re: 25 Years Later: What Do You Remember About The LA Riots?

I was stationed at Ft. Knox, KY at the time. I'd just arrived at my new duty station (194th Armor Brigade) about a month before and I was still getting to know the other instructors. I remember sitting in the day room watching the truck driver guy being dragged out of his 18 wheeler and being beaten to the point we were pretty sure was dead. It was awkward as hell because there were both black and white guys in there watching together.

How did those Koreans manage to stockpile such a huge arsenal of weapons?

Buddhists will wear white bandanas for a period of time after the death of a loved one. So it may be that those with white bandanas had a family member murdered. Then again it was the early 90's, so they might have just been watching Ninja Turtles.

Koreans were blamed for making money off of black people via small markets. I was so pulling for the Koreans after those stupid accusations.

As for as the riots, the Rodney King situation wasn't the one thing that caused the riots, it just made things boil over.

This was a time in which crack was an epidemic. In the Nicaraguan Revolution, the US was backing the rebels and a lot of funding for that came from drug money. Areas like South Central LA were considered areas that were less risky to sell drugs, due to the lack of police presence.

When crack hit the streets, it completely changed the game. The number of addicts were growing daily. The bloods and crips had been established in the 1960s I think, but when crack came, that intensified the turf war. They became drug gangs. The crime got out of control and then the police finally decided to take action. They militarized the police department and while they were trying to clean up the streets, some of the tactics they were using were injuring and killing innocent people.

These areas went from not being a priority to the police (delays in 911 calls, etc) to suddenly treating the areas like a war zone (which is was to some degree), but they were treating the innocent no different than the criminals so the innocent and criminals sort of united against the police. Then all of a sudden, the Rodney King thing happened and people in SC LA thought others could see what was actually going on. Police beating the shite out of people, etc so when the police were not convicted, it was sort of like "frick it". "gangsta rap" was created because people were making music about what was going on. There was finally a glimpse of reality caught on video that should be enough to get some type of justice and they got off without even a slap on the wrist. As for as the people in that area was concerned, what other options did they have?

I remember sitting in my apartment at LSU with a group of folks drinking beer and laughing our asses off as we watched the democrats burn down their own community.

I remember writing a paper on gangsta rap for a philosophy class in the Spring 92 semester.

I listened to and researched A LOT of gangsta rap. Mostly Ice Cube, ICE T, and people like that. According to rap music, black people were pissed and tired of the drugs, gangs, and police brutality. What struck me the most is that the police were totally unprepared. Anyone who listened to hard core rap at that time knew that South Central LA was a powder keg just waiting for a spark to blow it to hell.

My cracker arse in Louisiana knew it from 2000 miles away, so why didn't the cops know it?

I lived there when it happened. Got home from work and roommate said "Look at this shite". It was an opportunity to get free shite more that than anything else. Funny thing was the timing, it was time for those gubment checks and the mailman said hell to the no! People had to line up for more miles around the post offices to get their checks. They burned all their own shite down then complained to the city about public transportation just to go and get groceries. 90% of the looters got caught when police reviewed all the news footage.

I remember them trying to start things up in North LV. I saw a few fires and remember seeing them bust out the windows at a Kenny's Shoes to loot it.