Postmodern Détournement Analysis

"Postmodern Détournement Analysis of the
Popular Mechanics Spectacle using
Stories and Photos of the
Festive Community Life of Nickerson Gardens"
Author: DAVID M. BOJE

Submitted September 2, 1999, Published Feb 2000
in EJ-ROT Electronic Journal of Radical Organization Theory Vol VI (1).

http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/research/ejrot/EJROT(newdesign)Vol6_1_front.asp

Abstract

This article uses "Tympan" text juxtaposition with minor and deceptive "Détournement" postmodern narrative (consult annotated references for definitions and explanation of concepts). "Tympan" is Jacques Derrida's to his introduction to Margins of Philosophy (1972). "Tympan" enacts two columns side by side on each page. In this article, one the left is the complete Samuel Katz (1997) Popular Mechanics' article titled "Felon Busters: When the cops are outgunned, LAPD SWAT breaks up the party." I also analyze the left column (see annotated references) for minor détournement, the strange Popular Mechanics' image juxtaposition and respond with my own acts of what Debord and Wolman (1958) term the "deceptive détournement." Deceptive détournement in this article is my act of putting the Popular Mechanics' stories and photos in a new meaning context, but putting festive stories and photos in the right column. On this right column are my storied field notes of participant observations at Nickerson Gardens between 1990 and 1999. My purpose is to highlight the thin margin between photo-images and stories of Popular Mechanics mechanistic and Hobbesian account of urban combat technology and Nickerson Garden's Resident Management Corporation (NGRMC) mothers' organic and non-violent storytelling. Between Apollonian spectacles of violence and Mothers' Dionysian festive enactments (Wallace, 1996; Brown, 1998). There is also an incessant crossing of the "the thin margin between" the two columns. One silent crossing is effected by the label "Nickerson Gardens" which appears in both columns. Another crossing is to contrast to the "spectacle" nature of the left column (a reference to Guy Debord's work, Society of the Spectacle) and the "festival" stories and images on the right, of mothers, children, professors, and students doing a Halloween Parade as a way to initiate a tutoring program in the Gardens. Only in the very last section does the NGRMC and I unsilently interrogate the Popular Mechanics article. Each column seeks to pierce and penetrate the other, to cross over the thin boundary margin. Both columns repeatedly address their very different strategies for what to do about, not just Nickerson Gardens, but all public housing. The left column is the current policy of urban combat technology deployment of the Clinton Presidency. The right column is the faded policy of resident empowerment through economic development, partnerships with universities, self-sufficiency (e.g. the NGRMC), and community beautification. Therefore this article is fundamentally a deconstructive work, juxtaposing a popular and spectacular view of public housing with an insiders' and participative, and at the same time more festival view of living community.

INSTRUCTIONS: Waving cursor across photo brings up caption. Stories and photos are from Katz's May 1997 (press here to see original version) Popular Mechanics article (left side) and from Boje's field notes on Nickerson Gardens (right side). Please compare the Popular Mechanics article (left) with my fieldwork stories and photos (right). Or, read left all column images and stories first to the end or read right ones first. Or read left then right in each section, or right then left. It's up to you to decide how to read my juxtaposition of spectacle and festival.


Popular Mechanics Spectacle	Nickerson Festival

The noise of the city at daybreak mixes with the sounds of the locking and loading of Heckler and Koch MP5 submachine guns and the slamming of double banana-clip magazines into CAR-15 assault rifles as nearly 60 cops mill about a rooftop in Los Angeles. They are preparing for urban combat. Lt. Tom Runyen, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department Special Weapons and Tactics (LAPD SWAT) platoon, walks confidently amid his men. Wearing grayish-blue fatigues, black Kevlar vests and Fritz helmets, they fill their Benelli automatic 12-gauge shotguns with 00-buckshot magnum shells, pack hand-toss flash-bang devices into the pouches of their body armor and recheck voice-activated helmet radios. Nearby, other officers busy themselves by securing high-tension ropes to the reinforced rear bumpers of unmarked navy blue Chevy Suburbans packed with rubber-coated ladders, specialized entry tools and battering rams. Runyen is weaving his way toward Sgt. Al Preciado, a 31-year veteran and the unit's senior sergeant, when his cellphone rings. "It's hot and heavy," he tells Preciado. "It's a go!"	The noise of the community after school mixes with the sounds of size 24 clown shoes thumping and slamming on the sidewalk and the joyous chatter of Nickerson Gardens mothers, kids, and students from Loyola Marymount University as the festive parade of nearly 60 people wind their way through the streets and backyards of the gardens. Professor Boje, clown-professor of the College of Business and consultant to the Nickerson Gardens Resident Management Corporation (NGRMC) walks confidently amid his children. Wearing blue hair, red and white checkered jacketand a red clowns' nose, he has filled his pockets with lolly pops, bubble gum, and a squirt gun disguised as a lapel flower. He does hand-tosses of the candies from his clown shorts pockets. Nearby, other college students busy themselves by securing candy, adjusting their clown uniforms. One students crosses the street to make sure she has locked her Chevy Convertible which the has packed with coloring books, crayons, and face paint for community kids that wanted it. Boje is weaving his way towards Ms. Nora King, a grandmother, founder and now Pesident-elect of the NGRMC. Nora is on the phone. "It's great the faculty and students have come to do something for the kids, a Halloween parade," she tells a Mother. "It's a go!"

