American History X Page #2

SWEENEY:

Captain Rasmussen?

DESK SERGEANT:

Briefing room. Down that hall...third

door on the left.

INT. BRIEFING ROOM - A MEETING

Cops and detectives sit attentively and a few sip coffee.

The clock on the wall above reads 7:38 AM. Middle-aged

with slicked-back hair, CAPTAIN JOHN RASMUSSEN finishes a

thought. He spots Sweeney as he enters and aimlessly

reaches for a file.

RASMUSSEN:

All right. Moving on--

(acknowledging)

Good Morning, Doctor.

The group looks over and meets Sweeney's hard glare.

SWEENEY:

Good morning.

RASMUSSEN:

Gentlemen, this is Dr. Bob Sweeney.

He's Principal over at Venice High and

for some time now he's done a load of

outreach work with gangs...in and out

of the can.

Sweeney nods as Rasmussen cough. He sips water and

continues.

RASMUSSEN:

Three years ago a local kid named

Derek Vinyard gets sent up for

murdering a couple of Crips who were

trying to jack his car. Bob taught

Vinyard back in high school and has

followed the case closely.

YOUNG COP:

He was a skinhead, right?

SWEENEY:

Derek was more like...the skinhead.

He and Cameron Alexander.

COP #2

Who?

Rasmussen opens a FILE in front of him. There rests

Derek's mug shot. He flips it over and reveals

CAMMERON'S MUG SHOT. Front and side view.

RASMUSSEN:

Cammeron Alexander is probably the

biggest writer and distributor of

white power literature in LA County.

He promotes white power bands, writes

reviews, columns, all at the ripe age

of forty.

YOUNG COP:

(smiling)

He's forty? Jesus.

RASMUSSEN:

Pretty clean record...runs everything

out of his house down by the beach.

SWEENEY:

There weren't any organized white

gangs around Venice before those two

hooked up. Very few, if any. It was

mostly just black and Mexican. But it

was tiny. They hit it off though...

and Alexander hit the jackpot with

Derek.

Rasmussen reaches over and pushes play on a VCR.

RASMUSSEN:

We got some uncut footage here.

Courtesy of NBC.

ON THE TELEVISION--

REPORTER:

Earlier this evening...LA County

Firefighter Dennis Vinyard was shot

and killed while putting out a fire in

a suspected Compton drug den.

RASMUSSEN:

(to the group)

This being February of '90.

EXT. VINYARD HOUSEHOLD - A LIVE BROADCAST - VIDEOTAPE

A YOUNGER DEREK, short haired with no tattoos, stands

next to the reporter. Derek wears a Venice High

Basketball jersey drenched in sweat. Towel around neck,

he thinks to himself as the man speaks into the camera.

Rate this script:4.6 / 5 votes