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‘ The Persuasive Lips ’: Men and Guns in America, the West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Eric Mottram
Eric Mottram
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

In June 1974, Tim Findley reported the shoot-out between Los Angeles police and the Symbionese Liberation Army for Rolling Stone. Fully covered by TV, police fanaticism and the fantasies of Cinque entered every home:

People sat in their living rooms, watching an epic battle of American insanity, commenting to each other about the cases of ammunition being unloaded from the FBI car, about the small grin on the cop's face as he threw the bolt home on his rifle before firing another round into the blazing little bungalow in south Los Angeles. His base-ball cap and clumsy flak jacket along with his bolt-action rifle made him appear as a boy playing at a game in which all the battles are heroic spectacles – where just the imaginary bad guys fall dead.

The camera pans closer …

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , April 1976 , pp. 53 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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