Riot (3 page)

It’s in the Bible!

ELLEN

Well, I’ll be! Darling, you won’t do for this job. We need someone with more experience. I’m very sorry. I’m sure you’ll find a good job somewhere else.

MAEVE

Can I wait here for a moment in case Liam comes back?

ELLEN

(looks toward CLAIRE)

Well, I have to run to the chemist to pick up some medicine for Dr. Smith. My husband works for him.

MAEVE

(sarcastically)

Fancy that.

ELLEN

I’ll be back shortly.

ELLEN exits
.

MAEVE looks around the Peacock. Where she was apprehensive in dealing with ELLEN, now she begins to look more confident as she glances sideways at CLAIRE.

MAEVE

So, do they treat you good here?

CLAIRE

That’s my ma that runs the place.

MAEVE

Then you’ve got it nice, haven’t you?

CLAIRE

Nice enough. Do you like breaking windows?

MAEVE

It’s a way to get back at the swells. They hate to lose money, you know. A swell would rather see his wife die than lose a hundred dollars. That’s because they enjoy being a swell more than anything.

CLAIRE

Everyone should enjoy being who they are.

MAEVE

Well, we certainly enjoy being Irish, don’t we?

CLAIRE

I’m…I’m only half Irish.

MAEVE

And what’s the other half?

CLAIRE

My father’s black.

MAEVE

No!

CLAIRE

Yes!

MAEVE

No!

CLAIRE

Yes!

MAEVE

Does your mother know?

CLAIRE

Of course she does.

MAEVE crosses to CLAIRE and examines her closely, even touches her hair as CLAIRE sits stiffly.

MAEVE

You’d never know it! And you’d be a fool to let anyone in on it, wouldn’t you?

CLAIRE

Why would I care?

MAEVE

Is that why I didn’t get the job? Because of what I said about the Coloreds?

CLAIRE

My mother wanted someone with experience.

MAEVE

(leans forward)

I’m not saying that it’s wrong to be a Colored. But I don’t want to be one, and I don’t like them. You’re not really Colored no matter what your father is about. You’re as white as me from the looks of you, and
you’d be a fool to be anything else.

CLAIRE

I think you’d better go now.

MAEVE

(somewhat cocky)

You don’t look very tough. You ever been in a fight?

CLAIRE

Do you know how easy it would be for me to have you arrested?

MAEVE

That’s the swell part of you coming out, isn’t it? Only the swells say it with their noses in the air like the Coloreds.

CLAIRE

You don’t make a bit of sense.

MAEVE

If you were regular people like I am, or like Liam, you would be on my side, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t be threatening to call the coppers, would you? That’s what they’re fighting about in the streets, dearie. How the Irish are the ones being pushed
around. And how the swells are looking to send us off to fight for the Coloreds.

ELLEN enters, carrying a small package. She quickly senses something is going on between the two girls.

ELLEN

The order was only half filled. John will have to get the rest another time.

MAEVE

Maybe I’ll be back, ma’am, in case you change your mind.

MAEVE exits
.

ELLEN

Something going on?

CLAIRE

No. No, not really.

EXT. DOWNTOWN NEW YORK—SAME DAY

A CROWD of some fifty young white men and some women has gathered across the street from the offices of the Tribune. Some throw stones at the building. The camera pans the CROWD, stops for a moment on an
excited LIAM, who seems slightly confused as he tries to take in everything around him.

We turn a corner and see DENNIS RILEY (17) and TOMMY ENRIGHT (19), two members of the street gang known as the Dead Rabbits. They are dressed in recently stolen top hats, formal dress pants (also stolen), and suspenders over white undershirts. Both men have red ribbons pinned around the left cuff of their pants. They are talking to a group of eager young boys. Among them is BILLY EVANS (12).

DENNIS RILEY

The coppers are waiting for us to make a move, but we’re biding our time, boys. Waiting for the tide to come to us. What we’re looking for is someone to do some carrying. Ya getting a cut of everything ya carry and you can take that as gospel.

TOMMY ENRIGHT

Ten percent is yours off the top. We do the snatching while you hang back on the corner. Then we bring you the goods and you carry it to where we tell you. We’ll deal with the coppers. All you need to do is watch out for the Bowery Boys, who don’t have enough tin in their kidneys to do the lifting. You kiddies with us or against us?

BILLY EVANS

I’d rather join the army meself. You get a regular gun and bullets, and they give you three hundred dollars for your pocket. You can’t beat that, and you don’t have to do no running.

TOMMY ENRIGHT

Wha? Wha? Wha you gonna do, kiddy? You gonna go off and fight for the darkies? The rich people are getting to two-step away from the bloody war for three hundred dollars. Now figure this one out. They’re selling blacks down in Georgia for a thousand dollars. That means that your life ain’t even worth half of what a black man’s life is worth. That’s what you going for? Huh? That’s what you going for?

BILLY EVANS

I always thought about going into the army. Maybe the 7th Irish.

