the monarchy and the army.

This political crisis is the worst since 2010 when Thaksin supporters inhabited parts of the capital for two months before being routed in a government crackdown. The two-month standoff killed 91 people and wounded hundreds.

The increase in violence in recent days has led some to wonder whether Thailand could see a division between the police, seen as broadly aligned with Thaksin and Yingluck, and the army, generally viewed as more sympathetic to anti-government protesters.

But Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said fears of a breach between the military and the Thai government or police are overblown.

"The army has been calling for calm and asking the protesters to go home," Thitinan said. "If the army wanted to side with the protesters, they would have done something by now."

Mark.Magnier@Latimes.com

Special correspondent Roughneen reported from Bangkok and staff writer Magnier reported from New Delhi.

ALSO:

At least one dead in Thailand protests

Egypt panel votes on constitutional reforms

Death toll rises in crash of police helicopter into Glasgow bar

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Review: Museo Jumex in Mexico City is an impressive filter

MEXICO CITY — The cultural ecology of any great city is a complex organism, its shape shifting over time. But in the modern era, always it starts with the same ingredient. It starts with artists, the yeast that makes the dough rise. Without them, money and talk are all there is.

Since the 1990s, after several decades of relative stasis, Mexico City's cultural ecology has experienced an efflorescence. A cosmopolitan mix of important Mexican and expatriate artists — Britain's Melanie Smith, Belgium's Francis Alÿs, Mexico's Silvia Gruner, Gabriel Orozco, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Teresa Margolles, Eduardo Abaroa and scores more — has been accompanied by significant growth in art's essential critical, curatorial and commercial apparatus.

What was missing was a museum. A good museum functions as a permeable membrane between a rigorously involved art world and an otherwise preoccupied public.

Its absence here was no small void. Now, with the opening of the Museo Jumex, that gap is poised to close. An international program in contemporary art, including a significant permanent collection and an ambitious exhibition schedule, has made an impressive debut.

PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times

British architect David Chipperfield has designed a simple, beautifully detailed, 43,000-square-foot building to provide the requisite urban sanctification. In five floors, its 17,000 square feet of gallery space includes sky-lighted rooms for the permanent collection at the top and special exhibitions one level down. An unusual, glass-walled space suitable for performance art and social programs occupies the second floor. (Curtains can darken the room.) A bookstore and offices are below the ground-level entry hall, while a large plaza out front hosts special commissions.

The museum is being inaugurated with four exhibitions. Together, they suggest what might be expected going forward.

Two shows intersect in an unusual way. Selections from a collection that numbers nearly 2,800 contemporary works, said to be the largest in Latin America, merge with a solo exhibition of seven Minimalist sculptures by the late American artist Fred Sandback (1943-2003).

Five dozen permanent collection works were chosen for inaugural display (several more are on view in the underground parking garage). Many will be familiar to art followers, if not to a local public.

They include classics from the 1960s and 1970s. Among them are a wall-hung Minimalist stack of metal and plexiglass boxes by Donald Judd, a Pop silk-screen of Jackie Kennedy by Andy Warhol and a small hatch-painting on paper from Jasper Johns' abstract "Corpse and Mirror" series.

More recent examples include a tall, lacquered black plank by John McCracken, which stands on the floor and leans against the wall, bridging traditional zones occupied by painting and sculpture. Jeff Koons' "Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank" mysteriously suspends basketballs within the clear fluid inside a fish tank, creating a meditative state of psychic balance from ordinary leisure equipment found in a teenage boy's bedroom. Alighiero Boetti took imaginative flight in a monumental drawing of varieties of modern aircraft, both military and commercial, rendered in ballpoint pen as if a giant, contemplative doodle of pain and pleasure.

CRITICS' PICKS: What to watch, where to go, what to eat

Mostly the sculptures, installations, photographs, videos and drawings emphasize the international dominance of Conceptual art for almost half a century. Younger practitioners include the late Mike Kelley, represented here by an austere display case that holds for anthropological scrutiny a strange, spiky rubber ball and a similarly styled plush toy. Made for children, the weird toys seem to have been designed with the cruelty of medieval weaponry in mind.

