When it was all over a total of 64 people died, over 2300 injured, and close to $ 1billion in property loses. In addition, racial tensions throughout the greater L.A. area had exploded. The U.S. National Guard was called in to restore the peace and stayed throughout the month of May.
Do you remember what you were doing when the L.A. Riots happened? For me I remember clearly. I was working as a camera operator on the Wednesday evening news program, as I did every Wednesday for the Compton Cable TV Office on Long Beach Blvd. I was one of three camera operators who worked on the set of our weekly news show. The same Cable TV News show that Tavis Smiley use to report out of. We never got a chance to broadcast the show that evening because as we were interrupted by a “breaking news alert” from one of the studios TV monitors, that violence had broke out at the corner of Florence & Normandie in L.A.
Much has been said and written about over the past 30 years, about the civil unrest. For me one of the most memorable things said came from Rodney King himself, when he was being interviewed and asked a simple but critical question, “Can We All Just Get Along.” And unfortunately, today, that question still must be asked?