I was living in Redondo Beach when the riots happened. LAPD asked the beach cities for help and the police departments politely told the LAPD to fuck off. Los Angeles didn't pay their salaries. The whole South Bay put up a perimeter from El Segundo to Palos Verdes. No traffic was allowed in from 6pm to 6am. Even the freeway off ramps were closed off. We had a strictly enforced curfew. During the day, every car with a black person in it was stopped and searched. Gasoline found in gas cans was put into the gas tank and the car followed out of town.
My son lived in Long Beach. We didn't have continuous telephone service, Every time one of us got a free line, we'd call the other. He watched the flames from the DMV, then the strip mall across the street from him was torched. He called to tell me that the people in his apartment building took to the rooftop with guns and rifles. That made him feel safe enough to go to bed.
I saw that video of King getting his ass kicked a hundred or more times. The first couple of times I was horrified, then I wondered why he didn't just lay down when he was told to. Why was he continually fighting back?
As far as I can tell, justice was finally served when they found King at the bottom of his swimming pool.
Good insight, but any way you put it there were enough cops on scene to hold him down and cuff him. However, Blacks made it like a White on Black thing, not a cop on civilian thing. Fact: More whites are victims of police brutality than blacks. Even back then. I remember in highschool. A friend of a friend knew of this nearly completed home with electricity, gas and running water in a secluded location and a easy to get in back door. They decided to through a party there. The cops came and everyone ran. One smart ass yelled, "fuck you pigs," thinking he was save because the cops really only appeared to want to dispurse everyone. But that set one of them off, he ran the poor kid down slammed him into the wall and face first into the cement knocking his front teeth out, with bad scraps to his face and teared lip. The kid was 5'2 or 5'3 120-130 and the cop was over 6 foot and easly 180-190. It was well excessive. The poor kid was charged with assault on a police officer, vandalism, breaking and entering. He pleaded out to pay for the damages and nothing happened to the cop. Not a charge, court case or anything. The kid needed reconstructive surgery to his mouth and lip!