Transcript
Joel Anderson (0:01)
A quick warning. This episode has some explicit language. Hector Tobar watched the chaos of April 29, 1992, from the Los Angeles Times third floor newsroom. That night, a large crowd of people gathered outside the building and started pelting it with rocks.
Hector Tobar (0:19)
And then a little bit later on, I said, hey, am I the only one who smells fire? You know, there's smoke, there's smoke, something's burning. And unbeknownst to me, down on the first floor, a few members of this particular mob had managed to break through the windows, the offices down there, and had set a couple of small fires on the first floor.
Joel Anderson (0:41)
Tobar kept on working that first day. He collected notes from reporters in the field and wrote a story about the LAPD's response to the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. He left the newsroom around 11pm eventually.
Hector Tobar (0:56)
The mob went on and dispersed and we went home and everybody thought it was over. Was like, wow, that was a horrible night that the city went through. It's all over. And we all went to bed thinking that the next morning the city would start sweeping up the glass and taking stock of what had happened. The politicians would make their speeches and everything would go back to normal.
Joel Anderson (1:23)
The next morning's newspaper laid out the toll that April 29 had taken on Los Angeles. At least four deaths, 106 people injured, and more than 150 fires burning across the city. At first, April 30 felt like the calm after the storm.
Hector Tobar (1:41)
So I went into the newsroom at about 9 o' clock in the morning and the newsroom was relatively empty. Sort of like it was sort of like a place waking up from a hangover.
Joel Anderson (1:51)
Tobar and the Times started looking ahead to the city's recovery.
Hector Tobar (1:55)
We're going to try to do a front page story on the aftermath of the riots and their economic impact. So your standard sort of feature story, a feature on this tragic event that happened the night before, what it means for the city of Los Angeles. And so we went into already reflection mode.
Joel Anderson (2:14)
Tobar got into his company car and drove towards South Central la, where the worst of the unrest had taken place the day before. It was Sunny and about 70 degrees. It would have been another pleasant LA day except for all of the smoke hanging in the air. He stopped at a bank, in a grocery store, both businesses that had been hit by looters. He then drove along Slauson Avenue and started knocking on doors. One black couple spoke with him in their front yard and the woman told.