Lakers sweep Portland on their quest towards a 3rd consecutive world championship.........
Posted on 04/28/2002 6:00:19 PM PDT by blam
LA tinderbox fears violent new spark
(Filed: 29/04/2002)
TEN years after the murderous Rodney King riots, Oliver Poole reports on the lost opportunities in deprived South Central.
Sitting with her cooling latte in the new Starbucks in South Central, 37-year-old Maxine Keys recalls the days when looters ruled the streets and smoke from burning buildings obscured the sky.
"Sitting here now all seems so normal: the sofas, people reading newspapers, drinking coffee," she said.
"But I was driving past here when I saw people picking through stores as if it was Christmas, neighbours I knew running down the street with their arms full, kids throwing stones at cars. You just pray it never happens again."
Ten years ago today the worst civic disturbance in America since the Vietnam war protests consumed South Central after the acquittal of four white policemen filmed beating Rodney King, a black driver stopped for speeding, who is at present in jail for indecent exposure.
By the time the National Guard restored order four days later, entire blocks were reduced to ashes, 55 people were dead, more than 2,300 injured and 10,000 arrested.
To mark the anniversary, vigils and concerts are being held and conferences organised to analyse what happened. President Bush is due to tour the area today and commend those who have worked to ease tension. But few in South Central see much to celebrate.
Their message is one of opportunity lost, of the need to look beyond Starbucks and the fresh paint on many shop fronts.
"The problems are still here and so are the dangers," said the Rev Norman Johnson, the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Tensions were already high in South Central before the King verdict. The recession sweeping America had punished Los Angeles, with a third of the city's residents living below the poverty line.
Friction between blacks and Koreans, who owned many shops in South Central, was electric. A decade later the Korean community has taken steps towards greater integration and the police have implemented a new complaints procedure.
In 1992, two thirds of officers were white; today black and Hispanic officers make up 47 per cent of the force and whites 45 per cent. The predominantly black neighbourhood that greeted the arrival of the Koreans with such suspicion is more diverse.
But there are still few of the familiar sights of American cities: multiplex cinemas, fast food restaurants or major supermarkets. Starbucks opened only after the intervention of Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the basketball star.
There are boarded-up buildings, many churches with signs promising salvation - and liquor stores. Only one ATM is open after 9pm and that is in the police station.
Average income is $26,873, (£18,533) compared with the national average of $39,235 - a bigger gap than a decade ago. Unemployment is 25 per cent, three times the state average. Community leaders blame the politicians for losing interest when the television cameras left.
Controversy and low morale plague the police department. Its black chief, Bernard Parks, has been refused permission to stand for re-election, infuriating the black community.
The initiatives he implemented to stop harassment led to officers claiming that they could no longer do their job. Hundreds resigned. The force is now 1,100 understaffed and violent crime has jumped by 20 per cent in a year. Gangs are at war again on the streets.
Mr Parks is using his final months in office to issue warnings that a new spark could plunge the district back into violence. "You have a poor education system, a poor health system, a history of violence and lots of drugs," he said. "These things have not changed."
After eight years of Clinton, who would'a guessed. He told us he was going to solve all these problems.
Lakers sweep Portland on their quest towards a 3rd consecutive world championship.........
Does that include the value of welfare benefits, food stamp benefits, earned income tax credit, non-reporting of income from drug-sales and other illegal-sources? I doubt it...
Go Lakers!
Unfortunately, the government, after seeing that the mobs couldn't totally dominate, decided to help them out by banning the nasty-looking rifles that held them back in '92. Things may be dicier if there's a repeat.
Then again, they didn't deploy a whole NYPD cavalry unit along the sidelines back in the late '70's...
And why have they not? Could it be because the blacks in South Central have waited for liberal Democrat politicians to solve their problems for them?
And all the while, liberal Democrats (a la Maxine Waters) were the last ones who wanted any problems solved. It would've eroded their power base if they couldn't play the race card.
Liberal politicians are a disgusting lot.
No. Income statistics exclude welfare benefits as a matter of policy.
I heard a similar whine on NPR's Marketplace "business" show. I wonder what business insurance costs in the 'hood.
Do the unemployed end up in South Central or are South Central occupants unemployable?
We'll never see the likes of Wade Boggs atop an NYPD pony ever again.
You were oh so right when you called them the good ol' days
Here's an idea--MOVE!...and, quit yer bitchin'!
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