TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross
AP: f1e03618-e13c-4673-bb47-c96fa3c35ae5

Twenty years since the riots in Los Angeles

April 30, 2012 @ 8:10 am (Updated: 8:35 am - 4/30/12 )

spaceneedle
This April 29, 1992 file photo shows several buildings in a Boys Market shopping center fully engulfed in flames before firefighters can arrive as rioting erupted in South-Central Los Angeles. Before order was restored, 55 people were dead, 2,300 injured and more than 1,500 buildings were damaged or destroyed. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

It's been twenty years since the riots in Los Angeles set off by the Rodney King verdict. But it wasn't just about that:

"They do have quite a few blacks around here that refuse to let go of the Latasha Harlins situation."

People were also angry about Latasha Harlins, a black teenager, who had gone into a liquor store, and put a bottle of orange juice into her backpack. The shopkeeper -- a Korean-American woman, thought she was shoplifting, there was a fight; the woman pulls out a pistol; shoots the girl dead. She died with the two dollars for the orange juice in her hand.

The shopkeeper gave basically a stand-your-ground defense and got probation. And that's why rioters targeted so many Korean businesses.

And as I walked those neighborhoods 20 years ago I found debates between Korean-Americans and African-Americans -- over who was more misunderstood, and who works harder.

"We don't depend on welfare, we make it on our own," said one Korean woman. "People come here and say, 'Well you get it from loans and stuff.' You're not Korean, you don't know what's going on."

And who uses stereotypes:

"I think black people as a whole have worked very hard. We built this country and I get so sick and tired of the Japanese and the people saying that we are lazy."

That's from 20 years ago, and as I listened to it again, it sounded like the Trayvon Martin e-mails I've been getting.

We still choose up sides based on race. At least this time the debate isn't taking place in the middle of a burned-out neighborhood.

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Comments (32)


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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    The outrage should be....
    April 30, 2012 7:39 am
    that a woman (no racial identity required) killed a teenager (no racial identity required) for putting a pint of orange juice into her backpack before paying for it. ("She died with the money to pay for the orange juice in her hand"). Of course some of the law-and-order types will insist that killing a shoplifter is fully justified. That's a different issue.

    Racism and stereotyping is a human weakness not restricted to one race or another. Gotta love the quote from the guy complaining about stereotyping and then remarking that "the Japanese" do it all the time. We still have a long way to go to get to the point where we don't draw a series of conclusions about a total stranger based only upon physical characteristics, language, etc. Until then, the neighborhood watches will continue to conclude that those unlike themselves "look like they're up to no good; just walking around."

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  • delvin wrote...
    chuck-you asked me on a post last week to address where you almost always post on race issues. It is your dominant theme and
    April 30, 2012 10:07 am
    I posted about my extensive experience with WHITE losers who dont use birth control, dont take responsibility for the kid (men), have 3 different kids from three different dads(women), use booze, drugs and smoke but dont have money for good, health food, dont pay their bills, dont read to their kids and finally raise kids that follow in their loser footsteps and become a drain on society. We pat these people on the head, enable them to create THE CYCLE OF POVERTY.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Fer gawdsakes, Delvin *read* the post!
    April 30, 2012 10:28 am
    First clue: Notice that I stated the tragedy here was that a woman killed a teenager over a question regarding whether the kid intended to pay for some juice she put in her backpack and that *no* racial identity was required?

    There are definitely racist elements connected with the Rodney King story, the trial, and the riots. It's the national compulsion to view these incidents through the prism of stereotype and race that is at the root of the problem. The Rodney King tragedy could have been reported as "A young man (no racial identifier required) was stopped for a traffic violation and severely beaten by a gang of policemen (no racial identifier required)."

    And as far as your extensive experience with "WHITE losers who don't use birth control..." why do you feel the need to characterize the losers as white? People of all races that behave as you describe create a "drain on society". What does being white, black, purple, or green have to do with being a loser?

    Here's where it gets tricky, and a lot of people fail to follow. Groups of people who behave in a certain manner have that *behavior* in common, nothing else. If some of the people on welfare on white, it doesn't mean that all white people are on welfare or that by virtue of being white you are more likely to wind up on welfare. Ethnicity is different than behavior. However, if you believe that your ethnicity predetermines your behavior, ("they all do this, they all do that"), and that ethnicity overrides the power of individuals to make responsible choices that is the classic definition of racism. I assume that you don't believe that whites are compelled by their ethnicity to avoid the use of birth control and have three kids by three different fathers, etc- but if you did think that it would be a racist idea.

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  • delvin wrote...
    chuck-I was refering not to this one specific post, but to the numerous posts in which you discuss race such as-
    April 30, 2012 10:55 am
    T Martin. I use white loser because I want to illistrate that the disaster of welfare touches all races and enables terrible decisions and takes the DAD out of the picture. Also, if I used any other race than white I would be writen off as a racist. You claim to be centrist but your post reflect more of a knee jerk left point of view. Similar to what one hears or reads on a college campus. I will look for exceptions from you in the future. PS-What country do you think the US show strive to emulate and is it an apples to oranges comparision due to size, military obligations and homogenus population?
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  • delvin wrote...
    this is how people without hope and are traped by the gov into dependency react.
    April 30, 2012 7:41 am
    Welfare created the mindset to burn your own neighborhood and businees down, to plunder. People who beleive in themselves and the future don't do this. Why didnt middle and upper class black neighborhoods riot and start fires after the verdict?
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    this is still, not yet, the dream
    April 30, 2012 8:38 am
    20 years now since these riots. Not a good thing to commemorate. With little changed since - the presidency aside. ... But 30 years ago, a lot of us talked about EMPOWERMENT - to economically develop communities by and for those communities, by and for their own residents. .. And 50 years ago Dr. King had his dream. ... Have we all given up ? ............. No. .. The American dream can still be there if we make sure it is there for everyone. Without the restraints of hatred. The dream of success is for everybody.
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  • irony wrote...
    sadly they still blame whites for what blacks do
    April 30, 2012 11:18 am
    9 out of ten racist crimes are blacks on whites.
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  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Let's not forget...
    April 30, 2012 2:55 pm
    Rodney King was and might still be a piece of you know what which put him into that position in the first place. The "money for nothing" entitlement culture held him down and beat him up long before the police caught up with him.
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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Yes, there are indeed similarities between racist statements such as....
    April 30, 2012 3:44 pm
    "The purple people in this country are to blame for most of our problems. If we didn't have the purple people, there would be a lot less crime, less poverty,fewer demands on public resources, more opportunity for people actually willing to work....." etc, etc, etc, etc,

    and hateful political speech such as, "The libtards (or conservaslimes)are to blame for all of the problems in this country. If we didn't have any libtards (or conservaslimes)we would have a stronger economy, more respect for law and order, etc."

    You can pull out the racial epithets and insert political epithets (either left or right) into a lot of that speech and other than the persons targeted the hateful sentiments are just about the same.

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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    All the hate crimes, shown live...
    April 30, 2012 4:11 pm
    ...but then it wasn't about race.....riiiiiiiight.
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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    I wonder if a high % of the left wont even take a look at the unsustainability of the cradle to grave nanny state or the imorality of getting largese now and having future generations pay for it
    April 30, 2012 4:38 pm
    No...they won't. The excuse is artificial "racism" driven by white liberal guilt. That guilt will never be assuaged. NEVER. The left will NEVER take enough and give it to those they perceived as deserving.
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  • William Lawn wrote...
    the real cradle to grave nanny state are the public employee unions
    April 30, 2012 7:19 pm
    Which you are a member of.
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