Can't we all just get along?

Hard for some of us who experienced it first hand to believe, the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Riots is here.

Lots of interesting coverage (for a change!) on local LA media outlets, but perhaps the most unique is this:

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/04/knbc_live-tweeting_the_ru.php

 

And how does that fit in with collective bargaining and pension funds?

 

Portland at Los Angeles Lakers, ppd., riots.
Utah at Los Angeles Clippers, ppd., riots.

 

I was in seventh grade, but I was just starting to get into current events through a really great social studies teacher that I had. At that age I couldn't understand the magnitude that of what was really happening, but I knew it was big.

This will piss a lot of people off, but to this day Rodney King still bugs me. He surely did not to deserve to get beaten, but if that man had got into an accident, hit a kid -- hell hit a pet -- or the cops had got into an accident chasing him, I wonder what would have been.

Also, two of my favorite songs for that era were inspired by the riots:
Dowset:

Dr. Dre:

"LA told us today you're just a slave. No matter how much money you got -- you still ain't shit."
They never released a video for the Dre song, but someone spliced in a ton of riot footage.

 

Yes, they did.

Still insane thinking about it, 20 years later. Wasn't Rodney King recently arrested (again)?

 

Also Sublime checked in with this

even though they got the date wrong

 

I was covering that Clippers series. We weren't sure whether to come back from Salt Lake City for Games 3 and 4. They finally played Game 3 at the Forum and Game 4 at Anaheim Convention Center in front of a rollicking throng of about 5,800. Clippers won both so we got to get the fuck outta town and go back to Salt Lake City.

 

Pretty sure the Blazers game was ending as news of the riots was breaking. I can remember TNT announcers saying that they were alerting fans to avoid certain sections of the city driving home.