Nerve-jangling incendiary devices and an armored battering ram (below) enable LAPD SWAT to always make a grand entrance.	Nerve-jangling shouts of joy at the NGRMC graduation and (below) a Harley Electroglide Classic enable Boje to always make a grand entrance.

Popular Mechanics Spectacle	Nickerson Gardens Festival
Next stop: the Nickerson Gardens projects, one of the most crime-ridden and lawless public-housing projects in America. The LAPD's elite SWAT platoon is about to execute a search warrant on the notorious Bounty Hunters, a drug gang known for its penchant for violence and fondness for AK-47 assault rifles. "They are ruthless and heartless," says an officer assigned to the LAPD Citizen Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit, which has asked for SWAT's help in serving a search warrant. "They'll open up on anyone at the drop of a hat." The SWAT vehicles leave headquarters in downtown Los Angeles without fanfare and at top speed. Cruising south down the Harbor Freeway, the motorcade of Suburbans and marked cars exits in Watts, where they proceed toward the targeted location slowly and cautiously. Armed gang lookouts, equipped with cellphones and beepers, stand at every corner. After crossing 112th Street and entering the graffiti-tagged 1057-unit housing project, the convoy splits into five elements. It's showtime.	Next stop: The Nickerson Gardens community, the largest public housing development west of the Mississippi river. The NGRMC first graduation class is about to begin phase two of HUD Secretary Jack Kemp resident empowerment and economic development initiative. Nickerson Gardens is known for its penchant for grassroots organizing. "Their hearts are full of love for their community," says a student tutor assigned to the LMU Educational Participation In Communities (EPIC) unit which was asked by NGRUM for help in setting up a tutoring program. "Students will tutor any kid at the drop of a hat." The Halloween parade vehicles leave LMU without fanfare; Professor Boje heads off at top speed on his HAWG. Professor Judith White in her Toyota. Cruising south down the 405 Freeway, then easy on the new Airport Freeway the motorcycle and students in cars proceed to the parade location with abandon. Mothers stand on the steps of the NGRMC looking out for the arrival of the professors and students. Boje's Harley is equipped with an FM radio and tape cassette. He plays his usual tune: "Born to Be Wild!" After entering the gardens he pauses to admire the Halloween decorations the students have put up. It's playtime.

SWAT broke the stalemate when two men brandishing AK-47s and protected by ballistic body armor pinned down police who responded to a bank robbery in affluent North Hollywood.	People broke the stalemate when LMU student brandishing Face-Paint responded one child's request to have her face painted in her community in Nickerson Gardens.

Popular Mechanics Spectacle

Nickerson Gardens Festival

One element races out of its Suburban and gains entry into a ground-floor apartment using a Jaws of Life tool to quickly remove an iron gate from its mount. The loud burst of a flash-bang device resonates through the air, as do shouts of "This is the police. Lay down and place your hands over your head!"

    At that moment, in a different row of apartments, another team leaps from its Suburban. One officer attaches a heavy-duty rope and chain to the iron bars of a front-door gate as his comrades in arms line up against the house. The Suburban takes off in a furious exit, yanking off the iron bars with violent ease. Officers fire several Starflash rounds from their Remington shotguns into a bathroom window. This causes sparkling fireballs to ricochet wildly throughout the room. The shots are intended to dissuade the suspects from flushing their dope down the toilet. The door to the location is hammered open by a battering ram, and several flash-bang devices are tossed in for good measure.
    In a matter of minutes, three suspects are lying face up on the lawn, their hands cuffed and weapons trained at them. As CRASH officers, FBI agents and narcotics detectives search the targeted locations for the Bounty Hunters' cache of drugs, cash and weapons,
    Runyen walks briskly from location to location to ensure that his officers are safe. "10-David, roger," he says, repeating his call sign into his radio as he walks toward the location where the drugs and guns were finally found. "Any units have a problem and require my attention?"
    A small group of U.S. Navy SEALs observing the tactical choreography with Popular Mechanics is eager to see how the SWAT team applies its building-entry skills. The Navy observers are visibly impressed. "These guys are damn good," says one SEAL. "They were inside and in control in the blink of an eye."
    More than $2000 in cash, crack and marijuana, 10 guns and three suspects are the dividends from the early morning warrant on the Bounty Hunters. But before the detectives and federal agents begin their work for the day, Runyen has ordered his officers back to Metro.
    SWAT isn't responsible for the subsequent investigation and legal proceedings against the suspects. Their job is getting in like lightning, securing and disarming the bad guys, and then getting out so that the detectives and investigators can do their jobs. They are precision surgeons who employ special weapons and tactics to overpower, deter and dissuade heavily armed criminals, psychopaths and terrorists.
    Every major police department in the United States, and throughout the world, possesses an elite tactical unit called upon to end hostage ordeals, deal with barricaded perpetrators and execute high-risk warrants against the most desperate and dangerous of armed criminals. Yet, as we found when we accompanied them on several warrant-serving missions, in the world of police tactical units, there is LAPD SWAT and there is everyone else.

