The L.A. Riots | 7. Into Ashes

Summary

Podcast Summary: Slow Burn – The L.A. Riots | 7. Into Ashes (Dec 22, 2021)

Overview of Main Theme

This episode of Slow Burn, hosted by Joel Anderson, delves into the explosive second and third days of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots following the acquittal of LAPD officers in the Rodney King beating case. Focusing on personal accounts, the episode explores how various communities—Black, Latino, Korean—experienced the violence, absence of law enforcement, and the aftermath. It confronts ideas of frustration, injustice, community, powerlessness, and searching for meaning amid chaos and devastation.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Riot’s Escalation and the Collapse of Order

• Initial Shock: Reporter Hector Tobar describes witnessing fires set at the Los Angeles Times building on the first night and a widespread sense among the newsroom that the ordeal would end quickly ([00:41]; [01:51]).

  "We all went to bed thinking... the city would start sweeping up the glass and... everything would go back to normal." – Hector Tobar ([00:56])

• Second Day Realization: As destruction continued, Tobar realized the unrest wasn't over and witnessed renewed chaos in South Central—smoke plumes, sirens, and looting ([02:14]–[03:28]).

  "It's starting again. It's starting." – Hector Tobar, alerting his newsroom ([02:43])

• Societal Breakdown: Jim Newton, another LA Times journalist, describes experiencing a total societal breakdown after seeing a man shot for his camera while filming looting ([03:28]–[04:24]).

  "I felt like society as we know it has just collapsed." – Jim Newton ([03:28])

2. Absence of Law Enforcement & Self-Reliance

• Police Abandonment: The police were largely absent, as evidenced by unchecked violence, looting, and attacks on firefighters ([04:58], [05:32]).

  "It was like this feeling of like, God damn it, it really finally fucking happened... the whole city's fucking exploding." – Hector Tobar ([05:32])

---

3. Koreatown Under Siege & Community Response

• Vulnerability and Panic: Korean American reporter Jin Ho Lee recounts how Radio Korea became a lifeline as frightened shop owners called for advice and help while police did not respond ([07:03]–[09:19]).

  "Police station never responds. 911 doesn't respond. So they were calling into our station. We at least answered phone calls." – Jin Ho Lee ([09:19])

• Escalation and Arming for Protection: Ki Won Ha, a supermarket owner, criticizes the message to "go home" and instead rallies his community to arm themselves and defend Koreatown, leading to a deadly shootout ([11:00]–[13:29]).

  "Do not go home... protect the [business]." – Ki Won Ha ([11:24]) "We set up the double barricade... Then we started shooting." – Ki Won Ha ([12:20]–[13:01]) "We called the police, we called the fire department, we called everybody, but nobody want to help us." – Ki Won Ha ([13:54])

• Aftermath and Disillusionment: Many Korean Americans felt utterly abandoned by authorities, their dreams reduced to ashes. Elaine Kim and Jin Ho Lee reflect on their dashed hopes for solidarity and the American dream ([15:04]–[16:02]).

  "I never thought that somebody would burn down Koreatown... such a disappointment to me... I had sort of... this old fashioned idea about people of color solidarity." – Elaine Kim ([15:12]) "American dream is now into ashes." – Jin Ho Lee ([15:37])

---

4. Rodney King's Role and Public Statement

• King’s Internal Struggle: Rodney King remains initially silent, then, feeling compelled to address the violence happening in his name, struggles to craft his own message ([17:58]–[21:39]).

  "I am not ashamed to admit that for the first few hours... I felt a certain vindication." – Rodney King (Autobiography, paraphrased by Joel Anderson, [17:58])

• Iconic Plea for Peace: In front of assembled media, King famously pleads:

  "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?" – Rodney King ([22:47])

• Mixed Reactions and Ridicule: King's words are celebrated as genuine by some and criticized by others as feeble or even mockable, adding to his distress ([23:21]–[24:43], [25:01]).

  "Can we all just get along? ... He made him look like a complete idiot." – Jermot Givens ([23:21]) "He meant what he said. And then people made mockery of him... And it was embarrassing for him." – Tricia Averett ([24:43])

---

5. The Latino and Immigrant Experience

• Broader Social Fault Lines: Mike Hernandez (city council) and Hector Tobar discuss how the unrest was driven not just by outrage at police, but also by economic inequality and the sense of being left behind ([26:38]–[28:54]).

