04 April 2010

92' LA Riots

From the Citizen Soldier side:  The Rodney King “Festivities” or, the Los Angeles Riots of 1992


In the old days of the California Army National Guard, we used to say there were four season, Floods, Fires, Earthquakes and Riots. Now we have the fifth season- Wars. Today’s story is about one of the riots.
I was a member of the California Army National Guard and a full time police officer in 1992 (Oh, I still am)
In 1992, the Los Angeles Police Department had a known dirt bag attempt to evade arrest. He ran but got caught. And, when caught, he got a good ass whoppin’. The public was “shocked” but such an event. I’m not here to discuss the police work in that case, but the response some of the public had to the fact that the cops were found “Not guilty.” A series of riots followed.

The dirt bag low lifes were setting things on fire, looting, and killing citizens. It was going out of control fast.

The local cops were soon overwhelmed, so the governor called up the Army National Guard- and estimated 4,000 troops were called up. By the time the riots were over, 53 people were dead, with thousands injured…and over One Billion Dollars in property damage. Now, tell me how this did one thing to help anybody but the looters.

At that time, I was in a Combat Engineer company. We got called late Thursday night and were told to come in early Friday and be ready to go for up to two weeks.

I was one of the first squad leaders go come in that Friday morning. As soon as I walked in, the company First Sergeant saw me and said: “Good, you’re here. Start a training plan for riot control missions.”

Since I was a cop, most of the Army folks just assumed I knew everything about crowd control and stuff. Up to that point, I had only had a little bit of training on that topic….but I pulled out the Field Manuals and started reading.

Since we were all told to come in before breakfast, we came in hungry… and the supply sergeant, being a lazy sort, had not taken steps to have food ordered to feed us. He didn’t even have a few cases of MREs stashed.

By lunch time, we still had not been fed, so a few of the other NCOs and myself jumped into my truck and went and picked up pizza for our platoon. When we returned, the supply sergeant began yelling at us…telling us that he was working on getting lunch. I asked: “What about breakfast you useless f—k?”

We continued riot training all through the day…by dinner time, the supply sergeant was “still working on getting the troops lunch.” So, a few of us high speed NCOs snuck out again and got the troops more pizza. (hey, pizza was cheap, close and the quickest food we could obtain.)

Again, when we returned with dinner, the supply sergeant started to bitch at us again…he claimed that we were “making him look bad.” I told him he didn’t need any help with that, as he was doing great on his own.

To be continuted

Side note on awards and medals:  I've always advised any troops assigned to work for me: "Don't expect to get any f--king medals working with me.  We'll do good work, but others will get the awards....that's OK, because the medals ain't why we do this shit."
----

12 comments:

Opus #6 said...

Mmmm. Now I'm hungry for pizza....

Coffeypot said...

It's a damn shame and a sin that you guys didn't have Waffle Houses around there. Pizza's only go so far.

Momma Fargo said...

Ha. Just read your LEAVE YOUR COMMENT verbage. Just so you know...I always leave crap. LMFAO.

Momma Fargo said...

Great blog! I'm here because of a recommendation from Coffeypot. Love your music also.

Red said...

Ah, the LA riots... now I'm all nostalgic and stuff ;)

America's SgtMaj. said...

Brother I watched the riots on TV and saw all my records get burned up in the LA recruiting station. I had to get all my stinkin' shots over again! Then I had to ride a bus into the Compton bus station on my way to boot camp. That was scary.

CI-Roller Dude said...

O 6, Pizza does have most of your basic food groups...and who doesn't like pizza?

MFargo, Where'd you get that squirrl outfit?

Red, We need a good riot every now and then for a little big city renewal.

Top,
Sorry about your records...but you might be happy to know that the Calif Army National Guard had the most "kills" during that riot.

More to follow....

Anonymous said...

You pulled out the field manuals? RD...there just ain't much you can't do... especially a man that will go for pizza. ?? You deserve a medal in my book...
(yeah...my book's Italian, so what?) Anyway... you can't have a riot without pizza. Just sayin'.

nice tunes, btw

Kanani said...

I remember the black air and the stench. I also remember wondering when it would end, the loops played over and over again on TV. There were people (good Christians) who made sandwiches to take them over to Compton to "feed the poor." As if they couldn't have done it before, and as if it was going to change a damned thing.

Later, after it was over, I took a lot of shit from some apologists for supporting the Koreans who had lost their livelihoods. Today, I'm afraid not much has changed in the area. The crime is still high, shootings still occur, Latino on black and vice versa gang warfare is still prevalent. In short... all those riots for nothing.

lorraine said...

Sorry for my age showing. Thought this was the Watts riots of the '60's. Of course if you were there for those your ass wouldn't be in a squad car today no matter how close you are to retiring. This is the recurring theme of urban renewal. They burn it down and it gets rebuilt. This one didn't get rebuilt as fast though. Eventually insurance companies wise up and quit investing in the area. Medals? We don't need no stinking medals. Keep writing, lorraine

CI-Roller Dude said...

I was too young for the 65' Watts Riots...but I got to watch them on TV. I still remember the National Guard shooting snipers with the machine gun on a vehicle...I was too little to know what kind of weapons they were using, but I thought it was kind of cool to open up on all those assholes.

The Motto: Don't fuck with the Army National Guard at a Riot, we Don't play fair.

lorraine said...

Remember - if you are in a fair fight you have done something wrong