One faculty member races out of her Toyota and gains entry into the ground-level of the NGRMC, converted from apartments into their corporate offices. She needs no key to enter since the iron gate is open to anyone who comes to help the community. There is a lot of activity as students and volunteer mothers' chatter resonate through the air as do shouts of "The kids will be coming home for school any minute, get these decorations up. Get into your clown make-up!"
      At that moment, another faculty member, leaps from his HAWG. He opens up the luggage case, pulls out his clown shoes, clown pants, blue hair, clown paint and red nose. He places his cycle helmet and leather jacket in the case, slams it shut, locking it quickly. His clown comrades are already lining up, but he says "before the parade, we got to play with the kids. The mothers made punch. Let's head to the backyard. It's playtime!"
    The backdoor to the NGRMC is wide open, held their by an eager mother, camera in hand.
    In a matter of minutes the first three kids run eagerly around the building to find out what is going on. Some arrive in costumes, others have none. The students quickly fill the kids hands with candy and the mothers pass them hot dogs and punch.
    NGRMC volunteer mothers walk quickly from place to place to insure each student and child is getting enough to eat. "David [Boje] are you getting enough to eat?" He responds with his Healthy, Happy and Terrific greeting then heads off to where the hot dogs and potato chips are piled two feet high.
    A small group of Mothers are huddled with toddlers in doorways. They are not sure if small kids are also invited. The volunteer NGRMC Mothers observe their reluctance. "These hot dogs are real good!" says one volunteer. "Toddlers barely old enough to walk were outside and eating hot dogs and chips with both hands.
    More than 2,000 pieces of candy distributed. These are the dividends from the after-school Halloween parade. But before the faculty and students end their service work for the day, Boje orders them back into the NGRMC offices.
    NGRMC isn't responsible for the subsequent hyper-activity and tooth decay that will surely follow such merriment. Their job is getting faculty, students and Universities to teach the kids good study skills, and then help them learn to use computers and get interested in college. Kids are precious resources to the Nickerson Gardens community and the Halloween Parade is a NGRMC tactic to empower and persuade kids armed with pencils and university folks armed with knowledge in psychology and mach to get introduced to each other.
    Every major University in Las Angeles, and throughout the world, possesses eager faculty and students ready to be called upon, to deal with kids eager to learn, and Mothers who are desperate to help their kids succeed against all odds. That is the mission of the NGRMC, in a world of resident empowerment, there are Mothers and children and there is everyone else.


Special entry tools and weapon-mounted flashlights, controlled by pressure on the grip, are among the innovations introduced by LAPD SWAT.	Special face painting tools and designs, controlled by applying fingers on the faces of children, are among the innovations introduced by the LMU Business College students.

Popular Mechanics Spectacle

Nickerson Gardens Festival

By big-city standards, LAPD SWAT is a relatively small unit–only 67 officers with a lieutenant as commanding officer. A sergeant commands each squad, which consists of two 5-man elements, and each element is commanded by a senior lead officer. All officers are expertly trained assault specialists, and several members are cross-trained as snipers and observers. Of the 60 SWAT operators, 16 are snipers. Of the six SWAT sergeants, two are snipers. When not on a tactical job, SWAT officers carry out anticrime assignments in uniform or as plainclothes men in unmarked police cars. One of their busiest roles is issuing high-risk warrants to the city's most dangerous felons–a task that has become more hectic, voluminous and dangerous in recent years.
LAPD SWAT team members have always taken great pride in the state-of-the-art firepower they carry. "Our weapons are the currency of our profession," says one SWAT sergeant. The side arm carried by all LAPD SWAT officers is the Colt government model .45-cal. automatic. The .45-cal. is far more daunting than the 9mm automatic carried by the rest of Los Angeles's Metro Division.

By Fortune 500 standards NGRMC is a relatively small corporation - Nickerson Gardens Resident Management Corporation (NGRMC) incorporated in 1989 with Ms. Nora King as its founding president. Formal training and acknowledgment came form Housing Authority when in 1991 Nickerson Gardens and Estrada Courts became first to communities to complete training to be corporations (HACLA 1991 Annual Report, p. 8). Nora King implemented the first corporate headquarters, converting several units of public housing into corporate offices. In 1991, NGRMC was awarded a "Feasibility Study of Tenant Management" and from Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Health and Human Services (HHS) $400,000 grant. With this grant the Food Bank, Construction Company, and Transportation Company were formed. Transportation Company had 14 vans and drivers plus radio dispatch taking residents to job and medical appointments by 1994 (Source, Dual Management Workbook, 1994, p. 15. Copyright NGRMC). A draft of June 30, 1992 LMU press release reports "residents plan to open and operate a Laundromat, food co-op, and health care center, a month other businesses" (p. 3).


Many of the SWAT team's weapons have been modified by the platoon's armorer.	Ms. Lucilia Hooper volunteers her time to keep the Food Bank open.