  "Our problem is we had a tale of two cities. We had a city that was doing very well and a city that... everybody pretended wasn't there." – Mike Hernandez ([27:20])

• Looting as Protest and Survival: Tobar describes witnessing immigrants looting, with the act representing years of pent-up frustration at being overlooked and marginalized ([29:14]).

  "The shiny objects behind the store window... would tempt the poor people of LA no longer... We're going to take whatever we want." – Hector Tobar ([29:14])

• High Costs and Victimization: 51% of those charged during the riots were Latino; many Latino businesses were destroyed ([29:56]).

---

6. The Role and Failure of Law Enforcement

• Chief Gates’s Absence: The perceived decision by LAPD Chief Daryl Gates to withhold police forces leads to further speculation about intent—retaliation versus incompetence ([30:33]–[31:36]).

  "The whole city was abandoned by the police. And that was almost policy." – Hector Tobar ([30:33]) "Was he churlish? Was he thin skinned? ... Yes. ... There was some part of him that felt that that proved his point." – Jim Newton ([30:50])

• National Guard Restores Order: The presence of the National Guard is what finally halts the violence, but only after immense loss ([31:49]–[32:24]).

  "It did feel to me like the Guard's presence is what began to restore order. But by then... so much damage had been done." – Jim Newton ([32:24])

---

7. Aftermath: Loss, Guilt, and Attempts at Reconciliation

• Tallying the Damage: Nearly 60 dead, most in the poorest communities, with thousands more affected by loss of property, livelihoods, or safety ([32:32]–[33:54]).

• Lingering Trauma: The devastation leaves a collective sense of guilt and bewilderment ([34:00]).

  "It leaves you with a really bad feeling about humanity and about society." – Jim Newton ([34:38])

• Seeking Redemption and Repair: Tobar recounts speaking with looters who later helped clean up the very businesses they had damaged, seeking symbolic penance and healing ([34:47]).

  "I just did something really horrible. Now let me do something nice. Let’s clean up. Let’s show the better side of ourselves." – Hector Tobar ([35:34])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "It's not a recession in minority communities, it's a depression." – South Central resident to Hector Tobar ([02:43])
• "We set up the double barricade... Then we started shooting." – Ki Won Ha ([12:34])
• "American dream is now into ashes." – Jin Ho Lee ([15:37])
• "Can we all get along?" – Rodney King ([22:47])
• "It leaves you with a really bad feeling about humanity and about society." – Jim Newton ([34:38])
• "I just did something really horrible. Now let me do something nice. Let’s clean up. Let’s show the better side of ourselves." – Hector Tobar ([35:34])

---

Important Timestamps

• [00:41]–[03:28] — Journalists witness the unrest’s escalation.
• [07:03]–[13:29] — Korean American community’s experience; armed self-defense in Koreatown.
• [15:07]–[16:02] — Emotional toll and feelings of abandonment among Koreans.
• [17:58]–[22:47] — Rodney King’s perspective, internal struggle, and public plea.
• [23:21]–[25:01] — Community response (positive and negative) to King’s statement.
• [26:38]–[29:14] — Latino and immigrant communities’ perspective; looting as reaction to inequality.
• [30:33]–[32:24] — Law enforcement’s absence, the National Guard’s intervention.
• [34:00]–[35:34] — Aftermath, guilt, attempts at reconciliation.

---

Tone and Style

The episode is earnest, immersive, and unsparing. The host and interviewees speak candidly, often emotionally, from firsthand experience. Details illuminate the complexity and trauma of the riots without romanticizing or excusing violence, foregrounding the lived realities of ordinary Angelenos thrust into extraordinary circumstances.

---

This summary should provide listeners with a thorough sense of the episode’s major themes, narratives, and perspectives—even if they haven’t tuned in.

Transcript

[Joel Anderson]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Tobar and the Times started looking ahead to the city's recovery.

[Hector Tobar]

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]

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.

[Hector Tobar]

Me about how tough the Times Were, you know, in African American Los Angeles. She said something. She gave me a great quote. She said, it's not a recession in minority communities, it's a depression. And not long after I write down this quote, I hear sirens and, you know, alarms going off. And I look down in distance and I see these pillars of smoke rising. And so I drive in the direction of these pillars of smoke, and I can see, you know, crowds looting liquor store or something. I called into the newsroom and I said, it's starting again. It's starting. Send people out here. It's starting.

[Jim Newton]

That day, the second day of the riots. The 30th, I guess, is the day that I felt like society as we know it has just collapsed.

