The L.A. Watts Riot of 1992

On 29APR92, a Sylmar, California jury consisting of 11 whites and 1 Pilipino rendered their verdicts in a controversial case involving the 03MAR91 beating of Rodney King by four LAPD officers: One officer was found guilty and the remaining three were acquitted. King had led CHP on a 115 mph chase for 8 miles and stopped when one of his two passengers insisted. The two passengers were apprehended without incident, but King violently resisted arrest which demanded greater vigilance by the police. [US] Thirteen seconds showing King lunging toward police officers was edited from the widely televised tape: His BAC was .19 and PCP was present; his criminal history and drug use was not televised. King said that he feared being returned to prison for parole violations. [USC] [Emergency] [Answers]

During King’s jury selection, many potential black jurors admitted that the NAACP had admonished them to convict King as a ‘racial duty.’ It is ironic that the leading black civil rights organization caused every potential black juror to be disqualified. [Ron] About 45 minutes after the verdicts were announced, police were called to suppress an unruly crowd that began assaulting pedestrians; pelting vehicles with bricks and smashing windows at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. [US] Before nightfall, 9 large stores were on fire and numerous ‘torched’ cars blocked Inglewood’s intersections. [Emergency] By 20:45, LA mayor Tom Bradley called for a state of emergency and admonished governor Pete Wilson to activate 2,000 members of the National Guard. [Answers]

By 02MAY, a 23,725-man, riot-control task force was organized under JTF-LA. [Ron] [Word] [US] “Crimes against people, such as rape and drive-by shootings atomized while collective violence and proletarian shopping ran rampant. There were far fewer rapes … than under the normal rule of law.” [Ron] Some business owners spray-painted “black-owned” to discourage looters. [Black] The riot enabled opportunists to exact violence upon random targets, and gangs to settle scores with impunity. [Word]

THE MILITARY’S ROLE

“Operations other than war [OOTW] present numerous challenges to leaders instilled with a doctrine principally designed for fighting Soviet-style armies during large-scale conventional wars.” [US] Aside from the irrefutable fact that the news media instigated a civil war, the subsequent fundamental failure is that an “emergency management system did not exist. A great deal of damage and loss of control occurred because of a lack of planning; LAPD also had an inflated sense of competency that caused them to become strategically blind.” [MacNeil]

Most of LAPD’s senior leaders were 40 miles north of LA attending a training seminar when the verdicts were announced. Chief Gates was attending a political fund-raiser and was not on speaking terms with Mayor Bradley; LAPD’s top senior officers were at odds with each other for stupidly irreconcilable reasons. [Black]

It was a foregone conclusion that the augmentation of military resources to law enforcement to quell a civil disturbance would be limited to an earthquake condition. For that reason, the National Guard loaned its Kevlar and riot gear to the LAPD and LAFD who were the presumed riot control experts. LA law enforcement agencies were so fiercely independent that interagency cooperation was mutually shunned. Although the 49^th MP Brigade was trained for riot control, the National Guard had no influence over the civilian authorities who mobilized ground forces instead; LAPD did not know what to do with those forces when they arrived. [US]

The lack of a contingency plan posed operational difficulties for command and control, and permitted critical errors that would have been avoided if procedures had been developed and rehearsed. While the guardsmen performed in an exemplary manner, certain officers did not take the recall seriously and their lack of urgency was not reported to their superiors in time. Hundreds of CHiPs who should have been first responders sat in a staging area unused while LAPD and LASD fought for the least amount of liability regarding how the guardsmen would be apportioned on arrival. [US]

ADVANTAGE OF DE-FEDERALIZATION

Prior to the impending federalization, the National Guard could deploy troops tailored to mission requirements and base decisions upon common sense and training. Without Posse Comitatus, the National Guard remains under State control. This enables field commanders and senior NCOs to let ground troops decide the appropriate arming order so that soldiers can return fire and sustain fewer casualties. “…initiative requires a willingness and ability to act independently within the framework of the commander’s intent.” [FM 100-5] Orders tell us what to do – not how to do it. “The actions of a small unit in combat have been known to influence the outcome of a battle but rarely… for losing an entire campaign.” [US]

AFTER FEDERALIZATION

The restrictions imposed by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 [USC 18-1385] reduced law enforcement support request approvals from 100% to less than 20%. The Presidential Executive Order of 01MAY empowered JTF-LA to “restore law and order.” The intention was to supersede legal impairments, but the exact opposite transpired: Federalization required that military missions be extracted from law enforcement; preventing the National Guard from helping LAPD as before. [US] JTF insisted on micromanaging every operational nuance without soliciting input from subordinate units; many of whom had worked their entire careers in LA and were exhaustively qualified to provide tactical and geopolitical guidance. JTF became exclusively concentric; forcing senior leadership to struggle with tedious procedural legalism, and denying unit commanders permission to engage matter-of-course support missions: [US]

Previously approved missions had to be re-approved on a daily basis and took longer than getting permission for a new mission. In several instances approved missions were not performed because it was not realized that those mission were approved. If an infantry squad wanted to move across the street, it was considered a new mission and a new approval process was required: It took 6 to 8 hours to obtain permission from JTF-LA because a battalion commander and a senior police officer had to confer, concur and approve. Units required to wait for explicit instructions were vulnerable to any adversary smart enough to exploit the opportunity. [US] Even though 1,000 guardsmen were in the streets with 1,000 more enroute, the media reported that ‘law enforcement was nowhere to be found.’ That reckless remark gave 100,000 people a license to murder, burn, rape, pillage and plunder an area stretching from Pasadena to Long Beach because ‘the law’ was too scared to respond. [US]