Popular Mechanics Spectacle

Nickerson Gardens Festival

SWAT chose the heavy-caliber weapon because it was found that on tactical deployments where lethal firepower is needed, bullet mass, diameter and momentum matter a lot more than a bullet's design, velocity and kinetic energy.
It was also found that on combat shooting courses, officers could shoot better with the Colt .45 than they could with any other weapon tested. Yet, even though the caliber of the weapon was suited for SWAT's needs, the weapon still did not meet SWAT standards. Like almost everything else that the unit possesses, the Colt .45s were modified by the platoon's armorer. Modifications included fixed high-visibility sights, a light 4-pound trigger pull, lowered ejection port, beveled magazine well, polished feed ramp, throated chamber and ambidextrous safety latch for lefthanded officers. LAPD SWAT was also the first police force to introduce a small flashlight to the frame of the weapon. It is activated by a pressure switch mounted on the grip.
For dynamic assaults and entries, the unit's primary tool is the Heckler & Koch MP5 9mm submachine gun, universally acknowledged as the Rolls-Royce of submachine guns. The MP5 is the mainstay entry weapon of just about every SWAT unit in the United States and just about every police tactical team in the world. It is one of the most accurate, durable and reliable weapons ever designed, and it's much lighter than most of the other submachine guns around. The fact that it fires with a closed bolt affords greater accuracy–even when fired in the full-auto mode.

The only thing that many senior SWAT officers didn't like about the weapon was its caliber. To increase its stopping power, SWAT policy is that the weapon be fired at full auto, in 2-shot bursts at ranges of 10 yd. or less. The support weapon used by SWAT is the highly reliable Colt CAR-15 5.56mm assault rifle, the assault rifle of choice among much of the world's special-forces community. Runyen and his senior sergeants carry CAR-15s.

SWAT uses two shotguns. The Remington 870, a pump-action 12-gauge workhorse that is one of the most popular shotguns in law-enforcement service today, was the first shotgun issued to SWAT officers in its early years. But its pumping action was found to be cumbersome, especially during the chaos of a prolonged close-range firefight. They remain in use, but are mainly deployed for firing diversionary munitions, such as the highly effective Starflash, or for blowing doors off their hinges.

Not many people know that Nickerson Gardens was named after William Nickerson Jr., who in 1925 founded Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company in Los Angeles, the first and largest Black-owned Insurance firm in LA. NG opened in 1955 and with 5,000 residents including 3,000 children living in 1,056 housing units on 68.8 acres of land is the largest development west of the Mississippi (Source NGRMC Dual Management Training Workbook, copyright NGRMC, 1994).
Phase One of Resident Management is residents forming Resident Advisory Councils (RAC) to receive training in how to plan, organize, and manage their community and to give input to the Housing Authority. "The Purpose of RAC is to stimulate economic, educational, social, and quality of life initiatives" (copyright 1994 Dual Management Workbook, p. 14). In Phase Two, the RAC's incorporate to become their own Resident Corporations, called "Resident Management Corporations." RMCs are directed to do business development, education, job training and development and other self-help initiatives (See Federal Register Vol. 59(92) May 13, 1994, page 25248). NGRMC incorporated in 1989 to form the Nickerson Gardens Resident Management Corporation (NGRMC).
      Not many know that in 1991 Nickerson Gardens became one of the first public housing communities in LA to enroll in HUD Secretary Jack Kemp's Phase One resident initiatives (phase one is forming Resident Advisory Councils). As of 1994, there were 383 around the country.
    When Nora King became RMC's first President and CEO in 1991, she formed a Transportation Company (with buses and drivers), a Construction Company (to bid on Housing Authority building and renovation contracts), a Food Bank, a Riordan Computer Learning Center (where the first tutors from LMU went to do tutoring with the kids after school). And the Tutoring Program (in partnership with Loyola Marymount University) and carried on still by Campus Ministries and the Sursum Corda student service organization. (Source, NGRMC Dual Management Workbook, copyright 1994, NGRMC, p. 17).
    Most of all Nora King wanted from this Business College professors and the LMU Business College some help in developing a business plan and strategy for the NGRMC.
    On August 20, 1992, the NGRMC submitted a proposal to Housing Authority City of Los Angeles (HACLA and its CEO Joseph Schuldiner) for NGRMC to be a subcontractor of "all management and maintenance functions with HACLA).


Although assaults generally take place at ground level, LAPD SWAT also trains for airborne attacks (above). Once deployed, officers stay in contact with voice-activated communications gear mounted on their helmets.	Although service learning takes place at a grassroots, we help people reach for their goals (above). Once we deployed our clown costumes we got real clear.

Popular Mechanics Spectacle

Nickerson Gardens Festival

Today, SWAT's two main shotguns are the Italian-made Benelli 12-gauge M1 Super 90 shotgun and the Benelli 121-M-1 recoil-operation semiautomatic shotgun. "The Benelli is a masterpiece of ballistic handiwork," says a SWAT officer, effortlessly inserting shells into his weapon as he prepares for the day's action. "It is comfortable to fire, accurate and it fits our needs perfectly." Officers zero the Benelli sights for a center hole at about 150 ft., with 1-ounce slugs and patterned for various distances with 00-buckshot magnum ammunition. Virtually all of the Benellis are fitted with a mini-flashlight attachment.