[Joel Anderson]

That's Jim Newton, Hector Tobar's colleague at the LA Times.

[Jim Newton]

It definitely felt like the city had broken. I had no sense of where, how much worse it would get. But it was. I do recall feeling we were not done, that we were going to continue to grapple with this for a while.

[Joel Anderson]

Newton was at the corner of Vermont Avenue and MLK Boulevard in South Central when he saw a mob storm into a supermarket and set it on fire.

[Jim Newton]

Someone pulled up with a video camera, and he began to take a video of the people looting the grocery store. And someone knocked on the window of his car. He rolled down the window. The person shot him and grabbed his camera. And I talked to him. Well, after he was shot, he wasn't killed.

[Joel Anderson]

And.

[Jim Newton]

And I remember him saying to me, I thought it would hurt worse than this. And I was like, what is happening here?

[Joel Anderson]

Meanwhile, Hector Tobar kept heading north, driving from South Central toward the Pico Union neighborhood near downtown.

[Hector Tobar]

And I see one of these mini malls going up in flames. And there's an African American man, older man, maybe in his 50s or 60s, and he's got a hose and he's trying to put out the fire. And a couple of young guys came up to him and said, no, you're not putting out this fire. Just let it burn, Let it burn.

[Joel Anderson]

The police had been largely absent the night before. Millions of people had watched news footage of motorists being assaulted in the street. With no officers intervening, firefighters tried and failed to contain the blazes all around the city. One fireman got shot in the face. The next day, thousands more people took to the streets. Some were unleashing their anger at the police and the justice system. Some were driven by frustration at systemic inequality in the nation's most glamorous city. And some just saw a chance to plunder while law Enforcement was scrambling.

[Hector Tobar]

It was like this feeling of like, God damn it, it really finally fucking happened. You know, it's like the whole city's fucking exploding.

[Joel Anderson]

This is Slow Burn. I'm your host, Joel Anderson. The carnage in LA didn't touch the entire city. Affluent areas like Beverly Hills and Santa Monica emerged mostly unscathed. The fires and turmoil were concentrated in poor and working class neighborhoods on the south side. In South Central, black residents first turned on police, then on motorists and merchants. In Pico Union, Latino immigrants raged against the poverty of their neighborhood. And in Koreatown, shopkeepers took up arms to defend their stores from looters and arsonists. After a night of unprecedented civil disorder, Los Angeles had become a cautionary tale for the rest of the country. How did people fend for themselves while the city exploded with violence? How did Rodney King reckon with what was going on in the streets? And would Los Angeles come together or go down in flames? This is episode seven, Into Ashes.

[Jin Ho Lee]

We were like a translator, mediator. We were the medium between America and Koreatown.

[Joel Anderson]

That's Jin Ho Lee. He was a reporter for Radio Korea. 1580 on the AM dial in southern California.

[Jin Ho Lee]

There were a lot of demand from Korean community because we reporters go out to the field, gather information in English and broadcast in Korean.

[Joel Anderson]

By the early 90s, Los Angeles had become the largest Korean community outside Asia. Lee told me Radio Korea reached about 70% of the 1 million Koreans living in Southern California. When riots broke out on April 29, the station stopped its regular programming and just took calls from listeners.

[Jin Ho Lee]

And we have about like 10 lights blinking and it was very urgent, very, very urgent calls for.

[Joel Anderson]

Like people all over Los Angeles. Korean Americans were scared. Store owners in South Central felt particularly vulnerable.

[Tricia Averett]

The stick of dynamite had been lit already.

[Johnny Kelly]

Really?

[Joel Anderson]

That's journalists. Itabari Njeri. You heard from her earlier this season in our episode about the killing of 15 year old Latasha Harlins, Korean store owner. Soon Ja do had shot and killed Harlan's a year before the riots began. Due was sentenced to probation, not prison time. To the black community in la, that sentence was an injustice comparable to the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King. It had also unleashed pent up resentment against the Koreans who owned stores in black neighborhoods.

[Tricia Averett]

Mrs. Due getting the sentence that she did just added fuel to the fire.

[Joel Anderson]

The callers to Radio Korea were worried about what was happening on April 29 and what might be coming next.

[Jin Ho Lee]

They were asking us, I am in Central la. I want to go get out of this area and how can I get out? And you know, some family members call in. You know, we have stores. My parents are there. Are they safe?

