Comments on: Destruction in 1992 L.A. Upheaval: How law enforcement let the largest urban riot/rebellion rage on

By: JoeKirkup

JoeKirkup — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:30:00 +0000

What pathetic and unmitigated crap.
Joe Kirkup
http://www.joekirkup.com

By: Michelangelo_L

Michelangelo_L — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:32:00 +0000

The LAPD is made of some honorable men and women. Just like any profession is made of some honorable men and women.

On the average though.. Police etiquette could certainly be improved.

I do agree that we have an issue about resources being spread thin. Which is why I point out an observation that it seems like certain districts of the city have faster response times than others. I think that the valley would benefit greatly from becoming an independent city and assuming control of its own police department.

Law enforcement is, I believe, paradoxically two large and too small in the city. Response times for violent crimes are embarrassing, yet we have far too many officers devoted to victimless crimes such as drug possession, or traffic violations.

By: BurgerLess

BurgerLess — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:03:00 +0000

LAPD has slow response time everywhere. Not just Koreatown. It is all about resources that are spread too thin. The LAPD is made up of honorable men and women serving the community. But I don’t want to see a cop on every street corner. Absent riots and natural disasters, I think we have just enough law enforcement to get the job done.

By: Michelangelo_L

Michelangelo_L — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:12:00 +0000

I actually have to side with Oh on this one, at least at the core. When resources are low or a decision must otherwise be made, certain segments of the city get shafted in favor of certain other ones.

I grew up in Koreatown and saw first hand how slow police were to respond to an emergency there. You were more likely to see a police officer leaving you a parking ticket than you were of seeing them at a crime scene. I gave up the idea of ever getting decent service in Koraetown when, after reporting a shooting, police didn’t show up till the next day. I want to think I simply had the misfortune of seeing isolated cases, but I doubt it. I’m not too big a fan of the LAPD (or LAUSD while we’re at it), and I wish that the San Fernando Valley secession movement had succeeded. A more locally run police department would definitively improve in efficiency.

I am disappointed that gun rights weren’t brought up in this article. In the absence of being adequately protected by LAPD, and other authorities, many people ended up having to protect themselves and their property with their own guns during the riots. I can’t find it right now, but there is this one photo of a korean standing on top of his business during the riots holding off muggers with a rifle. The authorities could have definitively done more to have avoided that mess. For starters, they could have rolled back on the gun control laws.

By: BurgerLess

BurgerLess — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:34:00 +0000

What should the police have done? They were overwhelmed by the situation. If there were a sufficient police presence for such an event, we would be living in a police state.

What would you have had the National Guard do? Shoot a few people for looting? All they were capable of doing, they did.

All the rioters managed to do was; wreck their own communities and drive away capital investment.

By: ambrit

ambrit — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:14:00 +0000

Dear Mz Oh;
As one living in Mississippi, I am no stranger to the ‘demonization’ rationale. Despite the comment from the Troll above, your mentioning of the pattern of deployment of the enforcement troops does more than suggest a paternalistic mind set at work among the ‘elites’ who managed the response to the civil unrest of ’92. We here in the Deep South are very familiar with this sort of thinking. From the Post-Reconstruction period on down to today the power elites here have acted with the assurance of aristocrats. The ’92 civil unrest shows your coast has the same dynamic at work.
May I suggest that race is a straw man arguement? The better term for it would be class. Pitting two ‘peoples of colour’ against each other is a tactic as old as civilization itself. A perfect example is the Byzantine chariot cliques in Constantinople during the Eastern Empire days. So what if the Greens and the Blues riot against each other? At least the two of them aren’t thinking it through and joining forces to riot against the wealthy and powerful. So, the deployment of troops to guard the upper class areas like Beverly Hills makes perfect sense.

By: David the small-L libertarian

David the small-L libertarian — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:57:00 +0000

It seems ironic that the immediate solution to civil unrest sparked by excused police brutality, was to invade these communities with thousands of armed personnel with the mission not to protect the people from violence, but to punish and police more victims and send them to prisons.

Huh? Do you just make this stuff up?

In our collective memory, we must not forget that these events were part of an outbreak of a disease caused by private and governmental divestment, social stigmatization and marginalization and the ease at which our society wants to incarcerate and criminalize citizens.

Silly me! I just thought this was caused by criminals and others with broken moral compasses. Thanks again, Ms. Oh, for another, shall I say, “enlightening” piece.