Nearby, Orozco's improbably circular billiard table with no pockets removes any possibility for winning or losing the game. Instead, visitors are invited to pick a cue from the rack, aim the cue ball at a red ball suspended over the green felt from a ceiling cord and, with a good crack!, set the red ball swinging like a pendulum in space. This game marks only time's passage.

A text-and-image canvas by John Baldessari, one of Conceptual art's founding figures, features an ordinary living room lamp. As a domesticated symbol for learning, the lamp couldn't be more homey. Yet, with typical wit, Baldessari also suggests the routine indignity suffered by paintings, hung over a side table and behind a lamp as part of common décor.

Paintings in fact are in somewhat short supply, despite the abundance of good ones being made today. (Whether that is representative of the Jumex collection as a whole is difficult to say, since it has yet to be fully digitized and made available online.) More common are critical abstractions about painting, such as a fine panel by Rosemarie Trockel. Made from machine-knitted wool, it entangles traditional aesthetic and social distinctions among art, craft and industry.

But painting's relative dearth does dramatize a nice surprise: Eduardo Terrazas, 77, is not well known outside Mexico, but his big, 16-panel painting "Exponential Growth" (1975) magically morphs a solid black square into a solid white one. The rigorous logic of Sol LeWitt's Minimalist geometry arrives at the mystical cosmology of Kazimir Malevich.

Less salutary overall is the relative lack of art by women. Of 50 artists in the inaugural shows, 80% are men. At this late date, that skewed ratio is unacceptable.

Into the midst of this eclectic display, a solo show of Sandback's sculptures has been inserted by Patrick Charpenel, the museum's director. Sandback's works, made by stretching elastic cord taut among walls, floor and ceiling, are drawings in space.

A three-dimensional parallelogram materializes in an overlooked corner. The suggestion of a transparent wall efficiently divides a room filled with other artists' work. "X" marks the spot on a hallway wall.

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More

Misconduct didn't stop sheriff hires

By the numbers

Interactive »

Of the nearly 400 officers and supervisors from the Office of Public Safety who applied to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department in 2010, about 280 were hired. Of those:

188 Were rejected for jobs at law enforcement agencies before being hired by the Sheriff's Department.

97 showed evidence of dishonesty.

92 were disciplined previously by other police agencies for significant misconduct on duty.

29 were fired or pressured to resign from a previous law enforcement job.

15 were flagged by background investigators for trying to manipulate the results of a polygraph exam.

About the numbers

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hired dozens of officers even though background investigators found they had committed serious misconduct on or off duty, sheriff's files show.

The department made the hires in 2010 after taking over patrols of parks and government buildings from a little-known L.A. County police force. Officers from that agency were given first shot at new jobs with the Sheriff's Department. Investigators gave them lie detector tests and delved into their employment records and personal lives.

The Times reviewed the officers' internal hiring files, which also contained recorded interviews of the applicants by sheriff's investigators.

Advertisement

Ultimately, about 280 county officers were given jobs, including applicants who had accidentally fired their weapons, had sex at work and solicited prostitutes, the records show.

For nearly 100 hires, investigators discovered evidence of dishonesty, such as making untrue statements or falsifying police records. At least 15 were caught cheating on the department's own polygraph exams.

Twenty-nine of those given jobs had previously had been fired or pressured to resign from other law enforcement agencies over concerns about misconduct or workplace performance problems. Nearly 200 had been rejected from other agencies because of past misdeeds, failed entrance exams or other issues.

Several of those with past misconduct have been accused of wrongdoing since joining the department, including one deputy who was terminated after firing his service weapon during a dispute outside a fast-food restaurant.

David McDonald was hired despite admitting to sheriff's investigators he had a relationship with a 14-year-old girl whom he kissed and groped. He was 28 at the time.

"I was in love," he said in an interview with The Times. "I wasn't being a bad guy."

McDonald had been fired from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department amid allegations he used excessive force on prisoners. A fellow deputy told a supervisor that he didn't want to work with McDonald because he harassed inmates.

L.A. County sheriff's officials made him a jail guard, a decision that surprised even McDonald.