[Joel Anderson]

Los Angeles Korean residents quickly realized they would have to fend for themselves.

[Jin Ho Lee]

Police station never responds. 911 doesn't respond. So they were calling into our station. We at least answered phone calls.

[Joel Anderson]

But there was only so much a radio station could do. In a couple of cases, people called in while they were under attack.

[Jin Ho Lee]

The store owner was hiding in the back of the store and the riders, you know, tried to break the metal bar. And this person screaming, need help.

[Joel Anderson]

On April 29, Koreans in South Central found themselves and their property under attack. It seemed like Radio Korea was safe because it was located in a different part of the city, Koreatown, a commercial district of small Korean owned businesses. But that safety didn't last. When Lee showed up at the radio station on the morning of April 30, Koreatown was under siege.

[Jin Ho Lee]

I saw flames across the street. Two buildings were burning. I saw mailman, mail delivery man running and some guys chasing. And one Korean old man was bleeding in his head, coming inside the station for help. And the station was in imminent danger too.

[Joel Anderson]

With the attacks in Koreatown escalating, Radio Korea told its audience to be careful.

[Jin Ho Lee]

We told people not to come to Koreatown either. Just stay home.

[Joel Anderson]

Some people thought Radio Korea was giving bad advice.

[Ki Won Ha]

I was so very upset about all the ministers, all the church people come to Radio Korea and ask them to go home, then pray God, who's going to protect Koreatown?

[Joel Anderson]

That's Ki Won Ha. He owned a supermarket in Koreatown and was president of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce. Ha thought Koreans needed to hear a different message.

[Ki Won Ha]

I had a handgun in my office, so I took a handgun to Radio Korea. So I said, you are crazy. You should stop this stupid. Why everybody ask to go home? So I actually say, do not go home, then.

[Johnny Kelly]

Protect the penis.

[Joel Anderson]

How was allowed on air now with the platform, he encouraged listeners to arm themselves and defend their businesses.

[Ki Won Ha]

How many years we spent, how many efforts we make to Koreatown? So a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of work involved to make a Koreatown then I don't want to lose that town in one day.

[Joel Anderson]

Ha left the studio and went to his store, Hanam Market. He intended to follow his own advice. Ha was joined by a group of store owners who'd heeded his call to return to Koreatown.

[Ki Won Ha]

So I brought my handwant, everybody come, then start to protect my store. Then we set up all the rice packages we parked our car too, so we set up the double barricade.

[Joel Anderson]

Ha says that not long after they set up those barricades, about 200 people rushed into an electronics store next to his market. That store wasn't owned by Koreans. Ha said the mob busted in and started running off with merchandise. Then someone set the store on fire.

[Ki Won Ha]

Then they tried to come to our store after that. Then we start the shooting.

[Joel Anderson]

Some of the Koreans were stationed on the roof of Ha's market. Others were behind the barricade of rice packages, shooting in the air above the heads of the crowd that was trying to push into Ha's store. The groups exchanged gunfire.

[Ki Won Ha]

Then accidentally, this guy shoot one of our people.

[Joel Anderson]

Ha said one of the men on the roof was trying to fire at the looters when he accidentally shot one of the store's security guards.

[Ki Won Ha]

So he got killed. Whole head is gone. So he's just standing there for less than one second, then just. Yeah, on the ground without head. So really bad.

[Joel Anderson]

Ha says most of his group was afraid to approach the body. Eventually, one of the young men used butcher paper from the store to cover up the corpse.

[Ki Won Ha]

We called the police, we called the fire department, we called everybody, but nobody want to help us.

[Joel Anderson]

Like the night before, millions across the nation and even overseas watched the violence in Los Angeles with horror.

[Jin Ho Lee]

Extraordinary pictures from earlier this evening when some Korean merchants came out of their.

[Joel Anderson]

Shops and began to fire at looters.

[Jin Ho Lee]

We don't know whether anyone was hit, but they took matters into their own hands.

[Joel Anderson]

At the end of the day, news reports estimated that more than 100 Korean owned stores had been burned, looted or robbed. The South Korean consulate was attacked and forced to close 17 time zones away. The president of South Korea weighed in. The South Korean government says the US should now station special guards to protect Korean businesses. Many Koreans suffered total losses. Blacks targeted their stores with a vengeance. Some black businesses nearby labeled as black owned escaped damage. But even black shop owners were struck. That's not right. It's not right what y' all doing.

[Elaine Kim]

It was really. It made me cry a lot.

