As a screenwriter, I am a student of motive. Motive drives action, and action reveals character. ‘92 said much about L.A.’s character. It said little had changed since the 1965 Watts Riots. Nothing puts angry people on the street quicker than injustice. In 1964, the Civil Rights act came to pass. That was on paper. On the streets, the Los Angeles Police Department was proactively hard-charging through the lives of residents in South Central. Here where I grew up, there seemed to be an assumption on the police’s part that anyone living in the neighborhood was suspect, as if it were a sign of moral weakness to be poor. The LAPD was more aggressive, more violent back in the day. Random stops, shakedowns were common. I once watched a couple of officers search a car, find a gun, keep it, and send the driver on his way (law enforcement was relative in L.A.). Yet the cops didn’t seem to enjoy taking calls: response times of 45 minutes were normal. Once, when I called to report some gunshots, the desk sergeant suggested I move.
In 1991, a line was crossed, and we all knew it. Four cops were videotaped thumping Rodney King. It was a searing image. But nobody rioted. There was faith in the system. Then the four cops went to trial: a rookie, a sergeant, a couple of seasoned P-2s. The trial was a law enforcement love-fest. The cops got off, and the destruction began. I was at the video store when a live newschopper showed a whiteboy trucker, yanked from his cab at the intersection of Florence and Normandie, getting his skull bashed in. Some would argue an eye for an eye. Unfortunately, the beating of Reginald Denny was the opening bell of a 12-round fight. L.A.’s street gangs, who know intimately the workings of the L.A. County Superior Court, weren’t surprised by the verdict. They were ready. Stolen trucks were standing by. Gun stores, ATMs, electronics stores were hit. South Central was plucked clean. Gangs provided the discipline for organized looting. Fires erased the evidence. I talked to some patrol cops on the second night, bullet holes in their door. The look in their eyes revealed a resigned wariness and the exhaustion profound fear brings. They were driving a big black-and-white target.
The raids came quickly. Police Chief Daryl Gates put the cuffs on the guy who smashed Denny’s face. There were waves of arrests as investigators hit houses and carted off truckloads of looted goods. A few hundred guns here and there were recovered from the streets. Even the commuters were packing heat. But then the anticlimactic federal trial of the four cops ended with the expected convictions, and all was right again.
Yet the riots changed the LAPD. The old imperial attitude is gone. New hires are maturing and working their way into leadership positions. Female and minority officers have brought an understanding of the community that was sorely lacking in the past. Officers are more approachable these days. And much more cautious. They don’t aggressively initiate contact like they used to. Before, any suspicious behavior would lead to a stop, a pat down. Today, cops are just as likely to drive on by if they note something amiss. A citizen’s complaint these days can put the brakes on an officer’s promotion. Use of force is incredibly scrutinized. Gang activity and membership is back on the rise, but in dealing with the problem the LAPD has changed from proactive to reactive, triage instead of prevention. The Rampart crooked-cops scandal led to the virulently ruthless CRASH anti-gang unit being disbanded. The homeboys can hang out unopposed, running the streets as they see fit instead of running from The Man.
Could April, 1992 happen again? Of course. The iron curtain between Black and White America has crumbled, and racist attitudes of the past seem surprisingly archaic these days. But L.A. is still a segregated city, with many poor. For them, it is a world of limited options and great dangers. It’s hard to grow up in the hood and watch TV, the smiling white faces selling a life that feels alien and unattainable, the big green yards and the luxury sedans. In ‘92, the dream to attain the unattainable was realized for many through smash and grab tactics. Today the gang-bangers are strong as ever, as homies exit prison in large numbers and hit the streets, eager to enforce the criminal ethic that is unfortunately so revered by today’s youth culture. The LAPD is gradually reshaping itself, seeking new ways to cope with the gang problem as it also contends with the standard-issue mayhem of a large city. The gangs have inflicted more harm on the community than the cops ever did. Rodney King didn’t get shot. He came as close to getting shot as a human being can, but he lived to party on. Innocent kids get killed by gang gunfire all the time. Why is there such a high tolerance in the community for self-inflicted violence?