"How can you put me back in the jails when I already had a problem there?" McDonald told the newspaper.

David F. McDonald

Age: 53 years old

Hired rank:
Jailer

A fellow deputy asked not to work with McDonald because he said McDonald harassed inmates by calling them names. Asked by a supervisor how he thought inmates should be supervised, McDonald said "Well, like Clint Eastwood, tell them what to do and they either do it or else."

Read more »

Since being hired by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department, McDonald said he has been disciplined in connection with using physical force on an inmate.

"They want you to be more touchy-feely," he said of the discipline. "Whenever you're gonna jack up an inmate, you have to call a supervisor first."

After sheriff's officials learned The Times had access to the records, they launched a criminal investigation to determine who had leaked them. They also said they would review whether some applicants had been improperly hired. The union representing deputies unsuccessfully tried to get a court order blocking publication of information from the files.

The records provide a rare look into hiring decisions at the nation's largest sheriff's department, an agency dogged in recent years by a string of scandals related to deputy abuse and racially biased policing.

The department's hiring files detail proven and unproven allegations of misconduct based on information from past employers, romantic partners and others. The files also document when applicants were arrested or charged for alleged crimes but not convicted. One new hire had been charged with assault under the color of authority, and another had been arrested for assault with intent to murder and rape.

The Times, however, focused its analysis on allegations that had been proved in court, sustained in workplace investigations or in cases where the applicants themselves admitted to wrongdoing to sheriff's investigators.

The Times attempted to contact all of the new hires through visits to their homes, phone calls or by email. More than a third granted interviews or declined to comment. Others received inquiries but did not respond. Some could not be located. Of those who did respond, some disputed the contents in their files. Others characterized past problems as mistakes made many years ago that did not reflect how qualified they are to work in law enforcement today.

Law enforcement experts said hiring officers with problematic backgrounds undermines the department's integrity.

I was under the impression that people with backgrounds like that were not being hired."

— Edward Rogner, a retired Sheriff's Department commander

"Cops are held to a higher standard than the average member of society because we've got to be able to trust them," said Edward Rogner, a retired Sheriff's Department commander who was involved in the expansion but not in hiring decisions.

When told about The Times' findings, Rogner added: "I was under the impression that people with backgrounds like that were not being hired."

Sheriff Lee Baca declined to comment, but his spokesman said Baca was not aware people with such backgrounds were hired.

Before he knew of the newspaper's investigation, Baca told Times reporters that people with records of violence or dishonesty have no place in law enforcement. He said applicants who had been fired from other agencies shouldn't be given a second chance, and that he would not hire applicants with histories of illegal sexual conduct.

"Men that take women and use them as a sexual object are going to always come up against my wrath," he said.

As a county police officer, Ferdinand Salgado had just gotten off work when he was arrested on suspicion of soliciting a prostitute who was actually an undercover cop at a Yum Yum Donuts parking lot in El Monte. According to authorities, he grinned at her, asked for oral sex and arranged to meet her at a motel.

Ferdinand C. Salgado

Age: 52 years old

Hired rank:
Jailer

During the sheriff's background investigation, it was determined that he tried to manipulate the results of the polygraph test by controlling his breathing, a common tactic used to manipulate the outcome of the exam. He denied it, but admitted knowing about a memo circulating among his colleagues on cheating techniques.

Read more »

He pleaded to a lesser charge of disturbing the peace. During his Sheriff's Department interview, he denied he said anything to the woman.

"I ain't buying it," an investigator told him after reviewing the police report. "You know you're not telling me the truth."

Salgado, who was hired as a jail guard and has since left the agency, wasn't the only one with a conviction on his record.

Records show almost 30 other hires had been convicted of drunk driving, battery or a variety of lower-level crimes. About 50 disclosed to sheriff's background investigators misdeeds such as petty theft, soliciting prostitutes and violence against spouses.

One hire told investigators of having inappropriate sexual contact with two toddlers as a teenager.

In another case, Linda Bonner was given a job after revealing that she used her department-issued weapon to shoot at her husband as he ran away from her during an argument. He wasn't hit; he was lucky he was running in a zigzag pattern, she told investigators, because if not the end result "would have been a whole lot different."