[Joel Anderson]

That's Elaine Kim. She was a professor of Asian American Studies at UC Berkeley.

[Elaine Kim]

I never thought that somebody would burn down Koreatown. Actually, the whole thing was such a disappointment to me because I had sort of had in my mind this old fashioned idea about people of color solidarity. I was. I was kind of shocked.

[Jin Ho Lee]

I felt really emotional too.

[Joel Anderson]

Jin Ho Lee of Radio Korea.

[Jin Ho Lee]

How this be America become like this, you know, most powerful and safe and, you know, places in the world and something like this can happen. It really hurt me. And American dream is now into ashes. All those people's American dream.

[Joel Anderson]

Koreans and Korean Americans were furious, not just at the rioters, but at, but at the city and its police department. Many had lost their businesses, their livelihoods, their only source of income, and they felt that they had been abandoned. When the riots were over, Elaine Kim interviewed female Korean shopkeepers for a documentary. Some of them wanted to make peace with their black customers. Others were embittered or too devastated to make sense of what they'd lived through. But they all identified a common villain. American government at all levels, from local to federal.

[Elaine Kim]

And it would only be fair. Did they receive compensation of any kind, you know, emergency, fema, whatever, and were very, very disappointed that and then felt, felt not only angry about that, but also at their own powerlessness in the U.S. that is, they have no voice, they have no, Nobody cares, nobody would listen to them and that kind of stuff.

[Joel Anderson]

Jin Ho Lee again.

[Jin Ho Lee]

We were law abiding citizens and we paid the taxes and we were not protected. Yeah, nobody to turn to. Helpless.

[Joel Anderson]

Let's take a break. When the riots began on April 29, Rodney King was living in Studio City, an affluent neighborhood about 20 miles north of South Central LA. At first, the uprising gave him a feeling of satisfaction. In his autobiography, King wrote, I am not ashamed to admit that for the first few hours before I heard about anyone getting killed or even hurt, yet I felt a certain vindication. Later that evening, family and friends showed up with gifts. They brought bottles of Jack Daniels, food and disposable diapers.

[Johnny Kelly]

Yeah, I mean, at that time, you know, it's like everybody looting, you know, hey, we got a chance to get some shit on wholesale, you know, that type of thing, you know.

[Joel Anderson]

Yeah, that's Johnny Kelly, one of Rodney King's best friends.

[Johnny Kelly]

You know, I couldn't wait for the man to come by, you know, hey, you got some. Wear some Gucci jeans. Okay? So, hey, that was the life at the time that we was living. You know, you look back, you look back on life and you be like, hey, man, that wasn't cool. But at the same time, we was kids, we didn't know no better. We didn't give a damn. You know, this is what we're doing.

[Joel Anderson]

King was curious about what was being done in his name. So he pulled on the wig he used to keep from being recognized and drove towards South Central. A couple blocks shy of Normandy Avenue, he stopped. I sensed that terrible presence of hatred that I felt the night of the beating, he wrote there were sounds like I'd never heard before, like evil erupting. Later that night, King saw news footage of truck driver Reginald Denny getting beaten. It destroyed me, king wrote.

[Johnny Kelly]

It affected him that people was getting hurt. It affected him that the buildings was being burnt. But he knew it was all for him. But at the same time, he didn't want to see that.

[Joel Anderson]

By the next day, April 30, people had started to notice that King hadn't been seen in public or made a statement. Rodney King, the motorist whose beating touched all of this off originally, is keeping a low profile tonight, obviously not wanting to be part of the violent aftermath. King civil attorney Steve Lerman gave him a call on the morning of May 1st.

[Steve Lerman]

I said, Glenn, you're going to say something because there's people out there screaming Rodney King. And there's burning, there's looting, there's all kinds of mayhem. By your silence, you condone what they're doing, so you've got to say something.

[Joel Anderson]

King's mother, Odessa, was a devout Jehovah's Witness who was opposed to political statements of any kind. After the beating, she had warned him against using his platform to draw attention to police brutality. Now she once again urged him to stay quiet. She told her son, you had your time in the spotlight, and it done you no good. King dreaded the thought of addressing the public. A high school dropout, he had never been a great talker. Now the beating had left him with brain damage, making it even harder for him to communicate. But he thought his mother was wrong. He knew he had to say something.

[Tricia Averett]

He was like, cousin, they want me to. They want me to say a speech. They're saying that I'm promoting this behavior because I haven't said anything. And he was very upset.