DENNIS RILEY

You got your war right here in the streets, pie-face. And after this little rough-and-tumble is over, they’re going to know we got something to say and it ain’t only the abolitionists making the newspapers.

BILLY EVANS

I heard the coppers are shooting at people. They got a guy on Tenth Street and shot him in both legs!

TOMMY ENRIGHT

That’s what they’re doing, Billy boy. Don’t you see? They don’t really care about none of this because half the cops are as Irish as we are. They’re shooting up in the air and down at the ground so they don’t hurt us. And you don’t need to be anywhere near the shooting because all you’re going to be doing is carrying the goods we bring you. You want to be a Dead Rabbit, or you want to go join the little girls’ brigade? We can call ya Little Miss Molly.

BILLY EVANS

Yeah, yeah. I’m with you. But this makes me a full member, right? I get me ten percent, like you said, and I’m a Rabbit?

DENNIS RILEY

It’s a hard bargain you drive, Billy, but you’re never gonna forget this day. This is the day you woke up a kid and went to sleep a man. That’s right. You’re going to sleep tonight a real man.

BILLY EVANS

(apprehensive)

We gonna be beating up Coloreds, too? I don’t like that part.

TOMMY ENRIGHT

Nah. We got no time for that. That ain’t smart, and smart is my middle name, Bucky Boy. Okay, let’s get the boys moving. Get them going across the street and right toward the shops. Keep a line of the biggest guys on the left, nearest the coppers, to hold them off. We’ll throw a little charge at the police at the same time we smash the windows. Then it’s grab and run, a few fists and stones, and everybody is out of here. You kids get to that corner and be ready when we come back.

The camera looks down the street.

TOMMY ENRIGHT

(cont’d)

You ready?

BILLY EVANS & FRIENDS

(in unison)

Ready!

DENNIS RILEY and TOMMY ENRIGHT start across the street, with ENRIGHT leading. The camera pulls back, and we see a knot of young men and women, who start to cheer when they see the two gang members come forward. The CROWD starts to follow the two toward a line of stores.

The camera quickly switches to a group of POLICEMEN, who start toward the CROWD. There is a direct confrontation, and the POLICE begin to beat the members of the CROWD.

CUT TO:

CLOSE-UP of MAEVE. Her face is a picture of incredible anger as she screams at the POLICE.

CUT TO:

MAIN SHOT: We see TOMMY ENRIGHT fall. The camera moves into the conflict, and we are in the middle of it, with bodies flashing around us, as well as cries of pain. There is the sound of a gunshot, and we see POLICE shooting into the air. The camera spins crazily and everything goes dark, but we still hear the sounds of the battle. Then the sounds stop.

POLICE OFFICER

(voice-over)

That’ll show them. Just leave them lying
there. Their relatives can come sort them out in the morning if they have the mind to. That’ll show them. It’s late in the day. Things should be quieting down a bit.

We see nine POLICE OFFICERS, some winded from their efforts, looking down the street. The camera pans down the street, and we see the CROWD in disarray, with some holding their heads. It has been a brutal encounter.

EXT. A QUIET SECTION OF FIFTH AVENUE—SAME DAY

We see a street sign that indicates that we are on Fifth and Fortieth Street. Two UPPER-CLASS MEN and a WOMAN are walking down the street.

FIRST UPPER-CLASS MAN

They’ll go home once it gets dark. Maybe if they sleep off the liquor, they’ll wake with some sense in their heads.

SECOND UPPER-CLASS MAN

In any case, the mayor will have things under control by the morning. I’m sure of that.

UPPER-CLASS WOMAN

Are those people coming this way?

We see a small CROWD of people walking along, almost casually—except for the clubs some are carrying.

FIRST UPPER-CLASS MAN

The very nerve of these people.

UPPER-CLASS WOMAN

We’d better get inside.

SECOND UPPER-CLASS MAN

My goodness! What could they want in this neighborhood?

FIRST UPPER-CLASS MAN

I don’t believe their morals stretch far beyond what they can drink or have the pleasure of stealing. But I agree, better to be indoors.

INT. THE COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM—SAME DAY

Beside a row of neatly made beds, two WOMEN in their late twenties—one white, one black—and an elderly WHITE MAN are gathering the CHILDREN and lining them up. There is a clear sense of urgency as they get the CHILDREN, all between four and ten, ready to
leave. In the background we hear occasional shouts and the sound of breaking glass.

We see PRISCILLA cradling a baby in her right arm and holding the hand of a small black girl.

WHITE WOMAN

Hold hands! Quickly! Quickly! We’ll march smartly through the side doors!

WHITE MAN

They’re breaking the windows!

PRISCILLA

Come along! Come along! This way!

She starts through an open door. The CHILDREN, obviously distressed, begin to file out. One older girl stops to straighten the corner of a bed and then her hand is taken by the WHITE WOMAN.

PRISCILLA

Why would they want to hurt the children?

WHITE MAN

We can’t reason with them, that’s for sure. Let’s just get out of here.