Linda D. Bonner

Age: 63 years old

Hired rank:
Jailer

She told investigators that she got into a fight with her then-husband, who slapped her in the face. She told them that she got her service weapon from her purse and fired it at her husband as he was running away from her.

Read more »

An opportunity to expand

About four years ago, a Los Angeles County police force called the Office of Public Safety was disbanded. Its responsibilities — patrolling county buildings, parks and hospitals — were handed over to the 18,000-person Sheriff's Department in an effort to save money.

The Sheriff's Department was not required to hire any of the former county officers, officials said.

The agency ended up hiring about 280. The majority were taken on as sworn deputies, while others were hired as custody assistants in the department's troubled jail system, security guards or for other lower-level positions.

We had to have grave reasons for not hiring them."

— Former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Larry Waldie

Baca's then second-in-command, Larry Waldie, and a small circle of aides, were responsible for scrutinizing applicants.

Waldie, now retired, said he personally reviewed many of the applicants' files. He said he was unaware of any hires with histories of significant misconduct.

Presented with some of The Times' findings, Waldie said: "That information was not brought to me ... I don't recall any of these specifics so don't ask me anymore."

Waldie then said he and his aides were under "significant pressure" from the county Board of Supervisors and other officials to hire as many county officers as possible.

"We had to have grave reasons for not hiring them," Waldie said.

Former Los Angeles County Undersheriff Larry Waldie, pictured in 2004. (Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Country Sheriff Lee Baca (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

A county spokesman denied Waldie's account, saying the Board of Supervisors "clearly and emphatically" told the Sheriff's Department to only hire applicants who met the agency's hiring standards.

Internal Sheriff's Department records reviewed by The Times show the union representing the former county officers was also lobbying Waldie to hire specific members, including some who had committed serious misconduct during their careers.

The department's hiring guidelines give officials wide latitude to employ people with histories of bad behavior, according to records and interviews. The specific rules are confidential to prevent applicants from tailoring their answers to meet the guidelines. A year before the county police hiring process, the Sheriff's Department's civilian monitor criticized officials for their lax hiring guidelines during a previous recruitment drive.

One taped recording of a background interview suggests the department made special accommodations for the county officers.

In the recording, a sheriff's investigator tells an applicant who was caught cheating on his polygraph exam that normally that would have meant "goodbye, you're done, there's no second chances." The investigator then told the applicant that he and other suspected cheaters might not be disqualified "as a favor because, you know, it's law enforcement." The applicant was eventually hired.

New allegations

It is difficult to assess the performance of the new hires because law enforcement personnel records in California are not available to the public. But interviews and records reviewed by The Times show several officers hired in 2010 have faced new allegations of misconduct.

Gary Esquibel had been suspended as a county police officer for not stopping a colleague from using excessive force and failing to report the incident. Still, the Sheriff's Department hired him as a sworn deputy. He has since been accused of doing nothing as three inmates beat another inmate bloody, according to court records.

Gary J. Esquibel

Age: 46 years old

Hired rank:
Deputy Sheriff

Sheriff's background investigators determined he was using "countermeasures" — tactics aimed at manipulating the results of the test. Esquibel denied it. He was suspended for 20 days in 1996 for failing to stop another officer from using excessive force and for failing to report the force.

Read more »

The department is investigating those allegations, which surfaced during a criminal trial of those charged in the beating. Esquibel declined to comment.

Sheriff's polygraph examiners found that county police Officer Desmond Carter was deceptive when asked about his involvement in domestic disputes. They also determined he tried to manipulate the results of his polygraph exam.

He lasted three months as a sworn deputy. A motorist who bumped Carter's car in a McDonald's parking lot started to drive off before they were done settling the matter, according to a district attorney's memo. Carter, who was off duty, drew his service weapon and fired several rounds at the man's car, one of which hit the wall of a nearby business.

Carter said he fired his gun after he was dragged 15 feet by the man's car, but investigators found no evidence that his clothes were damaged or that he was injured, prosecutors wrote. The district attorney did not charge him with a crime, but the Sheriff's Department fired him. Carter did not respond to inquiries from The Times left with his attorney.

