LA Riots: 10 Years later

[AKA2D '91]

Reflecting back, do you remember where you were when you heard about the riots?

[Steeltrap]

I was in Knoxville, working for a newspaper out there. I was transfixed by the images but completely unsurprised by what happened. After Rodney King's attackers were acquitted in that first trial, I expected something to happen.

I watched the riot coverage as I got ready to work that day. BTW, I used to live in View Park, one of four well-off AfAm enclaves in South Central Los Angeles (houses are now going up there in the $500K range, but many homeowners bought their places in the 1960s when property was much cheaper) that weren't touched by the rioting.

The Today Show and Katie Couric did a 10-years-after segment this morning. Interesting points included the disappearance of jobs and the population shift from AfAm to majority Latino.

[amycat412]

I was on campus at USC, visiting friends at my sorority house, having graduated the semester previously.

[AKA2D '91]

I forgot, not everyone is in my age bracket. Therefore, I will enlighten those who are clueless or have not seen the news or read the newspaper.

This is the 10th anniversary of the Rodney King beating in LA. The motorist who was in a Hyundai station wagon who led the LAPD on a high speed chase. After he was stopped, members of the police beat the man severely. The thing is, someone video the whole ordeal. Even though there was a tape, the police got off scott free. After the verdict, the citizens of LA (not all of them) began rioting, looting, burning, etc. civil unrest, basically.

For those in California, especially LA, have (race) relations improved?

I remember, I was in college. When I heard about the civil unrest, I was actually driving down to our "village". Where I was going...who knows... lmao

[amycat412]

I'll elaborate on my post--

I left the campus immediately (a dumb move, I should have stayed put, luckily nothing happened) and went to a friends apartment in west L.A. We sat on the roof deck and basically watched the fires being set 5 miles east of us. It was very eerie, as we'd both spent 4 years at USC and were familiar with the area and had friends who were still down there and holed up in their dorms and sorority and fraternity houses with the National Guard surrounding the campus.

Very eerie.

[AKA_Monet]

I was in San Dog, watching the protesting on the LA streets. I remember rollin' thru Florence and Normandie a few years ago and seeing the Boy's Markets. They're all gone now... At least Inglewood wasn't torn up. Neither was Ladera Heights or Baldwin Hills...

My brother attended UCLA at the time.

That morning before the verdict, I flew to Vegas. My aunt's house was in the Vegas "projects" on H street.

When the Firestorm in LA started, my Aunt and I couldn't get to the house 'cuz bangers were throwin' huge rocks at ALL motorists. We only got thru, cuz we were bold enough to bump F*CK THA POLICE by N.W.A. in the car.

My parents couldn't get thru to my brother up at UCLA. I also remember them saying that "I don't blame 'them' if 'they' burn all of LA down, those Police outta be ashamed of themselves"

Meanwhile, that Saturday, when the looters started, my Aunt in Vegas, did this old lady's hair at this Senior Citizen's department. The old woman started talking about the riots and how her son an LAPD officer was out there where he may havta kill all of "THOSE LOOTERS"... My Aunt got mad and left. The lady's name was Mrs. Fuhrman--YES, NONE OTHER THAN...

Recently, folx that live in LA say it's much better than it was. But they also say that LAPD has a lot further to go. There is still much corruption in the department. Unfortunately what has helped LAPD is the California 3 strikes law. Most bangers are either dead or in for life imprisonment due to 3 strikes...

About the best of Law Enforcement is at LAX now. The terrorists have been trying to blow up LAX for awhile, and they haven't gotten thru, yet... I dunno, it may force the parking lot on I-405 to open up ...

Oh well...

[straightBOS]

Showing my youth...

I was 11 years old when the riots erupted. And I truly did not remember knowing that 55 people died. 55, in 3 days?

What I can remember is not being able to reconcile the anger with the looting and killing. Truly, it seemed to me like some far away place (granted LA is far enough from BOS), but it seemed almost surreal, like it wasn't happening for real. Well, that's what my mind was able to process.

MSN had a nice little piece on it that kind of brought back some of the memories as I was truly having a hard time remembering everything....

http://www.msnbc.com/news/744125.asp?pne=msn&cp1=1