[Joel Anderson]

That's on Tricia Averett, Rodney King's cousin.

[Tricia Averett]

And he was like, you know, I. I don't know what to say. What did they want? What should I say? I said, you should only say what truly comes from your heart, and do not try to write us. Read any speech that anyone has prepared for you.

[Joel Anderson]

Lerman called for a news conference later that afternoon in Beverly Hills, far from the unrest. He then went to meet King at his apartment.

[Steve Lerman]

I said, now it's not time to talk anymore about what you're going to say. It's time for us to go to wardrobe. So we walked over to this apartment closet, and I'm looking at a couple suits that I'd bought him. I said, oh, no, no, no. We don't want to have you out there in an expensive suit. I said to him, hey, Glenn, you remember the TV show Mr. Rogers? He said, that kitty show? I said, yeah, you're gonna put on Mr. Rogers sweater. And so I noticed a pale blue cardigan that we'd gotten him a couple of weeks ago. I said, now this is gonna. That'll smooth out those big shoulders. He's a big man and a nice white shirt, a dark tie. And so he was appropriately groomed for his show.

[Joel Anderson]

When King and Luhrmann arrived for the press conference in Beverly Hills, they were greeted by a large crowd. It was King's first public appearance in 14 months. And in just a few minutes, Rodney King is scheduled to speak out publicly for the first time since the jury's verdict. When he does, we'll bring it to you live here on Early Prime.

[Steve Lerman]

Everybody showed up, including helicopters. And the whole back part of the building at Wilshire and Doheny in Beverly Hills was swarming with media. I want to thank you all for coming.

[Joel Anderson]

That's Lerman. This city can't be an example of a society out of control.

[Steve Lerman]

The time for healing is upon us. Rodney King has prepared a very brief statement.

[Joel Anderson]

King says Luhrmann had handed him a four page script, but he decided to do his own thing. He wrote in his autobiography, I took one look at those four pages and said, fuck that. I was going to speak my own words. In video from the event, the camera is focused tightly on Rodney King. He looks and sounds nervous, his voice cracking.

[Johnny Kelly]

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?

[Steve Lerman]

Can we all get along? I mean, it was just a spark of genius. That is a spontaneous exclamation that came from that man, and the words are immortal. He didn't blame the white cops. He didn't blame the society, the racist society. He didn't blame the lapd, none of that. It was like putting warm mayonnaise on a bun.

[Joel Anderson]

But not everyone likes warm mayonnaise. Horrible. Absolutely horrible. That's Jermot Givens. He was a law student and community organizer in South Central. He blames Lerman for the mildness of King's remarks. He made him look like a complete idiot. Can't we all just get along? For the past year, thousands of black people had marched and protested on King's behalf. They were gutted when the officers who beat him got off and then they stormed into the streets in his name to ask them to stop, to call for peace for many black Angelenos it felt like a betrayal. We get our ass beat and we can't be mad. Oh, massa, y' all just really need to understand. Y' all didn't need to beat me so bad, but I forgive you. Let's pray. Come on. King's words became a national punchline.

[Johnny Kelly]

See, it's not whether you win or.

[Joel Anderson]

Lose, but is it over when the.

[Johnny Kelly]

Fat lady sings can't we all just get along?

[Joel Anderson]

Antrissia Averett it came from his heart.

[Tricia Averett]

He meant what he said. And then people made mockery of him. And that is what embarrassed him, because that whole little, that whole saying, can we get along? Was. It was in the comedy rooms. It was just everywhere. And it was embarrassing for him.

[Joel Anderson]

That handful of anguished words would be all anyone remembered. But at that press conference, King continued speaking extemporaneously for another two minutes. Listening to that speech, now it feels more pitiful than embarrassing. Rodney King was doing his best to meet the moment, but he just wasn't equipped to do it. We'll get our justice. They've won the battle, but they haven't won the war. We will have our day in court, and that's all we want. And just.

[Johnny Kelly]

I love, you know, I'm, I'm neutral.

[Joel Anderson]

I love every. I love people of color.

[Johnny Kelly]

You know, I'm, I'm not a.

[Joel Anderson]

Not like they.

[Johnny Kelly]

Give me out, picking.