Desmond Carter

Age: 38 years old

Hired rank:
Deputy Sheriff

Background investigators concluded Carter was using "countermeasures" — tactics aimed at manipulating the results of a polygraph exam when he was asked about incidents of illegal sexual conduct.

Another officer, Niles Rose, was hired despite being the subject of several unreasonable force allegations.

Rose had been investigated for misconduct 10 times at the Office of Public Safety since 2001. In three of those cases, the allegations were found by investigators to be true, according to the sheriff's background file. A former supervisor said Rose developed a reputation as being heavy-handed with suspects.

"If you want smart force used, you make sure he's in the locker room," Marc Gregory, a former county police captain, said in an interview with The Times.

After the Sheriff's Department hired Rose as a jailer, he faced new allegations of misconduct, according to interviews and a court declaration.

An inmate accused Rose in the declaration of hurling an inmate uniform at him, causing him to recoil and hit his head against a wall. Rose then allegedly declared the man a "child molester" and threatened to put him in the general population, where sex offenders have been targeted by other prisoners.

Niles L. Rose

Age: 36 years old

Hired rank:
Jailer

Sheriff's background investigators noted that he was the subject of 10 internal affairs investigations from 2001 to 2007. Three were founded. At least six of those inquiries related to allegations of unreasonable force, threats or intimidation.

Rose declined to discuss the inmate's allegation of abuse, saying it still may be under investigation. He did confirm that he had so many physical confrontations with inmates that jail managers moved him to the time card office, where he would no longer have contact with prisoners.

He called the move an overreaction.

"I'm not one to just walk around and beat on people for no reason," Rose said. "I never put my hands on someone or fought with somebody who didn't swing at me first."

Allegations of misconduct continued after Rose was reassigned to administrative work.

Sheriff's officials suspect he stole thousands of dollars in overtime funds, according to several law enforcement sources who requested anonymity because the case was ongoing. Rose is now on leave, and a sheriff's spokesman said he's under criminal investigation.

Contact the reporters | Follow Robert Faturechi (@RobertFaturechi) and Ben Poston (@bposton) on Twitter

Discuss this story

ALSO:

Baca nephew is subject of inmate abuse probe

L.A. County court guard with checkered past raises concerns

Sheriff's Department hired rookie with ties to Lee Baca's son

Additional credits: Web producer, Armand Emamdjomeh | Digital design, Lily Mihalik

How the story was reported

The Times reviewed the hiring files for the roughly 280 officers hired in 2010 when the Sheriff's Department took over patrol responsibilities for the L.A. County Office of Public Safety. The records contained both proven and unproven allegations of misconduct and poor performance. The Times focused its analysis on proven instances of poor performance and past misconduct, including criminal convictions, workplace disciplinary actions and admissions of wrongdoing as adults. The Times also included instances in which sheriff's polygraph examiners determined applicants were being deceptive. Although the exams are inadmissible in court, they are used by law enforcement agencies to screen applicants.

The newspaper did not count cases in which applicants admitted to miscellaneous office theft when the value was less than $50 a year.

Reporters consulted with law enforcement experts to determine which types of police misconduct were significant enough to include in the paper's analysis. Based on that, The Times omitted lower-level incidents such as at-fault car accidents that did not cause injuries, workplace tardiness and carelessness with public property.

Reporters also consulted with criminal law experts to help determine which types of physical confrontations disclosed by applicants should be categorized as misdeeds. The newspaper did not count instances in which applicants said they solicited prostitutes in countries where prostitution is legal or where The Times could not determine the laws at the time.

Close

About the numbers

The newspaper focused its analysis on proven instances of past misconduct, including criminal convictions, workplace disciplinary actions and admissions of wrongdoing as adults. Reporters consulted with law enforcement experts to determine which types of police misconduct were significant enough to include. In the tally of applicants who showed evidence of dishonesty, reporters counted on-the-job incidents such as falsifying records. The newspaper also included instances in which sheriff's polygraph examiners determined applicants were being deceptive or were using tactics aimed at manipulating the results of the test.

23.51 | 0 komentar | Read More