[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
I remember watching news footage of LAPD’s handling of South Central during the LA Riots in 1992 and realizing that they had completely ceded control to the mob. It doesn’t take much to get there. The idea that the police and the National Guard are capable of handling widespread civil unrest and rioting is simply not true.
I hope things don’t get sideways, but it seems prudent to be prepared for them if they do.[/quote]
The riot in 1992 got out of control because it wasn’t stopped before it got out of control. The chief and rest of Sr level commanders of LAPD were away for a conference or something. Really really bad judgment considering how things were unfolding back than.
As you may remember, businesses owned/run by Koreans were way over half or more of the targets of the rioters. Considering actual # of Koreans living in LA, that’s a staggering #. Any how, there were Korean businesses that were NOT overrun by looters.
One was a gun shop in the middle of Korea Town near Downtown LA. A news camera crew happened to film the gun shop owner and a few of his buddies (Koreans) trading shots (had pistols) with rioters, who conveniently were not captured on the footage. These rioters were NOT seen in the footage because they were cruising around in cars looking for targets. The shop owners had to stay in 1 place, which meant camera only captured the shop owner. Not sure if this was ever explained on national media. Just looking at the footage, the shop owners looked like being irresponsible shooting at unseen target. The gun shop owner said, when interviewed by local Korean-American media later, guys cruising around in cars opened fire on him and his buddies first. In the footage you see a white (hispanic ?) female cowering in doorway holding her arm because she was shot in the arm when the guys in the cars opened fire first.
Another image that’s in my memory is how a Korean supermarket was turned into a ‘fortress’ with bags and bags of rice. I’m talking about the 20lb + bags you might find in costco nowadays. Korean grocery stores have lots of bags of rice for sale. They were stacked like bricks outside of the store forming one long line from one end of the store to the other, like how they make machine gun emplacements. And the parking lot was cleared of cars, providing clear line of fire… I remember seeing this footage captured from a news copter. I didn’t get it back than but as I am writing this I realize the Korean market employees were setting up a kill zone…
In case you are wondering, all able bodied South Korean males have to serve in the armed forces, vast majority going into the army. So you can assume that ones who came after college age know basic infantry tactics…
But I digress.
My point is that it took days for the National Guard to be brought into the city AFTER they were activated. Many Korean Americans were furious for the seemingly slow response by the authorities. I remember reading a letter written by a commander of National Guard that was published in the local Korean American newspaper. The letter kinda apologized for slow response but it also chided people for not understanding why the soldiers were not able to get into the city fast enough. They had to find transportation and AMMO.
