The Use Of The Media For The Zoot Suit Trial

During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, eight people were arrested and tried for conspiring to incite a riot. The two organizations that the defendants were involved with were MOBE (National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam) and Yippies (Youth International Movement). Prior to their arrest, both organizations had joined in a lawsuit against the City of Chicago for their lack of cooperation in processing a permit. During the trial, the defendants and their attorneys made it a point to make the procedural process as theatrical as possible for the media. This was a ploy to utilize the media as a tool in order to portray the flaws within the government to the public. Furthermore, this was the first trial

Hank Leyvas, from the Zoot Suit trials, was praised for his relatively unheard of activism for the Mexican-American population. Out of prison, he ran a restaurant and was a resource to Chicano youth on their rights as Americans and his experience with the judicial system. For the Chicago Seven, all original eight defendants were part of political activist organizations that were against the Vietnam War.
However, the use of media in relation to the defendants was different for each trial. The media for the Zoot Suit trial served as a megaphone for the continuing anti-immigration sentiment. It was used as a tool for the prosecution to continue the trial based merely on what they wore and their race. The Los Angeles Times viewed Mexican-Americans as delinquent and violent individuals. While, in the Chicago Seven trials the media was used as the defendant's megaphone to shed a light on a greedy and corrupt government, and speak out against the status quo.
III. Aftermath, Impact, and

In this case, the media was on the defendants side and acted as a voice for their cause. Multiple newspapers around the nation printed front page articles surrounding the trial and the defendants. The media loved the trial because it made a joke out of the courtroom in which the judge and prosecutors didn't know how to respond other than an objection. This trial was less about the innocence of the crime and more about the socio-political culture of the time. After both of the trials, riots increasingly spread around the nation. For the zoot suit trial, the riots were surrounding Mexican-American activism and emerging racial tension in Los Angeles between Caucasian and Mexican-Americans. On the other hand, the riots that broke out around the nation after the ending of the Chicago Seven trial were related to the public's hatred for the government. This hatred stemmed from the frustration over the US involvement in the Vietnam War, the lack of civil rights in the south, and women's rights.
IV. Judicial, Prosecutorial, and Defense Misconduct or Neglect and Its Effects on the