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Lessons Unlearned From the '92 LA Riots
Townhall.com ^ | April 26, 2017 | Star Parker

Posted on 04/26/2017 4:48:50 AM PDT by Kaslin

This weekend marks 100 days of the Trump administration. This milestone also coincides with a very important anniversary. Twenty-five years ago, April 29, 1992, riots exploded in Los Angeles after four policemen were acquitted after being charged with the violent beating of Rodney King, caught on video for the entire nation to see.

According to The Los Angeles Times, 63 lives were lost in the riots, with the estimated total economic cost pegged at $1 billion, with $735 million in property damage and 1,550 buildings destroyed or damaged.

But this is more than a fact of national history for me. It is personal history. I was there.

After years on welfare, I had turned my life around after my Christian conversion. I left behind the nihilism and emptiness of the welfare state culture and became an entrepreneur and publisher.

My monthly magazine was sustained by advertising. But my operation and my customers were in South Central Los Angeles, where the riots occurred. I lost everything.

It was then, in one of life's moments of starting over, that I felt I must broaden my platform and engage and speak more publically about what I had come to realize personally. That life must be defined by faith and personal responsibility.

I saw this as the only hope for black America.

What has happened in black attitudes since that explosion of despair and violence in 1992? Despite trillions of dollars in spending targeted to help these communities and a black man being elected twice as president of the United States, prevailing attitudes among blacks in America seem to continue to change for the worse.

Remember those words of Barack Obama when he debuted on the national stage, giving the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2004?

"There is not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there's the United States of America."

It sounds so nice but, unfortunately, polls indicate that, even today, this does reflect what most blacks think. Blacks have decidedly different views than whites regarding identification with the founding principles of this country and their place in it.

In 2009 when Obama was elected, 72 percent of blacks, per Gallup, said, "racism against blacks is widespread in the U.S." In 2016, this was up to 82 percent.

Sixty-five percent of blacks, compared with 32 percent of whites, say that "government should do more," and 29 percent of blacks, compared with 62 percent of whites, say that "government is doing too much."

And, again according to Gallup, "Fifty-eight percent of whites have confidence in the police, compared with 29 percent of blacks."

In a new poll by Pew Research, 32 percent of blacks compared with 53 percent of whites, think that the Supreme Court should base its rulings according to "what the U.S. Constitution meant when it was originally written."

It could not have been clearer to me back in 1992 that the flailing violence that destroyed Los Angeles would lead nowhere for blacks. It is equally clear to me today that the attitude among blacks that their futures lie with the responsibility and money of others will continue to lead nowhere.

Despite a complicated and hard history, blacks need to trash the cynicism they harbor against this great nation, founded on the principles of freedom -- a cynicism for which they are paying the greatest price. Only by embracing the principles of freedom and self-government can black Americans truly define a new path and participate in the American dream.

We all should look to the words of Abraham Lincoln in his second inaugural, "With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds..."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: racism; riots
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To: RedWulf

“The media had run a campaign against the police and against the Korean community for 6 months before the they started.”

When it was over, Koreans demonstrated at city hall. City workers (black) threw garbage out the windows on them. Mayor Bradley (black) apologized, but would not meet with the Koreans.

Korean businesses which were hired to help with the rebuilding were pelted by blacks and sometimes run off a job site.

Maxine Waters in so many words (in her inimitable fashion) called for Koreans to be killed.

About Rodney King? No, it was a race-riot against the new immigrants from Asia.


21 posted on 04/26/2017 6:05:08 AM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
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To: CondorFlight
...it was a race-riot against the new immigrants from Asia.

The riots shattered my illusions of our country. It was pure horror. I love America. I despise those who treat it like their toilet. It took California a very short time to be destroyed by Liberalism.

This is the first time that I heard there was a conspiracy against Koreans and Asians in general especially in the era of the riots. Bradley was a POS and Waters is pure scum.The media whores in a perfect world should have had their helicopters shot down. They wanted LA to burn and the more violence (to non-Blacks) the better.

Why is it that Asians, including those on the East Coast still vote primarily liberal?

22 posted on 04/26/2017 6:43:24 AM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Kaslin

Thank you Ms. Parker.


23 posted on 04/26/2017 6:48:08 AM PDT by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: stormhill; coloradan

At the time I had no racial animosity against specific friends. Career moves required geographic moves and without noticing I just had less and less to do with blacks. I never specifically tried to avoid them the world just changed around me. Honestly it was only recently I paused and realized that while 30 years ago I knew several blacks pretty well and very closely over the years that number has gone to zero without my particularly trying. Things happened concurrently. I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t true for many of us of either race. Maybe it is just my age group.

