Revisiting Patty Hearst

Some of you ATSers may remember the infamous and controversial kidnapping of Patty Hearst, I thought it may be interesting to revisit this, and to discuss what if any impact did this have on our society? What was the motive behind the kidnapping? Was the kidnapping all staged? Was Patty a willing participant or was she brain washed? The kidnappers were a militant group that went by the name of SLA, who was the SLA? Is the SLA still around today?

I am looking forward to the thoughts and contributed information...I will start out with this video...It was a trailor for a Patty Hearst movie but I liked the way it was put together...

reply to post by shells4u


The SLA was the Symbionese Liberation Army and was very atypical of the misguided movements that the sixties tended to spawn. For example, it fancied itself a black liberation army... yet only had one black member.

My own personal views are many of these so called armies and movements were mostly role-playing... young adults trying to be Bonnie and Clyde reborn, but with a political spin.

As for Patty herself? Some cite Stockholm Syndrome. My personal opinion is that she was more likely a repressed rich girl who was eager to get some cheap thrills from a group of very bad boys. She'd get to have some fairly well documented fun AND piss off her elitist parents. Of course all done from behind the knowledge that, if caught, she could play the victim and rely upon the family name and fortune to save her from the bulk of the consequences.

reply to post by shells4u


Symbionese Liberation Army:he United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was an American self-styled left-wing revolutionary group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a vanguard army. The group committed bank robberies, two murders, and other acts of violence.

"The name 'symbionese' is taken from the word symbiosis and we define its meaning as a body of dissimilar bodies and organisms living in deep and loving harmony and partnership in the best interest of all within the body.

The SLA formed as a result of the prison visitation programs of the radical left-wing group Venceremos Organization and a group known as the Black Cultural Association in Soledad prison. The idea of a South American–styled urban guerrilla movement, similar to the Tupamaros movement in Uruguay, combined with Régis Debray's theory of urban warfare and ideas drawn from Maoism, appealed to a number of people.SLA

many of these so called armies and movements were mostly role-playing...

reply to post by Hefficide


I don't have a hard time with your thoughts about Patty but I have to do more research in order to believe that the SLA was just role playing. If it was a case of role playing the stakes sure were high.

reply to post by shells4u


Oh there's no doubt that the violence and crimes were real. But it was all done in a sort of faux revolutionary role playing way. Che Guevara inspired groups of young people wanting to make a difference, but having not the first idea of how to go about it.

The same sort of undirected angst that leads to gangs today.

The SLA formed as a result of the prison visitation programs of the radical left-wing group Venceremos Organization and a group known as the Black Cultural Association

reply to post by shells4u

Who was the Venceremos: Spanish for "We Will Overcome", or "We Will Prevail", was a radical left political group which took its name from the battle cry of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, a revolutionary communist leader from Argentina and high-ranking member of Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba.
Venceremos began as a Chicano political organization in Redwood City, California in early 1969. An early chairperson was the jazz musician Aaron Manganiello [1943-2009].[1] In 1971, about half of the Revolutionary Union, a Maoist organization, split to join Venceremos. Among the people who moved from the RU to Venceremos was H. Bruce Franklin, one of the RU's founders. Venceremos's next chairperson was Katerina Del Valle. According to Franklin in his 1971 anthology "From the Movement Toward Revolution"

WIKI

Who was the Black Cultural Organization:was an African American inmate group that was founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969.
The primary purpose of the BCA was to provide educational tutoring to inmates, which it did in conjunction with graduate college students from the nearby San Francisco Bay Area. Outsiders were allowed to attend meetings of the BCA, and tutors provided remedial and advanced courses in mathematics, reading, writing, art, history, political science, and sociology. These courses made the BCA popular with inmates as well as outsiders; in time, radical political organizations such as Venceremos infiltrated the BCA, giving rise to BCA factions such as Unisight, which eventually gave birth to the Symbionese Liberation Army.

WIKI

Here is a very good 20 min documentary

She walked out with empty arms
Machine gun in her hand
She is good and she is bad
No one understands

She walked in in silence
Never spoke a word
She's got a rich daddy
She's her daddy's girl