officers - The Black Vault

• •
King Boulevard in South Los Ang_eles, which was looted and gutted in the riots.
10 other people frantically waved
down a Latino man who was driving
towards the intersection. They
steered him away from the scene,·
where a small group of black men
had also beaten other Latinos, apparently
not recognizing them as
minorities. Or not caring.
"See;' all of us ain't bad," the
woman said.
I finally left the place around 8
p.m. It was just getting dark and
thick smoke had filled the air and the
dusky sky.· The rioters had 'set fire to
the comer gas station, a liquor s~oreand
the television repair shop.·
"They got Florence burning,
-baby. It's burning," one woman
said. .
People started shooting guns, so I.
ran along with about a third of the
crowd. I helped a mother drag her 2-
year-old boy home, and soon drove
away through residential streets and
north on Western Avenue. I was
shaken, but intent on making it to
my original assignment - the rally
at First AME Church. .
I thought that it would be over
soon and that the police would come
and run everyone away from
Florence and Normandie. · · ·
Then I realized that the riots bad.
spread. People were ransacking
stores on Western, taking food and
liquor from a mini-market and .~s·
full of shoe boxes from a Payless
Shoe Store.
"' •.. ,._
Groups of black men stood oq tl\f
·sidewalks, ·peering inside the:
windows of cars streaming lil,(e ~a·
'train along $e street. · · •·'··
· One angry-looking man· stanlli.ng>
in the street began walking up to my
Volkswagen as I sat at a red li'ght
near Slauson Avenue. He had ·~a
baseball bat. I threw a black pawef
fist at him. He left me alone. ·:~.-·.