[Joel Anderson]

Me out to be. In his autobiography, King said, every word I spoke was as true as I could make it and came right out of a deep place in my heart and soul. There was nothing but the best intentions behind everything I said. King also realized that his words could only do so much. He wrote, I wish I could say that I was so good at speaking that everybody listened and everything got peaceful and quiet, but reality is a bitch and it took a while. Let's take a break. Mike Hernandez was the LA City Council member representing the 1st District, a collection of neighborhoods north and northwest of downtown. The district was primarily Latino, no questions about it. Many of his constituents were recent immigrants from Mexico and Central America. The first night of the riots, Mike Hernandez's district was mostly spared the most viscerally striking moments of the unrest began in black neighborhoods. It was a response to a specific event that crystallized the way the criminal justice system treated black people. But Los Angeles was home to millions of people who were not black, many of whom were living in poverty and legal jeopardy in one of the world's richest cities. Once civil order in Los Angeles had collapsed, all those people had their own reasons to Take to the streets. This was a civil unrest based on economic realities. Oh, wow. So you knew that instinctively then you knew that it wasn't anger at the cops. You thought, no, no, no. I kept on saying, our problem is we had a tale of two cities. We had a city that was doing very well and a city that was. Everybody pretended wasn't there.

[Hector Tobar]

This is a time when the city wasn't producing as much opportunity as it did, let's say, 20 years ago when I was growing up.

[Joel Anderson]

LA Times reporter Hector Tobar, Almost every.

[Hector Tobar]

Immigrant person you meet of a certain age has memories of just living homeless for a while. Like people sleeping in their cars or people living in houses with 12 other immigrants and, you know, four or five to a bedroom.

[Joel Anderson]

The people in those communities, were they generally aware of the prosperity being enjoyed in other parts of town compared to where they were?

[Hector Tobar]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Because your average resident, your average Latina resident of South Central Los Angeles had a job in another part of the city where she was going to see the affluence of the city. She would work at a house in Beverly Hills or in Santa Monica. And every day would be a reminder of the insult of the city's sociology, the insult of its class structure. Living that mind fuck of going back and forth between the economic poles of the city.

[Joel Anderson]

On April 30, riots and fires broke out across Mike Hernandez's district. The neighborhood of Pico Union, one of the densest and poorest in the city, was hit especially hard. A discount appliance store, a pupuseria and a jewelry store were looted and destroyed. Hector Tobar witnessed some of that destruction.

[Hector Tobar]

Seeing people with mattresses on top of their cars that they had looted from some mattress store and people returning with like, you know, boxes filled with stuff. It was the moment in which the shiny objects behind the store window would tempt the poor people of LA no longer. Right. Because they could just go in and grab them. And so you had the mass of recently arrived immigrants or people who had been in the country for 10 years, no hope of ever becoming documented citizens, just letting their frustrations out. You know what? You think of us as the lowest of the low. And you know what? That's what we are. We're going to take whatever we want.

[Joel Anderson]

Today, 51% of the people charged with crimes during the riots were Latino. But Latinos were also disproportionately victims of violence and of property damage. It's estimated that about a third of the businesses destroyed during the riots were owned by Latino People from South Central to Pico Union to Koreatown, people who wanted to see order restored in their neighborhoods felt dismayed as violence and looting flared up. The police, typically an intrusive presence in the poorer parts of la, were conspicuous by their absence.

[Hector Tobar]

The whole city was abandoned by the police. And that was almost policy. Was basically Daryl Gates giving the finger to the rest of the city and saying, you know what? You guys think that we're the enemy.

[Joel Anderson]

Fuck you, Jim Newton.

[Jim Newton]

I don't think that Gates specifically made plans to deliberately expose the city to danger. That said, was he churlish? Was he thin skinned? Was he really angry in those days? Yes, yes, yes. And so I think there was an I told you so in all of this that said, if you don't let us do our jobs and respond in an aggressive paramilitary way to an edgy city, that the cork will just blow at any moment. I mean, that's kind of the subtext of his style of leadership, right? And lo and behold, the cork did blow. So I'd be willing to bet that there was some part of him that felt that that proved his point.

[Joel Anderson]

By May 1, thousands of national Guardsmen had stepped in to provide much needed reinforcements to the lapd. A city that had risen up against its police department was now effectively a police state.

[Hector Tobar]

I remember being at the corner of 3rd and Vermont where I had recently lived. I had lived there a few months earlier and just seeing the army taking over the parking lot of this grocery store and you know, it was just, it was a scene from another country, from another era of American history. And just seeing that, that to me really, that was frightening. But also I think that there was a certain sector of the city that was grateful, grateful that that someone was taking some steps to restore order in the city because the city was exhausted.

