REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL
PROFILES THE WATTS BEARS YOUTH FOOTBALL TEAM;
WHEN THE SHOW RETURNS NOV. 25 ON HBO
HBO Real Sports: The Watts Bears
Carl Quintanilla speaks with community members and police officers in Watts (LA) about the unlikely success of the Watts Bears. Real Sports debuts Tues., Nov. 25 at 9pm ET/PT on HBO.
REAL SPORTS WITH BRYANT GUMBEL continues its 20th season with more enterprising features and reporting when the show’s 212th edition debuts at a special time on TUESDAY, NOV. 25 (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.
Segments include:
*The Watts Bears. REAL SPORTS visits Watts, Los Angeles, long a source of anti-police resentment. In 1965, the neighborhood was the site of race riots that left 34 people dead and more than 1,000 injured, resulting in nearly 4,000 arrests. In the decades since, gang activity and a tumultuous relationship between residents and police have been a constant.
Today, a football team is bridging the gap between communities and cops. It started in 2011, when the LAPD and LA Housing Authority launched the Community Safety Partnership (CSP). Among other initiatives, that meant starting a football program to take kids out of the gang culture of the street and unite them on the field. While the team has struggled for wins, their impact is felt throughout the community. Despite affiliations that might otherwise deem them enemies, parents and other residents support the team together, while the number of homicides has dropped from 79 in the decade before CSP, to just four in three years. REAL SPORTS correspondent Carl Quintanilla speaks with community members and police officers about the Watts Bears.
Producer: Maggie Burbank.
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