Burn Hollywood Burn

Do you remember where you were April 29, 1992 when the LA Riots broke out?

I was in Iowa City, Iowa - where believe it or not students at my alma mater West High School were staging walkouts in protest of the jury decision to acquit four Los Angeles police officers charged in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. I might not have loved living in Iowa City, but one thing I can say is that my generation of residents was very socially aware and if something was going on in the world - damn right we knew about it and wanted to do something.

What we did didn't come close to the wakeup call sent out by thousands of people living in the Los Angeles area, who rioted over a six day stretch. The widespread looting, arson, and murder resulted in over 1 billion dollars in property damages and 53 deaths.





I was living in New York city eight years later when on March 25th,2000 a jury in Albany acquitted four NYPD officers who fired the 41 shots that killed Amadou Diallo. There were no riots the second time around, but once again I was in a socially aware classroom, being taught by one of the most revolutionary women on campus -- Tricia Rose. Look her up if you've never heard of her.

It's a damn shame all that devastation happened in L.A. but without that devastation - how would we ever remember the anger and frustration felt by people who in a city without justice? After all, who truthfully remembers the stunted protests lead by Al Sharpton in the wake of the Diallo decision? Who will remember the injustice of Sean Bell? How will anyone understand how angry their deaths made us?

It's important to also recognize that the uprising stemmed not only from the beating of Rodney King (who has subsequently been arrested 11 times since on charges ranging from domestic abuse to a hit and run and other misdemeanors) but also from the lack of justice for Latasha Harlins, killed by a Korean store owner over a $1.79 carton of orange juice, as well as the extremely high rate of unemployment in L.A., and ongoing mistreatment of the black community at the hands of the LAPD. All of these aspects are documented in the Perfecto song "L.A. Riots"

Big shout out to DJ Strong for sending me this video.