23 years ago tonight I was laying flat on the floor of my apartment in Los Angeles

[GreatGazoo]

listening to automatic weapons fire. Watching news helicopters get shot down on TV and smelling the mix of wood, rubber, plastic and paint from 100 buildings burning.

When the verdicts were announced at 1PM or so, people were sad. Some in tears. By 3pm, people were mega pissed off. I think we expected that they would be found guilty of filing false police reports, if nothing else. But the verdicts were "Not Guilty" of filing false police reports (?) Not guilty of anything.

Besides having more cameras and more recordings of unnecessary force, what has changed in 23 years ?

[AuntPatsy]

1. N/T

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. I was there too

[abelenkpe]

3. Doesn't seem like much has changed at all

Sometimes I think it's worse. Pretty much expected that police won't be charged or found guilty.

[GreatGazoo]

4. I hear you. I think our expectations were low during the trial but many thought

with the video that 'finally people will believe that this stuff happens' and 'how can jury look at that video, read those 4 police reports and NOT see contradiction?'

When the King video surfaced there was hope. The verdicts killed that hope and it has taken decades to get it back.

[bhikkhu]

5. I was there on a rooftop between Sunset and Hollywood Blvd, with some musician friends

looking out at the plumes of smoke rising up all around. Word was the police had stood down and were just letting all the mess go on, that someone would smash a window, then bystanders (of all sorts) would start looting, then one of the gangs was going into looted stores and setting them on fire.

We watched the mess for awhile and my friends played guitar and sang, and we had a few beers. Then we noticed a homeless looking guy pushing an absurdly large TV down our street and soon after a bunch of people walking by with bunches of electronic gear - the Circuit City a block away was getting looted. We decided to go down and see. There was a crowd on the street just watching, "something different", and we milled in and watched people run in and out of the store. At one point a police cruiser pulled up to the front of the Circuit City and parked, everyone backed off, then it pulled back and left again and people resumed the looting. Someone forced the door of the chain drug store across the corner and I remember an ordinary looking white couple pulling up in their SUV, the girl went in and came out with an armload of diapers and things and they left. All rather surreal, and little anger to it. I didn't take anything myself, though I stood on the corner thinking how nice a digital camera or something would be (more or less penniless at the time, like most people I knew).

I remember walking down Hollywood Blvd a little later and seeing the Korean merchants armed, some in front of their businesses, some on the roofs on top - nobody messed with them at all. A nice girl we all liked who lived in our building had filmed things and gave the film to the police, and later she got some threats and moved away from the city.

Generally speaking, the police in LA did nothing. From the impression I get in Baltimore the police their got what they planned for, which was a similar uprising. Kind of like you set the stage, light the fuse then stand back and let it happen.

[GreatGazoo]

6. Darryl Gates went to a fund rasier in Santa Monica on the first night of the LA Riots

Yes, the police stood down. I predicted that some of the verdicts would be "guilty" -- filing a false police report seemed an obvious compromise and I predicted that when their fellow officers were found guilty, the police would essentially go on strike for a night. I was wrong -- no "guilty" verdicts were returned and then went on strike anyway.

The 2nd day was the most surreal for me. Ryder and U-Haul were still renting moving trucks to people, the big ones, 16-footers and people were going into the Sears in Mid-Wilshire taking refrigerators and pother appliances. I went to work that morning because the media didn't say anything was still happening. They were still in a twist about how 'the Brown Derby almost got burned down' etc. At the office in Santa Monica they told us that since the city was on fire we all needed to go home. What they didn't tell us was that someone had attached a pipe bomb to the gas station across the street.

My friend had been beaten by police 2 years prior. They handcuffed him and let their dog chew on his arms and face. His offense? He was too drunk to drive home from an office party where he won a trip to Hawaii, so he tried sleeping it off under some bushes by the Federal Bldg -- woke up with clubs hitting him. They had shot a kid outside a Dead concert for not complying with orders -- he was high on acid and eyewitnesses said that 3 different cops were telling him to do 3 different things at once - "stand still" "get on the ground" "put your hands up" BLAM BLAM.

I remember Lou Reed did "Walk on the Wild Side" on Arsenio Hall's show that first night while LA burned.

ETA: It was the second night, April 30, that Lou Reed played:

I was playing with Lou Reed when everything went weird. During sound check we could feel something happening around town. And we saw the news as well. Really frightening. And so sad. We were on the “Arsenio Hall” TV show the next day. Lou and Arsenio decided we should play anyway. We did “Wild Side” and “What’s Good” (with Lou changing some lyrics to mark the moment). The rest of the program had local political and religious leaders getting right down to the nitty-gritty. Then we jumped in the bus and headed north. I love LA. That hurt bad.

http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2012/04/listeners-remember-i-was-playing-with-lou-reed-when-everything-went-weird

[Iliyah]

7. Yeah, I remember

I was a kid and thought Los Angeles was going to burn forever. Still can't get the attack on the trucker on tv out of my mind and seeing good people coming to his rescue.

[Arugula Latte]

8. ...

April 26th, 1992
There was a riot on streets
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin' home watchin' your TV
While I was participating in some anarchy
First spot we hit it was my liquor store
I finally got all that alcohol I can't afford
With red lights flashin', time to retire
And then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire
Next stop we hit, it was the music shop,
It only took one brick to make the window drop
Finally we got our own P.A.
Where do you think I got this guitar that you're hearing today?

When we returned to the pad to unload everything
It dawned on me that I need new home furnishings
So once again we filled the van until it was full
Since that day my livin' room's been much more comfortable
'Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here
It's getting harder, and harder, and harder each and every year

Some kids went in a store with their mother
I saw her when she came out she was gettin' some Pampers
They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the Mexican
And not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King
In this fucked-up situation and these fucked-up police
It's about comin' up and stayin' on top
And screamin' 1-8-7 on a mother fuckin' cop
It's not in the paper, it's on the wall
National guard
Smoke from all around

(Units, units be advised of an attempted 211 to arrest now at 938 Temple, 9-3-8 Temple,
thirty subjects with bats trying to get inside the CP's house...he thinks out there trying to kill him)

'Cause as long as I'm alive, I'ma live illegal

Let it burn
Wanna let it burn, wanna let it burn
Wanna wanna let it burn
(I feel insanity)
Riots on the streets of Miami
Whoa, riots on the streets of Chicago
On the streets of Long Beach
In San Francisco
Riots on the streets of Kansas City
Tuskaloosa, Alabama
Cleveland, Ohio
Fountain Valley, Paramount, Victorville
Eugene, Oregon
Eureka, California
Hesperia
Santa Barbara
Winnemucca, Nevada
Phoenix, Arizona
San Diego
Lakeland, Florida
fuckin' 29 Palms