[Jim Newton]

It did feel to me like the Guard's presence is what began to restore order. But by then, of course, so much damage had been done.

[Joel Anderson]

In the end, nearly 60 people were killed in Los Angeles between April 29 and in May 3, when the rioting finally stopped. The vast majority of them were killed in LA's south side and some of the city's poorest neighborhoods. In Delray, a 24 year old white man died after falling through the roof of a check cashing store while trying to put out a fire. In Lenox, a 15 year old Latino boy was shot by a police officer who was trying to stop looters running away from a jewelry store. In South Park, a 56 year old black woman was rushing to Deliver food to a friend before curfew when her car was hit by a van.

[Jim Newton]

You know, a lot of people who did absolutely nothing wrong died for no reason. For every one of those people who died, there's a whole family. There's family and friends and community who have never gotten over that. And let's just say for the sake of argument, that 200 people are affected by each of those deaths. That is thousands of people whose lives turned on those days.

[Joel Anderson]

And that doesn't even count people who.

[Jim Newton]

Are arrested or injured or, you know, lost homes or lost livelihoods. It's overwhelmingly sad to think about how much damage was done in those days. And that did not need to happen.

[Joel Anderson]

As the fever broke in la, people began to notice just how much damage had been done.

[Jim Newton]

Those immediate days and weeks afterward, it felt like a ruin. And I kind of. I also recall a sort of bewildered look on people's faces. There was a sort of sense of like, what just happened here? It was awful and awful in a way that's. I mean, I've covered natural disasters in which people have died, and that's awful, of course, but you don't have the same sense of guilt and bewilderment and sadness around it. It's more just a fluke of nature. This was not a fluke of nature. This was a human experience. It leaves you with a really bad feeling about humanity and about society.

[Joel Anderson]

As the city cleaned itself up, Hector Tobar went back to South Central. He talked with a couple who had looted a liquor store in their own neighborhood.

[Hector Tobar]

And they described how, you know, in the moment, the heat of the moment, they had gone in there and looted, along with everybody else, looted the liquor store and how they felt really terrible because they were friends with the owner, with the Korean owner, they knew him, so they felt they needed to sort of do a penance. So they helped him clean up a little bit. And so, yeah, I think the entire city felt that way. It was like, wait, what happened? You know, a lot of times when you're in a relationship, you say really horrible things to each other, and then the next day you feel the need to sort of say something nice and do something nice. And it was that. That same sort of feeling throughout the city of like, I just did something really horrible. Now let me do something nice. Let's clean up. Let's show the better side of ourselves.

[Joel Anderson]

When the violence was over and the fires had been extinguished, Los Angeles had almost as many needs as it had people. Repairing a city this big and this broken would require a massive collective effort, but who could be trusted after such a wide ranging, all encompassing failure? That's next week on the season finale of Slow Burn. Slow Burn is a production of Slate plus, Slate's membership program. You can sign up for Slate plus to listen to the show without ads and you'll get a bonus episode each week of the season with behind the scenes stories and tape that got cut from the show. And in this week's bonus episode, you'll be hearing from Hector Tobar and Jinho Lee. One way to sign up for Slate plus is directly through your Apple podcast app. Just go to Apple co Slowburn. We couldn't make Slow Burn without the support of Slate plus, so please sign up if you can head over to Apple co Slow Burn. Slow Burn is produced by Jason De Leon, Ethan Brooks, Sophie Summergrad, Jasmine Ellis and me, Joel Anderson. Editorial direction by Josh Levine and Gabriel Roth. Artwork is by Jim Cook. Our theme song was composed by Don Will, mixing by Marri Jacob. Special thanks to Hector Tobar, whose novel the Tattooed Soldier was inspired by some of the events during the riots and is available anywhere you buy books. Additional thanks to Michelle Jang, Ho, Jun Yoo, Stan Mizrahi, Janae Desmond Harris, Amber Smith, Bill Carey, Meredith Moran, Seth Brown, Rachel Strom, Chow Tu, Derek Johnson, Asha Salucia and Katie Rayford. Thanks for listening. The new year brings new health goals and wealth goals. Protecting your identity is an important step. Your info is in endless places that could expose you to identity theft leading to lost funds. LifeLock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Resolve to make identity, health and wealth part of your New year's goals with LifeLock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock. Com SpecialOffer Terms Apply.