I never made any conscious effort to avoid blacks it is just after seeing what happened to Reginald Denny I saw a risk that I had not previously. I can’t say exactly why but the fact remains. 30 years ago my wife and I attended the birthday party of my closest friend in North Philly without even giving race a thought and of the 30 folks there we were the only whites. It didn’t occur to me because at that time I didn’t want to “see” race. I thought it curious that some of his older family members didn’t want us white people there. At the time I felt that what we were doing was required to put an end to racism. I guess after Reginal Denny I just didn’t care enough about ending racism to put in any effort.

I began to realize that conservatism did not equal racism and that true conservatism was the antithesis of racism but the world changed around me, it seems to me. As I didn’t make the effort, neither did blacks and we have gradually become more segregated than we were 30 years ago.


24 posted on 04/26/2017 6:48:50 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: momincombatboots
I remember​ it well. I was in college and many of my classmates were gun grabbers. The TV was showing a huge guy who looked looked like a biker on a roof with a shotgun. He would fire warning shots over the crowd if it came too close. I gibed another student, "What are your thoughts about the second amendment now?"
25 posted on 04/26/2017 6:51:46 AM PDT by neefer (We're walking real proud and we're talking real loud again.)
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To: Kaslin
"The Talk: Non-Black Version" by John Derbyshire
26 posted on 04/26/2017 7:13:10 AM PDT by Gritty (Islam is king on a field of corpses - Mark Steyn)
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To: PapaBear3625

I believe the rioters left the SK shop owners after they proved they would defend their stores.


27 posted on 04/26/2017 8:11:35 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: RedWulf
I was visiting ATL when the verdict was announced. Local radio advised to avoid downtown ATL due to rioting. I-285 was packed as I was leaving. I was young and dumb at the time. Only had golf clubs for defense.

Talked with a GSP friend afterwards. They indicate the same observation you saw. It was planned. Person said people had been brought in for the riot.

28 posted on 04/26/2017 8:19:56 AM PDT by ealgeone
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To: shanover

> Why is it that Asians, including those on the East Coast still vote primarily liberal?

Because Asians vote for winners while conservatives just keep on losing. This is why people need to actually fight the left rather than talk about principles an the alike. Make allies and take it them and be just as unfair to them as they are to you. Once you start winning people get on board.


29 posted on 04/26/2017 8:53:21 AM PDT by RedWulf
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To: Gritty

that Derbyshire piece perfectly crystalizes my thoughts on the entire subject...


30 posted on 04/26/2017 9:53:14 AM PDT by IrishBrigade
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To: bert

The Koreans protected their businesses in the LA riots too.

.


31 posted on 04/26/2017 10:16:13 AM PDT by Mears
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To: KC_Lion

Ping.


32 posted on 04/26/2017 11:48:37 AM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: freedumb2003

“”The Koreans banded together with rifles and protected their shops from rooftops.””

There wasn’t any shortage of coverage of the Koreans protecting their properties during the L. A. riots. Lived in OC at the time and coverage was non stop. The recent History Channel report on the 25th anniversary was quite good and accurate.

I don’t know about Katrina as someone mentioned. All I recall from that coverage were the people stranded on their rooftops...


33 posted on 04/26/2017 1:29:39 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: RedWulf

“”The Media and other powers planed riots in advance.””

That is one fanciful pipe dream. The hostility between the Asian communities and the blacks had raged for years. The actual video of the Korean shopkeeper (who went on trial) and the black girl with the bottle of orange juice was shown on the History Channel’s 25th Anniversary report a few nights ago and didn’t bear any relation to what you described. The girl put the OJ down and was walking away after she hit the shopkeeper; she didn’t bang the woman’s head on the counter several times.


34 posted on 04/26/2017 1:35:27 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: Thank You Rush

>That is one fanciful pipe dream. The hostility between the Asian communities and the blacks had raged for years. The actual video of the Korean shopkeeper (who went on trial) and the black girl with the bottle of orange juice was shown on the History Channel’s 25th Anniversary report a few nights ago and didn’t bear any relation to what you described. The girl put the OJ down and was walking away after she hit the shopkeeper; she didn’t bang the woman’s head on the counter several times.

You didn’t see the entire tape. The punch was the last act after having slammed her head multiple times. It was a lengthy assault where the girl returned more than once before she was shot walking away. The media always lies.


35 posted on 04/26/2017 1:48:25 PM PDT by RedWulf
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To: momincombatboots

‘fairytale’

out of the hundreds of businesses on the 4 commerical streets in question ( Broadway, 4th, 7th, and Anaheim ) only one had shooters on the roof defending their property. So you are correct in some way.

I was there and saw it first hand.

My office was on 410 St. Louis.


36 posted on 04/26/2017 8:01:22 PM PDT by vooch (America First)
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To: vooch

And...

...bang, Bang, BANG!! will usually stop or at least slow them down.


37 posted on 04/27/2017 2:04:55 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: PapaBear3625
. The rioters were smart enough to realize that, while police were inhibited from firing upon them, armed homeowners would have shot without hesitation if they felt their homes and families were in danger.

Ca ching!


38 posted on 04/27/2017 2:06:32 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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