In D Platoon, as the unit is officially designated, there are 12 observers/snipers. The unit is used for, among other things, VIP protective details and for rescue situations such as when a barricaded perpetrator is holding hostages. Part sniper and part tactical officer, a D Platoon officer is also responsible for providing suppressive fire at ranges of 50 yd. or greater during live-fire engagements. Depending on the task at hand, the officers will carry an M16A2, CAR-15 5.56mm or bolt-action Remington Model 700 .308-cal. sniper rifle with a 3x9 scope.

LAPD SWAT snipers are legendary in the American police community, and as a result of the platoon's contact with units around the world, their reputation has carried into the international police community as well. Their primary weapons are the American-produced .308-cal. and .223-cal. Special Marksman scoped bolt-action rifles by Robar. "They are the finest pieces of precision sharpshooting equipment available today," one SWAT sniper tells us. For night operations and fire-suppression missions, snipers will often switch to the equally lethal Heckler & Koch GSG1 7.62mm police sniper rifle, an automatic weapon.

Just as there are no average weapons in LAPD SWAT, there are no average shots. Weapons proficiency isn't just a requirement. It's a religion. Each officer attends a minimum of four days of training each month qualifying with the .45, during which he will fire an average of 200 rounds. Besides the three basic drill courses that the officers must score highly on, they are also trained in advanced tactical drills, such as shooting on the move, engaging moving targets, 1-hand shooting, pistol retention drills, transition drills (from shoulder weapon to .45), malfunction drills, multiple-target drills, speed reloading, flashlight technique, prone positions, kneeling positions, barricade positions, target selection problems and hostage-rescue targets.

(November 5, 1992 Inter-Office NGRMC Memo) "Yesterday, Judith White and I met with the Father Koppes, the Dean of the School of Education at LMU… we outlined a program where 9 LMU students would come to NG once a week… The dean asked about supervision for the students. I suggested that Georgina in the RMC learning lab could supervise them along with Brenda [Jackson]…Georgina could work with Brenda and do a day or two day on-site orientation [with the LMU students]…Herb Medina, a math professor, Judith White, a management professor and I have been working together on this project…There is a list of schools Brenda Jackson and I visited to promote the program (It includes Flounoy Elementary, 112th Elementry, Markham Jr. High, Jordan H.S. and Locke H.S.). E.g. November 6, 1992 Inter-Office NGRMC Memo from me to Ms. Nora King "Tutoring Program. Monday is the College of Education, department meetings about offering course credit (or not) to LMU education majors who would be tutors at Nickerson Gardens." It was a no vote, so we decided to go to the students and faculty. There is there the story of Sursum Corda founding and above it a an article by Professor Judith White explaining the founding of what Dr. White lists as "the Nickerson Gardens Tutoring Program." It lists the number of Professor Herbert Medina of the math department of LMU, who was one of the original tutors and with Judith White (College of Business), and myself got the program initiated. I will ask Professor Viki Graf, who went around to the schools (see below) if the schools are still doing this. I recall bringing this issue of the Loyola to the Sursum Corda president and meetings at asking if they would take up the "Nickerson Gardens" tutoring program as a service project. And they did, but may now have forgotten its founding or that it was Ms. Nora King and her NGRMC board that got it going and Ms. Pam Griffin and her NGRMC board came to the campus to recruit students. I have a letter dated November 11, 1992 to Father Koppes, S.J. Dean of School of Education from Nora King. It reads "I write to attempt to come in agreement with respect to the participation of Loyola Marymount University students in the Tutoring project which has previously been discussed with you. If you agree we could seek to recruit the students now, so that the project could begin in January, 1993.
Thanks Professor Vicki Graf of the Education College, who went to every single elementary and middle school around NG, explained the program, and invited principals and counselors to send students to the Nickerson Gardens Tutoring Program. This was in Fall of 1992, and I recall going to these same schools with RMC staff and board members to make this same appeal. The plan called for three five-person teams.


