I was in the Marine Corps when the riots happened. Had tickets to see Van Halen in San Diego. Battalion secured our liberty and we sat around the barracks watching news coverage. They told us to be ready to draw weapons and load up - no booze, nobody leaves the barracks, if you lived out in town you had to come in to be ready to roll. There was a small smattering of Marines that did go...MP's, my old unit 1st LAI went up and supported the Long Beach PD, etc...
Mom and two sisters chilled out at home with no incidents. Mom worked for the county and had an entire week off of work.
The riots happened at a time where the LAPD was waging a nasty war against gangs and the people in the neighborhoods who allowed the gangs to get as bad as they were - people who supported gangs. A lot of people in those shitty gang infested areas of LA were pissed at the cops.
Crack and gangs had probably hit their high mark a year or two before and things were slowly sliding away from that shit leaving huge swaths of LA devastated. Everybody knew somebody that was in jail or in a gang.
The cops had to use a "heavy hand" to combat gangs/crack and seemed to forget how to use the "soft hand" when dealing with everybody all over LA. A lot of people were pissed at the LAPD. It wasn't just "po' black folks in the hood".
The Chief- Gates- was an asshole. Seemed to hate everybody that wasn't in a cop uniform. He was constantly at odds with the mayor - Bradley - who was an asshole himself and allowed LA to spiral into the hell of crime, drugs, and gangs.
Gates and his crew of good old boys pushed a military culture in the LAPD. They forgot how to police a city while they were balls deep combatting gangs and the assorted filth that goes along with it.
NOBODY thought that the King beating was a good thing. NOBODY supported the cops that did it or were there. EVERYBIDY knew and understood that King was a piece of shit, but he still didn't deserve that kind of beating.
The riots were just about assholes acting like assholes. Mob mentality took over and it snowballed from there.
Beware of anybody that tells you that the 92 riots were an "uprising" or a "revolution". That's BULLSHIT. It was just an excuse to run wild because there were no cops. Mob mentality gave people an excuse to really act like complete scumbags. If it were an uprising, everything would have been directed at the LAPD and city properties. Instead they murdered firemen. They burned down neighborhood stores. They looted. THAT isn't an uprising. That's just people showing what scum they truly are. Cowards, punks and just pathetic thieves.
Ive always thought that the only real people that did the right thing were those at Parker Center. They took their anger at the acquittal directly to the cops. The entire city should have went to Parker Center or to the police stations and put them under siege...sent the cops running and burnt THOSE buildings.
But no...these fucking scumbags burned and looted private businesses.