20 years after riots, LA residents say race relations feel better, economy still hurts

The Washington Post / The Associated Press ^ | April 25, 2012

[2ndDivisionVet]

LOS ANGELES — Henry Keith Watson remembers April 29, 1992, as if it happened just last week. History won’t allow him to forget it.

It was a day that marked the beginning of one of the deadliest, most destructive race riots in the nation’s history, and one in which Watson’s spur-of-the-moment decision to take part made him one of the enduring faces of the violence....

[2ndDivisionVet]

So George Zimmerman bad, Henry Keith Watson good?

[Chode]

said the POS that should STILL be in jail!!!

[SunkenCiv]

The LA riots are the answer to the question “why can’t we all just get along” — posed, ironically, by Rodney King during the riots. The late George Wallace (the comic) made fun of Rodney King’s airheaded ramble.

My favorite irony and example of stupidity came from the idiot who complained — after taking part in the incineration of the mostly Asian-owned businesses — that there wasn’t anywhere to shop, no laundrymats, no liquor stores, nothing.

The next major news item which was a direct result of those riots was the acquittal of OJ.

Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.

[Dallas59]

1992 Riots

1992 Everything is Free

1992 Riots looting

[kearnyirish2]

Race relations are better because now there is only one race there...

[Mike Darancette]

that there wasn’t anywhere to shop, no laundrymats, no liquor stores, nothing.

Do they even speak English in that part of town now?

[RitchieAprile]

oh i thought you meant watts riots circa 1965.

[Zhang Fei]

---

“I got caught up in the emotions like everyone else,” Watson says 20 years after a riot that would leave 55 people dead, more than 2,300 injured and himself forever recognized as one of the attackers of white truck driver Reginald Denny, who himself became the enduring image of the innocents victimized during the chaos.

***Snip***

As the liquor store at the intersection of Florence and Normandie was being looted and white passersby were fleeing a barrage of rocks and bottles, Denny stopped his big rig to avoid running over someone.

He was quickly dragged from the cab and nearly beaten to death by Watson and a handful of others. As the attack unfolded on live TV, Watson stepped on Denny’s head after Damian Williams smashed the trucker’s skull in with a brick.

***Snip***

Asked if he feels badly about what he did to Denny, he says simply that what happened to the trucker that day was “unfortunate.”

“But I can’t take it back. There’s nothing I can do.”

Watson did apologize personally to Denny some years ago, the only one of his attackers to do so. Another time he offered to send a limo to pick him up and take him to Florence and Normandie, then somewhere afterward where the two could have a drink and talk.

He says Denny, who lives quietly in Arizona these days, declined. The trucker has shunned interviews for years, and repeated attempts to contact him by mail, phone and in person for this story were unsuccessful.

“He chooses to remain in private,” Watson said. “And we respect his privacy. So be it.”

---

Watson is obviously a great humanitarian for moving past his near fatal beating of Denny, whereas Denny is obviously a racist for not forgiving Watson and his “caught-up-in-the-moment” accomplices. What more needs to be said by WaPo?

[SunkenCiv]

What’s good for the goose...

[SunkenCiv]

Why should that have changed? ;’)

[dragnet2]

Much like Los Angeles as a whole, the neighborhood’s Latino population has grown while the black population has declined.

Most of the blacks headed east bound, to the CA inland empire, Texas, Georgia, Illinois etc.

One of the reasons why crime in LA has been dropping dramatically since 1992.

[dragnet2]

Much like Los Angeles as a whole, the neighborhood’s Latino population has grown while the black population has declined.

Most of the blacks headed east bound, to the CA inland empire, Texas, Georgia, Illinois etc.

One of the reasons why crime in LA has been dropping dramatically since 1992.

They took the midnight train to Georgia so to speak.

[Zhang Fei]

One of the reasons why crime in LA has been dropping dramatically since 1992.

I would say it's the main reason. It's also why crime in Texas has not fallen anywhere near as much as in the rest of the country, despite a combo of stiffer penalties and increased policing. In 2010, California's per capita violent crime rate was 40% of its 1992 level, whereas Texas's was 55%.

[dragnet2]

I would say it's the main reason.

I didn't say that.

I said:

"One of the reasons why crime in LA has been dropping dramatically since 1992".

It's also why crime in Texas has not fallen anywhere near as much as in the rest of the country

Agree.

[MissouriConservative]

“We wanted jobs around here, we wanted respect and we didn’t get none of that. And then the police just harassed us all the time,” says Sharon McSwain, who for 22 of her 45 years has lived within walking distance of the intersection where Denny was attacked.”

Does this idiot not realize that respect is earned. Sitting around demanding it won’t get it for you. You have to do things that garner respect.

[dragnet2]

BTW, some folk get me wrong about Texas. Texas is a great state, as CA once was until turning into a very controlling, punitive state. This is what happens when government becomes too big, too controlling, too intrusive.

[James C. Bennett]

"Like many others, Miss Hwang's family is armed now with a Glock 17 pistol, a Beretta and a shotgun and they plan to barricade themselves in their store to fight off looters." "The Korea Young Adult Team of Los Angeles, bought five AK-47 rifles." "We made a mistake last year," said Yong Kim, the group's leader. "This time we won't. I don't know why Koreans are always a special target for African Americans, but if they are going to attack our community then we are going to pay them back."

[Zhang Fei]

You wrote:

---

Agree.

---

The 1990 census shows CA with a 7.4% black population, compared to 5.6% in 2010. In that time frame, TX has gone from 11.9% to 11.8% even as its Anglo population has crashed, relative to the number of Hispanics.

1990 TX stats:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tab58.pdf
2010 TX stats:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48000.html

1990 CA stats:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/tab19.pdf
2010 CA stats:
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06000.html

[1010RD]

There’s an author who discusses this very thing. I cannot remember his name right now, but he wrote a very excellent treatise on why it’s bad to have “diversity”. It gives rise to genocide and that points of conflict are political borders that poorly define ethnicities.

[Zhang Fei]

Census link to historical demographic data by state:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html