Popular Mechanics Spectacle	Nickerson Gardens Spectacle
In terms of personal equipment, SWAT officers can handle any contingency that comes their way. Each officer is issued a 2-piece Nomex flame-retardant combat suit, specially adaptable load-bearing gear and Point-Blank Tac vests with insertable ceramic plates to meet any high-velocity ballistic threat. Standard SWAT headgear, in addition to the black balaclava, is a black Fritz helmet equipped with an integrated Motorola personal radio earphone/microphone combination. SWAT also deploys special tactical poles with mirrors on the ends for use in around-the-corner tactical situations inside or around buildings. Unlike virtually every police tactical unit in the United States, LAPD SWAT does not employ ballistic body bunkers when making tactical entries. "We find the shields to be cumbersome and not in sync with our mission," explains a SWAT sergeant, as he suits up for a warrant. "On our entries, our officers need to focus their energies on who they are up against, not thinking about getting shot." But contrary to the popular belief that SWAT cops are trigger-happy Rambos, the purpose of having SWAT respond is not to end a job with weapons ablaze and a high body count. The use of lethal force, in fact, is a last resort. "We are here to save lives," says Runyen. "But this is deadly business, and my guys have to know that there will come a time when they'll need to pull the trigger, and they'll need to do so based on their instinct and the fact that they feel the bad guy is threatening them or someone else." As the record shows, their overwhelming firepower, continuous proficiency training and focus-on-the-job attitude makes for a winning team. In its 26-year history–more than 1000 missions–LAPD SWAT has become the world's most admired special weapons and tactics team. But more importantly, the team has never lost a hostage.	"Where do guns and drugs come from" askes Nora King. "Nobody here has a factory to make guns and drugs. Where do they come from?" "Beginning with the controversial police shooting in November 1991 of twenty-eight-year old Henry Peco during a blackout at Imperial Courts, the residents had been inundated with news media and politicians. About two weeks before the first verdicts, members of the Crips and Bloods rival gangs at the Imperial Courts, Nickerson Gardens, and Jordan Downs projects drafted a treaty based on an Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, announced a truce, and effected a moratorium on inter-gang killings. Then the riots/uprising/rebellion happened; presidential hopeful Bill Clinton toured the area. (From "People of Watts," by Ntozake Shange, a poem inspired by Dana Lixenberg's photographs, in VIBE, issue and volume number (November 1993), p. 79 --- now part of an Art Exhibit Announcement 1998 for exhibit May-June, 1999). Recommendation from Professor Boje to the NGRMC: Set up A Press Conference and Invite Popular Mechanics and College Presidents Tell them that using "project" in their releases and web documents, not including your side of the story, is politically incorrect and offensive to your empowerment. Stress you are about community and relations in the Gardens, not some project. Tell the stories, we know, that NG did not riot and loot after the verdict. Ask why this side of the story was not told. Ask for magazine space to tell your side. For the record when most every LA County community rioted, at Nickerson Gardens, the mothers kept the Food Bank open and the SWAT team out. There was no looting or rioting at Nickerson Gardens. "Could Popular Mechanics be trying to sell guns?" "Is Nickerson Gardens being storied in ways that allow LAPD weapons budgets to be approved? - Professor David Boje.

ANNOTATED REFERENCES USED TO CONSTRUCT THIS ARTICLE

Boje, David M.

1993 "Haves, Have-nots, and the Loyola Marymount University Bridge: Moths of the Great Rebellion of April 29th, 1992." A Loyola Marymount University "President's Day: A Homecoming for the Mind" speech, Saturday March 27, 1993 (press here) for notes used in speech. At the time of the so-called "riots" and since then a gang truce has been in effect between the Bloods and Crips, the two most news-known gangs of South Central Los Angeles. For Nickerson Gardens community art, on the side of the Nickerson Gardens Gymnasium (press here). The rival gangs at the Imperial Courts, Nickerson Gardens, and Jordan Downs projects drafted their treaty, basing it on an Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement, announced a truce, and effected a moratorium on inter-gang killings. The slogan says "Nobody Can Stop the War But Us." This to me is an example of resident empowerment and it also is an alternative reason to Popular Mechanics account of what gang violence is under control at Nickerson Gardens. It is part of a much larger mural with pictures of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolmn X, Maxine Waters, and the names of the dead children killed by gunshot (press here) for photo (Note I did not make the names readable). For more on the gang-truce see Carla Williams (1998) "So Much Life Here." Portraits at Imperial Courts exhibition catalog essay, "Portraits at Imperial Courts and Eight Women in Jeffersonville, Indiana" in Knowtribe and the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, 15 May - 15 June 1999 (press here).

Boje, D. M.

1996 "Storytelling about my life in public housing." In Gallos, J.V., Ramsey, V.J. & Associates (eds.) Teaching Diversity: Listening to the Soul, Speaking from the Heart, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Excerpts from my participant observer field notes while I lived in one of the Nickerson Gardens public housing apartments for three months appear on pp. 15, 36, 50, 64, 73, 87, 98, 123, 162, 168, 196, 201, and elsewhere in this book.

1999 Spectacles and Festivals of Organization: Managing Ahimsa Production and Consumption. Book under review at Harwood Academic Press. Chapter 1 definitions of spectacle and festival (press here); Chapter 1 Tables contrasting spectacle and festival concepts (press here).

Boje, D.M. & Rosile, Grace Ann

1994. "Diversities, Differences & Authors' Voices." Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 7(6): 8-17. This article is rooted in transcripts of my work with Nora King (see below). Its focus is on how to have voice in field research and how to dialogue with the voice of the Nickerson Gardens community.

Boje, D.M., White, Judith. & Wolfe, Terance J.

