Chaos and Fear in Postcards 4

I lived in Hollywood during the 1965 Watts Riots. I lived down here in San Diego 1992when a brick smashed in Rodney King’s head in LA. And this time, I was here for these riots in my home town.

Statistics and reality. There are only 12.6% of African American people living here in America. Just North of us, Canada states only 2.2% of their population is black. In Mexico, the population numbers of blacks is just 1.2%.

20% of those arrested yesterday were not local. From Wikipedia I quote, Martin Luther King Jr. who pronounced the 1968 Kerner Report a “physician’s warning of approaching death, with a prescription for life.” There were a lot of people quoting the Reverent MLK yesterday, but there didn’t seem to be many in the crowds listening.

It wasn’t as frightening here yesterday as it was in 1965. We had turned on the evening news, and heard about the riots. Mother insisted that we stay and eat. We did, then packed up the kids in our Chevy station wagon and headed back up. As we neared LA it grew dark. There were few other cars on the freeways. The ramps were closed off by National Guard troops who pointed their rifles our way. I’ve never been so frightened.

I went to bed before ten last night. The peaceful marches and protests dissolved shortly after ten last night. Two small bank branches burned to the ground in La Mesa. Police cars burned. Downtown, looting began. Spray painting of the buildings was well under weigh. I couldn’t believe that this was happening again.
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• Himself: ”It’s not going to change anything if they present themselves as violent.”


• Myself: Horrified.


• Reading: Another mystery.


• Photo: None