Crime

GETZ: My opponent is soft on crime. He thinks criminals have "rights." He
thinks criminals should be treated like "human beings." He coddles criminals.
Just take a look at what could've happened.

Exterior: Raiford Prison. We see a series of revolving turnstiles, one marked
SERIAL KILLERS, then CHILD MOLESTERS, MURDERERS, etc. A CRIMINAL emerges from
one of them, notices CHILES' large, black limousine.

CHILES: Hello. Yoo-hoo. Mr. Criminal.

CRIMINAL reacts, not believing he's being addressed.

CHILES: Yes, you. I mean you. I'm here for you. Come here...

Childlike, the CRIMINAL runs over to the CHILES's open window, leans in.
CHILES begins stroking his head.

CHILES: Oh. You poor criminal. Oh--just look at you. Were they mean to you?
CRIMINAL: (crying) They yelled at me and did bad things.
CHILES: There, there...

The CHAUFFEUR lets the CRIMINAL gets into CHILES' limo. They drive off.
CHILES cuddles him, rocks him comforts him.

GETZ: Is that what we want? Is that what they deserve? I don't think so.

***

Exterior: country road. Warm color values. Pine forrest one side, a lake on
the other. A little kid in a straw hat is fishing. We hear a fish jump.
CHILES walks into frame, notices us, begins talking in a casual, friendly
way.

CHILES: Maybe you've seen that ad. Maybe it's supposed to be funny. They've
got an actor pretending to be me pick up some thug outside of Raiford.  I
don't know. I don't think it's funny. And it's not true. I don't like
negative campaining--and I hate to even respond to that kind of thing. But I
don't coddle criminals--I hate criminals. I have personally sent 5 of them to
the electric chair last year alone. (getting a weird look on his face) And I
liked it.

Interior: execution chamber at Raiford. Another CRIMINAL sitting in "old
sparky." CHILES looking in from the viewing window, rubbing his hands,
gloating.

CHILES: How's it feel, huh? How's it feel? I might just go ahead and give you
a stay--not.* Haha! (looking off camera) Do it.

Sound: bugzapping noise. Light effect flashing on CHILES' face like something
in a Frankenstein movie. He laughs, gloating, relishing it.

Go to title effect: campaign logo.

VO: Vote Chiles for governor in '92. He send 5 killers straight to hell.

Cutaway square opens bottom right. CHILES face.

CHILES: And I liked it.

***

GETZ: Well Chiles says he's tough on crime. Chiles says he likes sending
people to the chair. Liked it, huh? Five in one year doesn't sound like he
liked it--or maybe he did. There's such a thing as quality, fine. But I'm
going to give you quantity, Florida. He did five a year. I'm going to do five
in one week, every week--that's my pledge.

GETZ FOR GOVERNOR
...turning up the current in '92

***

CHILES: Getz points his finger at me again like that I'm gonna cut it
off--you hear me, boy? You're not from around here, are you? (nodding head) I
think he's from New York. And you say I don't wanna fry these people? What do
you know? Blame the State Legislature, not me. I swear, people--get rid of
the legislature, give me full dictatorial powers, and you'll start to see the
SPARKS fly. I'll do better than five in one week. I'll do more than that--and
I'll make sure the job gets done right, because I will personally pull the
plug on each and every one.

(We see CHILES' hand go to the switch and pull. Sound and light effect).

VO: Chiles for governor. Because the hand the signs the laws will be the hand
that pulls the switch.

***

GETZ: Now Chiles says he's tough on crime. Now he says he favors the death
penalty. He says he's going to personally pull the switch--but is that really
enough? Death
is nearly instantaneous in the electric chair. Their victims didn't have it
so good. Their victims suffered. Is that really fair?

Cut to shots of normal people.
WOMAN: I think the chair's too good for that human scum.
REDNECK: Gimme five minues alone. Just five minutes.

GETZ: I hear you people. I'm listening--and I'm going to kill them. I,
personally, will make them suffer. Not on the other side of a piece of glass.
Not impersonally, pulling a switch on the wall. One on one--with me. It's
going to be cruel. It's going to be unusual.

Cut to: interior, death cage chamber. Steel cage with rows and rows of
screaming people looking down. A CRIMINAL is ejected through a hole in the
wall. From another, GETZ emerges in a black gi. CRIMINAL reacts with fear,
but there's no way out. GETZ advances...

GETZ: (to the crowd) Remember my promise?

They cheer. GETZ leaps up in the air, does a wheelkick to the side of the
CRIMINAL's head. Bones crack. The prisoner falls, holding his head, blood
gushing out of his fingers.

GETZ: That's one...

GETZ leaps again. The prisoner begins screaming. Go to: extreme cu open
mouth.

***


CHILES: (crouched in the shadows of an alley, dressed in black, Ninja style)
Getz says he's going to make them suffer--and we're supposed to be impressed.
Maybe he thinks people are stupid--but did it ever occur to him that killing
these people, however you do it, ain't gonna do a lot of good once they
already committed their crimes? That's why you've got to stop this kind of
thing...before it starts.

(Two thugs walk in: we hear sounds, vicious stabbing, bone-cracking, noises,
and then the thugs fall.

CHILES: Some people talk about a war on crime: I'm doing it, "Death Wish"
style, one criminal at a time on a one-man crusade. (smiling) And we're
saving money, too...




















* a popular catch phrase of that era.