Remembering the Rodney King Riots of 1992.

I can't believe it's been 20 years since the riots.  I was still in high school in the So Cal area.  Even though we lived far from the riots, it was close enough that it still affected us.  Here's some observations I made in retrospect:

1.  Don't hesitate to use vacation time.  My dad, who worked for the city of LA, decided he wasn't going to work until things blew over.  His office was in the middle of downtown LA.  Even if he did go to work, he was sure there would be little work done as everyone would be monitoring the radios.  Good move Dad.

2.  Keep a weeks worth of food at minimum.  We weren't preppers, but we did keep a full pantry.  Living in So Cal, having a stash of 2 gallon bottles of filtered water was normal.  We did not need to make unnecessary trips to the store.

3.  Keep your routine.  Nothing changed.  Friday nights were my nights to cook dinner.  Scrabble night was on Sunday.  The news stayed on for a night or two, but when the images started to be replayed, my parents decided that we didn't need to watch it 24 hours a day.

4.  Guns for protection.  I remember images of Korean business owners perched on their rooftops with rifles and shotguns in hand.  I remember some stores had "Black Owned" signs.  Some of them on burnt store fronts.  Whether they were truly black owned or a last minute effort to save the store.  Whatever it was, it didn't work.  A show of force did.

5.  Stay calm.  It was a really frightful time.  We didn't know how long it was going to last or if it would spread to our area.  It helped that my parents stayed calm. 

What makes a man what he is today is what happened to him along the way.

Aloha,
J.