THE MURDER OF HARVEY MILK
Democracy is a great thing and so far the best political system has not been invented anywhere. But only the people should conform to it. And defend it. Otherwise it will take the same ugly forms as in Russia
TWO POLITICIANS
Harvey Milk and Dan White
Harvey Milk first became the first politician in the United States to publicly declare his homosexual orientation and managed to win the elections to the state authority after that. And then he became practically a holy martyr for the gay community after his tragic death.
Milk moved from New York to San Francisco with his friend Scott Smith and opened a small photo store, which became the center of a growing community of local homosexuals. Harvey got into politics. Losing one election campaign after another, Milk eventually achieved victory and was elected a member of the supervisory board of the city. And according to legend, conservative Dan White became an ardent opponent of freedom-loving Harvey, who eventually killed him. However, in life everything was not quite as in the legend. And the main thing is that both Milk and White tried to do something good in their lives and in politics, in their opinion, for ordinary people, and did not stupidly vote for any decision of a higher authority.
Dan White served in the American Army during the Vietnam War. It seems that he was not shell–shocked, but his character turned out to be complicated. White was on the one hand direct and brave, and on the other hand, selfish and evil. His political career was a success in the wake of the fact that he fought for the decriminalization of his district. And Dan got into the city supervisory board. There he became closest to Harvey Milk. And even supported him when he made a proposal to build a center for elderly gays.
To be fair, I must say that Harvey dealt not only with issues related to sexual minorities. He achieved the expansion of the sphere of social services for children, the introduction of free public transport and the strengthening of the powers of the civil commission for the supervision of the police. Not a single Russian straight MP has even stuttered about free travel on public transport.
But when Milk refused to support White’s project to move a psychiatric hospital for teenagers, he stopped talking to him and began to accumulate anger at him. Soon Dan voted against Milk’s bill protecting gay rights. However, he turned out to be the only opponent of this bill. And then Mayor Moscone removed him from the supervisory board. After that, both Moscone and Milk became real enemies for Uyt.
MURDER
Harvey Milk and George Moscone
On November 27, 1978, a former member of the San Francisco Supervisory Board, Dan White, shot Mayor George Moscone (pictured left) and Chief Controller Harvey Milk (pictured right) right in the city hall after Moscone refused to reinstate him as a member of the supervisory board.
November 27, 1978, the day Moscone was about to officially announce the appointment of a new observer to replace Dan White. He decided to get even with his abusers. since his time in the police, he still had a revolver, which he put in his coat pocket. Then, in order to get past the metal detector frame at the entrance, White entered the city hall through a basement window. He went to the mayor’s office and once again demanded to return him to the supervisory board. Moscone replied, «No.» And then White pulled out a revolver. The first two bullets hit the mayor in the shoulder and chest, and when he fell, White finished him off at point-blank range with two shots to the head.
But he didn’t stop there. He went to Harvey Milk and asked him to come into the office with him for a minute. As soon as the door closed behind them, White pulled out a revolver. Then everything was like with the mayor. Several shots to the chest and two «control» shots to the head. The administration of the city Hall reacted strangely to the shooting, only oohing and aahing. As a result, White calmly left the building and met his wife at the church, where he told her about what he had done. She persuaded him to go to the police and even escorted him there. White told the police that he shot Moscone and Milk, but refused to admit that he did it intentionally. He was arrested and sent to prison before the trial.
It is curious that his award has already been appointed for the rescue of a woman and a child from a 17-storey burning building, which he committed when he worked as a firefighter in 1977. Naturally, it did not take place.
TRIAL AND RIOTS
The trial of Dan White gave rise to the derisive term «Twinkie Defense» (Twinkie Defense), denoting an incredible legal defense. Upait’s guilt was obvious, but his lawyers involved two psychiatrists in the process, who painted how Dan, having lost his position in the municipality, fell into a severe depression. He avoided his wife, and although he was usually clean, he became sloppy. In addition, White was previously a fitness fanatic and advocate for a healthy diet, but began consuming junk food and soft drinks with sugar, such as Coca-Cola. And because of this, he was on autopilot at the time of the murder.
However, it was not the defense that helped the accused more, but the prosecution. It played a recording of White’s confession in the courtroom. But on the record, he not only confessed, but also sobbed and talked about worrying about the fact that his wife had to work. And his crying touched the jury, who found him guilty of only the unintentional murder of two people. As a result, the court sentenced Dan to seven years and eight months in prison, when he was threatened with the death penalty or life imprisonment for the murder of an official.
Burning police cars on Civic Center Plaza, May 21, 1979.
Such a sentence to Dan White caused outrage among 200 thousand homosexuals in San Francisco and many sympathetic residents of the city.
A crowd of more than three thousand people gathered, who began to set fire to patrol police cars and the municipal building. These riots lasted for several hours and were brutally suppressed by the police. Later they were dubbed the «White Night Riots». By morning, 61 policemen and 100 participants of the riot, as well as injured residents of the Castro district, were hospitalized.
After 5 years, White was released from prison. But six months later, on October 21, 1985, 39-year-old White was found dead in a car with the engine running in his ex-wife’s garage. Dan’s lawyer told reporters that White was acutely worried about the breakup of his family and was depressed because of everything that happened. «It was a sick man,» he said.
EPILOGUE
The Times of Harvey Milk Poster
As they say, we are all equal, but some are more equal than others. So it happened with the murder committed by Dan White. Of course, the memory of Mayor George Moscone was honored, the largest conference and exhibition center in San Francisco and a park located in the northern part of San Francisco were even named in his honor. And Harvey Milk seemed to have been elevated to Olympus.
In 2008, on the 30th anniversary of Milk’s murder, the film «Harvey Milk» was released on the screens — a biographical film by Gus Van Sant dedicated to the life of gay rights activist Harvey Milk. This film even won two Academy Awards — for Best Actor (Sean Penn, who played Milk) and the award for Best Original Screenplay (Dustin Lance Black).
Oleg Loginov