1994. "The Consultant's Dilemma: A Multiple Frame Analysis of a Public Housing Community." In R.W. Woodman & B. Passmore (Eds.) Research in Organizational Change & Development, Vol. 8: 181-242. This article contains some of the field work done through 1994. It is a collaboration of Judith White (whose photos are in the this current article) and with Terance Wolfe. Both Judith and Terance spent time at Nickerson Gardens participating and observing. Judith and I worked to get students at Loyola Marymount comfortable with entering Nickerson Gardens, which is why the Halloween Parade was undertaken. But the idea itself originated with Nora King (see below) of the NGRMC who wanted the students and kids to get comfortable before tutoring happened. And tutoring is still going on with LMU, UCLA, and USC participating. Nickerson Gardens tutoring program was founded in 1992 by linking Sursum Corda Service Group (press here) with Nickerson Gardens Resident Management Corporation, formed group of Faculty advisors (Dr. Judith White, Dr. Herb Medina, Dr. Victoria Graf). This was done at the formal request of NGRMC presidents Nora King (1991 to 1993) and Pam Griffin (1994 to 1996) who met with the presidents of and dean of education at LMU. Currently 30 LMU students go to Nickerson weekly to work with children ages 6 to 18 years. Included on site operation of LA Mayor candidate Richard Riordan Computer Lab. 1993 Father O'Malley, President of LMU, signed a contract with the Peace Corps and NGRMC to make LMU an official partner to train RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps volunteers) in the LMU MBA program (press here for LMU press release). I wrote the grant proposal for this, at Nora King's (NGRMC) request which was funded by the Knight-Ridder Foundation for $250,000. Contract signing between Father O'Malley and Barbara Busch, Executive director of Peace Corps took place at LMU on August 4, 1993.

Brown, William

1998 "The spectacle of information: Part One" That's Entertainment!." Web document (press here) for complete text (last modified May 27, 1998). Brown makes the point that web and print media articles like Popular Mechanics are part of the commodified spectacle of mass-entertainment. Mainstream TV has several highly popular shows that depict live-action police raids on the homes of desperadoes. In this sense Nickerson Gardens has become a spectacle commodity, embraced in the spectacle of media entertainment. Brown makes the case that such spectacles (as in this case of PM) tell a story with images that make the case that legitimates urban assault on public housing residents. In part VII, Brown asserts "there has been an astonishing proliferation of surveillance, disinformation, investigation and security activities."

Derrida, Jacques

1982 Margins of Philosophy. Translated by Alan Bass. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. This book contains the "Tympan" essay in its collection; Also consult A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds. Peggy Kamuf (ed.). 1991 "Tympan," pp. 146-168. NY: Columbia University Press.

Debord, Guy

1967 Society of the Spectacle. For a full on line text (press here). It is customary to cite the on-line text, since it is the most complete version. The site also contains also an archive of Debord and Situationist Internationale works. Also consult Best, Steven and Kellner, Douglas 1997 The Postmodern Turn. NY/London: The Guilford Press. Best and Kellner contrast Debord's work on spectacle to Baudrillard's reading of spectacle. If you must have the printed Debord work, consult Knabb, Ken (ed.) 1981 Situationist International Anthology. Trans collaboration Nadine Bloch & Joel Cornuault. Berkeley, Ca: The Bureau of Public Secrets. For definitions of key SI terms seen (1995) Internationale Situationists #1, June 1958 (translated 1995) please (press here).

Debord, Guy and Gil J. Wolman

1956 "Methods of Détournement" In Les Lèvres Nues #8, May (press here) for full text. Debord and Woman pose the following constructs: minor détournements and deceptive détournements, which they define as".

Minor Détournement is the détournement of an element which has no importance in itself and which thus draws all its meaning from the new context in which it has been placed. For example, a press clipping, a neutral phrase, a commonplace photograph.

Deceptive détournement, also termed premonitory proposition détournement, is in contrast the détournement of an intrinsically significant element, which derives a different scope from the new context. A slogan of Saint-Just, for example, or a sequence from Eisenstein.

Extended detourned is how I see both the left and right columns of my article enacting. Both columns are composed of sequences of deceptive and minor détournements. The Popular Mechanics article places images (left column) of training (first photo), an assault on a bank (fourth photo), sniper (fifth) armory (sixth photo), helicopter assault (seventh photo), tall building assault (eighth photo) and SWAT commander (ninth photo) with the one photo that is purported to be Nickerson Gardens under fire (photo two) [and the urban assault tank photo three]. Except for photo two, not one of these photos was taken in Nickerson Gardens. All these photos draw their meaning from the context in which they are placed, the raid on Nickerson Gardens. The right column is deceptive détournement, in that I put the entire Popular Mechanics article in a new and different context, in the festive enactments of University faculty, students and the empowered resident mothers' actions in NGRMC under the Jack Kemp resident empowerment initiative. Debord and Wolman make the point that, it is the most distant detourned element (e.g. photo two in the left column) that contributes most sharply to the overall impression of the text. The main force of a détournement is related to the readers' vague recollection of what they have read about or seen portrayed of Nickerson Gardens, gang violence in Watts, etc. in the popular media. Détournement by doing a simple reversal of the stories and images of the left column to those of the right is seen as the least effective strategy by Debord and Wolman. Yet, I did this reversal (see Derrida) in the juxtaposition of the two columns. Instead what I am intending with my act of détournement is to embed festival of caring and service learning (e.g. Halloween Parade) in the spectacle of urban assault and assault technology. I sue the titles of each of the stories and the titles that emerge when the cursor is waved over a photo as a basic element of détournement. My initial stories are similar in structure, appropriating and plagiarizing many of the catch words and phrases. As my article proceeds I move from this tactic to just quoting field notes in the right column, and in the final scene-story to doing direct response of Nora King and I. The method of détournement is assumed here to be an alternative or perhaps a supplement to Derrida's deconstruction (see Derrida above).

