Quote:
Originally posted by techweenie
The L.A. riots were predicted (to some extent) and the police were in place to crush it. For reasons never particularly well-explained, LAPD was asked to pull back and take no action while the riot grew, got publicized on TV and then broke out of the ghetto.
What never gets any press is what happened on the west side of L.A. where I was eating lunch. When the TV coverage got scary, all those nice well-to-do folks in their Bimmers and Jags started cutting in and out of traffic, running lights, and generally demonstrating no respect for law and order -- running, even though they were 25 miles from the riot activity.
Put humans in a similar stressful situation and they pretty much act the same. Harvard degree or not.
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1) The L.A. riots were never predicted. The northern flashpoint of the riots happened outside Parker Center, the headquarters for the LAPD. Cops pulled back, Chief Gates was at a dinner party. One cop I knew then said "To hell with it! What can we do?" and went drinking and pool playing. He was fired the next day. So who of any merit predicted the riots? If a riot is predicted, one reaction is to call in the LAPD riot task force, then the Nat'l Guard. In 1992, there was no such LAPD task force that I remember, and the Nat'l Guard wasn't activated until two days after the riots began.
2) Although Westsiders panicked, shoot-to-kill orders were issued in a number of areas, including Beverly Hills and Burbank. Not that this alleviated much, but it was interesting that Beverly Hills police recorded the first known "kills" after the riots began.
3) The press reported dozens of stories involving the frightened affluent, who aren't just on the Westside, either, but in the San Fernando Valley and other places as well.