美国国家公共电台 NPR Seeking Empathy, 'Shots Fired' Creators Flip The Script On Police Shootings

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Also on TV tonight, a new show looking at racially charged police shootings. The 10-episode series on FOX is called "Shots Fired." NPR TV critic Eric Deggans says the show is better at exploring explosive emotions than it is at providing deeper insight.

ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE¹: "Shots Fired" begins with a horrific incident...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHOTS FIRED")

TRISTAN MACK WILDS: (As Deputy Joshua Beck) Shots fired, shots fired. I need some units. Shots fired. I need some units. Shots fired.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character, over radio) All units, all units respond to...

DEGGANS: ...The shooting of an unarmed 19-year-old by a police officer in a small North Carolina town. But when federal prosecutor² Preston Terry, who happens to be black, is assigned to investigate the case, his supervisor³ explains a key detail.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHOTS FIRED")

MIKE PNIEWSKI: (As Julian Carroll) Governor called me personally. It's a black cop and a white kid. She wants a black prosecutor out front - optics. This climate, only a black man can indict⁴ this black cop without inciting⁵ tensions if he's guilty.

DEGGANS: The outlook for the officer only gets worse when video surfaces of a racist⁶ joke he made at a party for his graduation from the police academy.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHOTS FIRED")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Just graduating from the academy. Any last words?

WILDS: (As Deputy Joshua Beck) Finally got my license⁷ to shoot these crackers⁸.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) That's right. My boy's bulletproof.

DEGGANS: About halfway⁹ through the first episode, federal investigators¹¹ learn local police are also covering up the shooting death of a black teen by a white officer. That's when "Shots Fired" expands its scope and begins to show how these two deaths produce very different reactions from police, the media and the community.

When I caught up with the show's co-creator, Reggie Rock Bythewood, at a press reception, he explained why "Shots Fired" began with the white teen's death. It's about getting non-black audience members to care about the victims of police shootings, too.

REGGIE ROCK BYTHEWOOD: What that case gives us forces a segment of the audience to look at it from a different point of view, forces people in a way to say what if that was your child?

DEGGANS: His wife, Gina Prince-Bythewood, co-created the show. She says the way some people cheered the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing¹² unarmed black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin convinced her there were people out there who needed some lessons in empathy.

GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD: It was shocking to us after the Zimmerman verdict. It was so personal and emotional to us and to our son. And then to turn on the TV or go online and see people starting to make excuses for everything that happened, and it felt that they were not seeing Trayvon as their child.

DEGGANS: The Bythewoods are both directors, producers and writers. Their credits together and separately include the films "Love And Basketball," "Beyond The Lights" and the TV show "A Different World." "Shots Fired" bears all the signs of a prestige project for Fox. There are A-list costars like Richard Dreyfus and Helen Hunt, along with a jazzy score by Spike¹³ Lee's longtime composer Terence Blanchard. The show's two lead actors, Stephan James and Sanaa Lathan, make a great team, playing a straight arrow prosecutor, an unconventional investigator¹⁰.

But for all its ambition, "Shots Fired" has a lot of clunky dialogue. At times, the characters are simply acting¹⁴ out a political argument instead of responding as people, like in this scene where a black pastor¹⁵ who challenges the federal investigators at a press conference is interrupted by a white man in the crowd.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHOTS FIRED")

AISHA HINDS¹⁶: (As Pastor Janae James) What I don't understand is why you're here. All the murdering of unarmed black man by police across this country, and this is the one that the government is investigating?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Oh, so only black lives matter?

HINDS: (As Pastor Janae James) I'm sorry, when is the last time you were pulled over by the police and didn't know if you were going to make it out alive?

DEGGANS: Instead of revealing new ways to look at these issues, some scenes told us what we already know, as when that same pastor, played by Aisha Hinds, talks about the value of public protest to an earnest North Carolina governor played by Helen Hunt.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "SHOTS FIRED")

HELEN HUNT: (As Governor Patricia Eamons) I know together we can get ahead of this and keep our city from becoming another Ferguson.

HINDS: (As Pastor Janae James) Ferguson was a tragedy, a rallying cry that spawned¹⁷ a movement, a movement still alive today. Have you ever considered that maybe I do want another Ferguson?

DEGGANS: Fox only provided six of the limited series' 10 episodes early to critics. So I'm hopeful later installments¹⁸ will dig a little deeper and surprise viewers a little more. Because at a moment when political divisions in America couldn't be more heated, there's no better time for a series which approaches tough social issues by asking for a little empathy. I'm Eric Deggans.

(SOUNDBITE OF BONOBO SONG, "DAYS TO COME")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

3 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

4 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

5 inciting   

刺激的，煽动的

参考例句：

• What are you up to inciting mutiny and insubordination? 你们干吗在这里煽动骚动的叛乱呀。
• He was charged with inciting people to rebel. 他被控煽动民众起来叛乱。

6 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

7 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

8 crackers   

adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘

参考例句：

• That noise is driving me crackers. 那噪声闹得我简直要疯了。
• We served some crackers and cheese as an appetiser. 我们上了些饼干和奶酪作为开胃品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

10 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

11 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

14 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

15 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

16 hinds   

n.（常指动物腿）后面的( hind的名词复数 )；在后的；（通常与can或could连用）唠叨不停；滔滔不绝

参考例句：

• He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places. 诗18:33他使我的脚快如母鹿的蹄、使我在高处安稳。 来自互联网
• He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places. 33他使我的脚快如母鹿的蹄，又使我在高处安稳。 来自互联网

17 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

18 installments   

部分( installment的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The first two installments were pretty close together in 1980. 第一次和节二次提款隔得很近，都是在1980年提的。
• You have an installments sales contract. 你已经订立了一份分期付款的买卖契约了。