Has it really been 25 years?

[DawnM]

I taped L.A. Burning, a 25 year memory of the LA Riots.  

Gosh, it seems like a while ago but not 25 years. I was in my 2nd year of teaching then. The day after the beating, LA Unified Schools decided that any school south of Adams Blvd. would be closed, while those schools north of Adams would go ahead and open.

Our school was about a mile north of Adams.  

I remember it so vividly. It was eerily quiet at school, not many showed up, but by 9:30 AM our school was surrounded by buildings on fire. We were told to wait for LAPD to escort us off the campus. One woman (teacher) was hysterical and couldn't be calmed down. She kept yelling, "We are never getting out of here!"

We caravanned off campus surrounded by LAPD cars and burning buildings. School was out for a week. Several of us teachers went down the 3rd day to check on the school and help clean up.  

To be honest, this show is hard to watch. It brings back so many memories, the above is just a small part.

 

 

[maize]

I was overseas at the time and have only a vague recollection of hearing news of the riots. I really don't know that piece of history, in spite of having lived in L.A. more recently.

[happi duck]

I watched Lost Tapes: LA Riots on Smithsonian channel.

 

It was upsetting to watch.

 

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Edited April 21, 2017 by happi duck

[Lanny]

I know that you are home and sick.  I wonder if you can find a movie about the Watts Riots?  They burned down everything, including supermarkets, and then had no place to shop and there wasn't much enthusiasm from the owners of the supermarkets to rebuild, in the same place.  Probably they would have been unable to get Insurance coverage, had they rebuilt in the same location. 

[solascriptura]

As a Korean American child at the time, it was so confusing and scary. I can only imagine how much worse it felt for the Koreans in LA at the time.

[Anne in CA]

I remember as an Oregonian thinking... Isn't it like this all the time in LA? That's how Eastern Oregonians viewed LA, sadly. Most of my relatives in Eastern Oregon still view LA that way.

[MooCow]

I remember that.

[Rebecca in KY]

We lived in the San Bernardino mountains at the time. I remember my parents being really nervous about going down the mountain with us kids. My dad was a general contractor and got some of the clean-up work. It was a pretty scary time.

[JenneinCA]

My Dad was a police photographer. He usually took pictures of crime scenes. He spent several nights in a gym in downtown wearing a bullet proof vest and having an armed escort everywhere taking pictures of everything. I was terrified that my dad would not come home.

 

We lived in Van Nuys so the actual violence was far enough away that I wasn't personally worried. But scary times for sure,

[DawnM]

I know that you are home and sick.  I wonder if you can find a movie about the Watts Riots?  They burned down everything, including supermarkets, and then had no place to shop and there wasn't much enthusiasm from the owners of the supermarkets to rebuild, in the same place.  Probably they would have been unable to get Insurance coverage, had they rebuilt in the same location. 

 

 

I wasn't home or sick.  ?????

 

I have seen lots of footage of the Watts riots.   

 

This post was more about what I actually lived through and how I felt than about what riots were worse and what other footage I need to watch.  

[TravelingChris]

I was in coastal GA at the time attending the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center but my dh and son were in the LA area.  It was my son's 3rd birthday and my dh had taken him out to a chinese restaurant when the riot broke out.  He was in a suburb between LA and San Bernadino.  After dinner, I know he had the radio on because there was rioting in my city too and a man was murdered but not the area near where we lived, that was safe and no rioting.   I also remember that fellow officers were caught up in the rioting returning home from LAX.  One officer was hurt by rioters. 

 

The riots weren't just occuring in LA.  Some small town in the middle of Georgia had rioting too.  Other areas did too as I watched on tv.

[Spryte]

25 years. Wow. It doesn't feel like that long. :(

[scholastica]

Were there riots after the beating, as well as the trial? I thought the riots were just after the trial/acquittals, but maybe my memory isn't correct.