UPTOWNflavor

As in most high profile cases, the main character is not always the victim.  That seems to be the case in the coverage of the defense attorney representing one of the cops accused of killing Sean Bell.  Anthony Ricco, the attorney in question, is being characterized as the “street- smart lawyer from Harlem.”

But the character in today’s coverage that seems the most interesting is defense attorney Anthony Ricco, the “Harlem lawyer,” as he’s called in the News coverage and the “African-American lawyer” described in Peyser’s column. Why is Ricco’s race so important in this coverage? Because it allows easy shorthand to illustrate Ricco as one who made it out of the ghetto. The News emphasizes this trope in Nicole Bode and Corky Siemaszko’s article on yesterday’s proceedings, as they describe one particularly heated exchange between Ricco and Guzman (bolding mine):

“I bet you were kind of tough out there at Club Kalua that night, Ricco said, slipping into the street slang of his native Harlem. “I bet you wasn’t paying ‘that kid’ no mind, ‘Show your hands’. You was doing want you wanted to do, which is what you’re doing right now.”

Denis Hamill continues the “local boy makes good” portrayal of Ricco with his description of him as a “Harlem-bred, African-American defense lawyer with the Italian name” and his referral to the “ghetto street idioms” Ricco used in his cross of Guzman. The Post continues on the “respect authority” theme with its portrayal of Ricco, which concentrates on Ricco’s asking Guzman why he kept referring to Detective Gescard Isnora as “kid.” Guzman himself admitted on the stand, “I don’t have to respect nobody on that side as a man.” This “belligerent attitude,” according to the Post, made Ricco ask the judge to clear the courtroom, as this was when the gallery became raucous, as if the members were watching TV. Ricco may be from the streets of Harlem, but he definitely can negotiate his way around the court system with finesse. And this is exactly the type of liminal character that the media love to highlight.

Excerpt: Village Voice