THE DRAWDOWN

After the 4^th day, the crime rate dropped by half; the local gangs called a truce and LAPD got comfortable with military support. Everyone felt safer so nobody was eager to see the military leave. JTF admonished LE to stand down mission support personnel even though support requests continued to arrive. JTF cancelled all mission support requests without warning. This tacitly left senior law enforcement officials out of the decision making process and made the transition back to civilian-only control needlessly abrasive. [US] If command post authorities had been in the line of fire – a greater awareness of LE priorities might have reflected in the drawdown procedure. [Narada]

DAMAGE ASSESSMENT

Four police officers and 3 firefighters were shot (one in the face) while fighting 5,500 fires – of those, 40 out-of-control fires burned down 800 buildings. At least 192 people were hospitalized, 4,000 injured, 11,000 arrested [5000 black, 5500 Latino, 600 white] and 54 killed while all ethnicities looted stores of everything they could carry. Schools closed, stores boarded up and banks relocated. Concomitant riots occurred throughout the country: 1,500 people rioted in downtown San Francisco; 1000 in Atlanta, 200 in Las Vegas and 100 in Seattle. Two black New York protestors attacked two white men, stabbing one and beating the other. Police were shot in Tampa and police cruisers were vandalized in San Jose. Phoenix, Chicago and Madison reported rioting. [Word] [Answers]

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

It is known that black leadership indoctrinates followers to believe that blacks are victims of everything “Eurocentric” when truthfully $7 Trillion dollars is transferred from white middle class checking accounts to welfare programs that benefit only poor ‘underclass’ blacks and minorities. [Ron] Politicians and an eager media promoted the bleeding heart socio-economic plight of poor minorities to justify the barbarism that took place: When enough loot is not made available through legally-sanctioned charity, you can resort to terrorism, blame the white man, and white man will foot the bill. “While the establishment promised to spread more white taxpayers’ money around the inner city, the killing sprees and looting spread to Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Fairfax and Westwood.” [Ron] The elite started driving downscale vehicles to become less conspicuous.

One report claimed that, “order was restored when it was time for welfare recipients to pick up their checks...” Bush added another $1.2B and recommended that the infamous cops stand trial for the same crime twice. [Ron] Other excuses include high unemployment, a national recession, racial profiling, the use of excessive force and a moderate sentence given to a Korean shop owner for shooting an African-American woman. [Word] The fact that business owners can not protect their property is mute.

WHAT WE LEARNED

A terminological discrepancy occurred when Marines and LAPD jointly responded to a domestic dispute. As they approached the door, two shots were heard from inside the house. When the LAPD officer yelled, “cover me!” the Marines instinctively pumped over two hundred rounds into the house. The LAPD officer meant, ‘draw your weapon and be prepared to respond.’ Most military units did not have special lock plates designed to prevent the M-16 from firing in fully-automatic mode. [US]

Law enforcement should have been briefed on which missions the military could perform without approval to reduce legal constraints and maximize mission effectiveness. Blanket approval for identical mission types would have enabled soldiers to leave one mall to protect another mall, or to cross a street without pedantic formality. “Special permission was required to man traffic control points, provide building security, escort emergency equipment, secure and patrol areas, secure detainees and emergency work crews, guard sensitive sites, crowd dispersal, employ riot control agents,” escort VIPs, joint patrols and additional missions as necessary. [US]

AFTERMATH

One year later, LA prepared for civil unrest just in case the original 4 officers were acquitted again – two officers were acquitted and the other two were found guilty: LAPD was fully mobilized with officers on 12-hour shifts, convoy patrols, scout helicopters, street barricades, tactical command centers and support from the National Guard with Marines standing by. No violence broke out. If LA had been that prepared on 29APR92, more lives could have been saved. [Answers] By failing to show the first 13 seconds of the infamous video where King rushed the officers, the media single-handedly instigated the largest civil uprising in the 20^th century with damages in excess of $1B in today’s dollars. [Ron]

Not long after the riots, King was caught soliciting the services of a transvestite prostitute; he then tried to run over the cops who discovered him. He was not arrested and neither was the episode reported outside of police channels. He was not jailed for violating his parole on an armed robbery conviction, or for drunk and reckless driving or for violently resisting arrest. Police were too paranoid to intervene because ‘looking at a black man cross-eyed could cost them their careers.’ [Ron] [Answers]

If the media had been fined $1B for editing 13-seconds of the infamous tape, it would have become the shortest, most expensive film in all history: Is it any wonder that the film’s dubious star has been arrested eleven times since ‘92, or that the film’s publicity agency hasn’t been indicted for anything at all? Maybe it’s just the ‘divine right of King.’ [sic]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Answers (n.d.) Los Angeles Riots 1992

Retrieved March 13, 2008, from:

http://www.answers.com/topic/los-angeles-riots-of-1992?cat=entertainment

Black Informant, Duane, C. (October 5, 2006) Breaking Down the LA Riots

Retrieved March 13, 2008, from:

http://blackinformant.com/2006/10/05/breaking-down-the-la-riots-of-1992/

Emergency News, Staten, C. (April 4, 1992) Three Days of Hell in Los Angeles

Retrieved March 13, 2008, from:

http://www.emergency.com/la-riots.htm

Ron Paul Report, Ed. (August 4, 1993) Los Angeles Racial Terrorism

Retrieved March 13, 2008, from: