L.A. Riots.....20 years later

[primetime]

On April 29, 1992, the verdicts of four LAPD officers charged of beating Rodney King came back as "Not Guilty". This verdict set off several days of riots throughout the Los Angeles area which included burning of business and several days of looting. The National Guard was called in and finally the riots ended.

I can't believe it has been 20 years. I will never forget when I first heard the verdicts. I knew LA was going to have some issues at that moment. That whole Rodney King trial was so emotionally charge. To see the officers get not guilty verdicts set people off. I do not agree with their methods though. Why burn your own local businesses? Then to everyone's horror, Reginald Denny, a white truck driver who was at the wrong place at the wrong time was savagely beaten by a bunch of hooligans. What I am happy about were the decent people who came to his rescue. They didn't see his race, they saw a person in trouble and risk their own safety to help him.

What amazed me were the morons who were looting. To top it off, they were giving interviews to local media. Really? I guess they forgot that the cops would look at the footage later. But what really stunned me was when a white female news reporter on the first night of the riot, actually stood next to some street thugs who were setting things on fire. She actually attempted to interview them!!! The crazier part was, THEY DID THE INTERVIEW!!! That was surreal to see these hulking emotional thugs actually do an interview with the white woman reporter. No harm came to her either.... Just wow....

Race relations in LA have gotten better. But no one will ever forget that period in time. I'm just still amazed that 20 years have gone by. Goodness time flies...

 

[General Zod]

At the time of the riots,I was based at Norton AFB in San Bernardino,CA. Maybe 60 miles due east of LA. We were told to stay out of LA when the riots were going on.

 

[kis123]

We had to deal with the same nonsense with the Hough riots in '68. That area will never be the same because of it either.

I have no idea what motivates folks to tear up their own town, loot their own local business, and beat up innocent people because they look like a certain race of people. It's shameless and pathetic; hopefully we don't go back down that road again.

Personally the MSM shouldn't have even brought this up IMO, especially with the Trayvon Martin/Zimmerman case on the horizon. I hope everyone remains calm regardless of verdict and that true justice prevails.

 

[DontAskJusTckle]

I remember a discussion we had at the time in the break room of my work place. We were sitting around discussing the looting and arson when Randy (who at 350+ lbs, made Fat Albert look fit) was expressing his considerable anger at the cops not getting convicted, and his support of the arson.

"It's BULLSHIT!! Makes me so mad, I feel like burning something, myself!"

Chuck immediately responded with, "Why don't you burn some calories, you fat mother-fucker!"

The entire room erupted in laughter. It was absolutely priceless.

 

[pfromptown]

We had the so-called "Summer Riots" in cities all across the UK last year, and that was scary as hell. The fact that it wasn't limited to one city, and that it spread across the entire country was absolutely crazy, an unforgettable experience.

On the day it reached my home town of Manchester I had literally been in my current job, in a restaurant in a shopping centre, for about two or three days. Everyone was nervous as hell that night, wondering whether or not the thugs would come, and I remember the trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes playing on the big screen in the food court, and I don't know if people remember or not but the end of it had a little montage with like a siren noise playing over the top of it, and every time we heard that we thought they'd broken in and someone had sounded the alarm! I remember every time I heard that sound I'd grab hold of a ladle full of hot beans, ready to sling it at someone! We later found out that they had tried to get in but were repelled by security.

At the end of the shift my manager asked if anyone could give him a lift home into Salford, which was one of the areas that got it worst, because the buses had been cancelled. I asked my girlfriend if she could and she said yes, so we went into what was effectively a war zone. It was horrible, burned out cars and so much smashed glass everywhere, and kids patrolling the streets drinking booze that they'd nicked, trying to break into cars and shops. After a while we had to ask him to get out of the car because we literally couldn't drive any further, it was just too hectic (He lived relatively nearby so he didn't mind, we didn't just dump him in the middle of it like a lamb to the slaughter) so we dropped him off and floored it out of there, ignoring red lights as pretty much everyone was doing, and seeing dozens of police cars flying in the opposite direction. On the way home we stopped on a bridge on the outskirts of Salford to have a look from a distance and it was mental, it looked like footage you see on the news of wars in the middle east. As we left a helicopter zoomed over our heads. I don't think I'll ever forget that day for the rest of my life.

 

[ticklehound]

I saw an interview of Arsenio Hall on Bill Maher's show on HBO - and they talked about this riots. They brought some great insights, some of it new, some I just forgot about during that crazy time.

Arsenio said he was watching a documentary about the Rodney King beating with his son, who asked him why the cops didn't get in trouble for it . . . and he said that 20 years later, he didn't have an answer for him. Just crazy