Katz, Samuel M.

1997 "Felon Busters: When the cops are outgunned, LAPD SWAT breaks up the party." Popular Mechanics May issue in print and May web site document last modified Thursday, May 15, 1997 16:23:12 GMT (press here) to see original document. As an act of détournement I put my own title on this article instead of Katz's title which I do include in the abstract to give it a different context.

King, Nora

1999 Quotes from Nora King in last section of article above are from August 16, 1999 phone call I made to Nora King. She has been re-elected at President of NGRMC, a position she held from 1980 to 1993. The Transportation Company and most of the NGRMC resident empowerment initiatives have been dismantled by the community board elected in December, 1993. In our call we discussed a plan to get NMSU involved in responding to media depictions of life in Nickerson Gardens; create a web site, to continue her attempts to contact Microsoft and Bill Gates-- put a computer with web hook up in every NG residence so that the community can put its own stories and images on the web. Those sites are currently under construction, pending NGRMC board approval.

NGRMC Dual Management Workbook

1994 NGRMC is Nickerson Gardens Resident Management Corporation. This is the second of two Dual Management Workshops conducted in cooperation between myself, Loyola Marymount University and the NGRMC. 1992 was the Jack Kemp era of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reforms to promote resident empowerment through economic self-dertermination. The 1992 workshop was conducted at NG and resulted in seven Garden residents taking employment at NGRMC, a corporation that sub-contracted functions form the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) between 1992 and 1999). Under the New Director of HACLA, Don Smith, resident empowerment has been absorbed and appropriated by HACLA; Dual Management is no more and HACLA does not contract with the NGRMC for training or for resident-employees. The 19994 NGRMC Dual Management Workbook was a collaborative service learning effort of Loyola Marymount University Business faculty and students and the Board of Directors of the NGRMC. It is a NGRMC copyright document (press here) to see cover and theme. For more on service learning partnering between university and community, consult: Rosile, G.A. & Boje, D.M. (1998). "Service Learning." Book chapter accepted (September 1998). To appear in Service Learning, Paul C. Godfrey (ed.). This is a volume for the American Association of Higher Education, a series on service-learning in the disciplines. Also consult, Rosile, G.A. & Boje, D. "Pedagogy for the Postmodern Management Classroom: Greenback Company." In Postmodern Management and Organization Theory, pp. 225-250. D. Boje, R. Gephart & T. Thatchenkery (Eds). Sage Publications, 1996.

Plant, Sadie

1992 The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International in a Postmodern Age. London/NY: Routledge. Plant's book is quite critical of Debord and the SI movement. I doubt she would agree with my juxtaposition of "spectacle of urban assault violence technology" (left column" with my "postmodern festival of community life" (right column). See for example pp. 177-8. Platt does not seem to favor the festival or Situationists' critiques of individualism culture or a poetic critique of dominant media culture. She describes her book as "an idiosyncratic path to the postmodern age... uncovering some political and cultural histories, it has neglected others" (p. 183). Plant's critique of SI is that "Situationist desires for 'a rise in the pleasure of living' have become the dreams of another age and no longer have anything to say to us" (p. 185). I of course disagree. She also argues that "social groups and classes do not conveniently line up on opposite sides of the barricades, and the multitude of transgressive and often conflicting desires which constitute individuals and systems of social organization can never again be ignored for the convenience of some revolutionary plan" (p. 185). Yet, in the case of NG, during the post-Rodney King verdict riots or revolution, the barricades did go up at Nickerson. But it was the mothers who barricaded the police SWAT and CRASH units from entering their community. The NGRMC Mothers kept the police out, kept the Food Bank and communication center open, and did police their own community; making sure there were no riots, looting, or burning in the Nickerson Gardens, and any kid bring in loot was scolded proper and told to return it immediately and I am told that they did. The Central Panthers [a gang PM did not mention], actually joined with the Fire Department to fight the fires happening outside, not in NG (press here for photo). It is these stories of NG heroism that do not surface in the mainstream press.

Wallace, Jonathan

1996 "Choosing life or death." The Ethical Spectacle, Vol II (11): November on line journal. (Press Here) for on line text. My application of Wallace is to assert that Popular Mecahnics is Spectalce worldview and is a clash with the Nickerson Gardens and my ownFestival worldview. Wallace, for example, puts it this way "One is what I call the compassionate, nonviolent, or optimistic worldview" and "The second view is the Hobbesian, violent or "NRA" view of the world." My own juxtaposition of these world views, I think, allows the reader to see the two in their situated context. I hhave more experience with the Nickerson Gardens' mothers and kids' worldview and how they must engage in counter-hegemony to get their own worldview into the media. And my work follows that tradition.

See (home page) Consult <teaching materials> for more on Nickerson Gardens Oral History project. This is a project to get the oral history documented so that a counter-story can be told of life in the Nickerson Gardens community. A life that is quite festive, in my experience. - D. Boje.