The riots that have been occurring all over this country in the past 48+ hours should come as no surprise given both recent and old events. Add to hundreds of years of mistreatment four months of being quarantined and it’s no wonder we’ve reached a tipping point. A necessary one at that.
Photos of L.A. Protests & Riots
Lots of people are angry or confused as to how protests turn to riots. They ask “Haven’t we learned anything since the Rodney King-incited riots of 1992?” The answer to that is no. Because nothing has changed since then. “Don’t those looting know they’re making it worse?” Ignorant on-lookers are quick to come to conclusions, but there have been insightful op-eds worth reading to help explain how we’ve come to this outrage such as those by Kareem Abdul Jabbar in the LA Times and Roxanne Gay in the NY Times.
The looting in Los Angeles began downtown on Friday night. But it wasn’t until images of yesterday’s protest-turned-riots all over the city that people began to realize this was bigger than a reaction to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of four Minnesota Police Officers.
Yesterday’s protest in L.A. started out peacefully, but tempers flared and police intervened as the protestors moved beyond Pan Pacific Park (the place slated to hold the organized event) and began to march West toward neighboring city, Beverly Hills. By nightfall, several parts of downtown LA, The Grove Shopping Center, North Fairfax Avenue, Melrose Avenue and parts of West Third Street had been vandalized, looted or set afire. The thundering sound of helicopters, the scream of sirens and the smell of smoke lasted throughout the night in my own neighborhood. Yet already this morning, store owners and volunteers were helping to clean up graffiti, broken glass and more all over the city.
I’m sharing with you here some of the photos from today’s LA Times coverage of yesterday’s events so you can see, firsthand, the outrage and pain. The following photos were taken by photographers Kent Nishimura, Wally Skalij, Gary Coronado and Irfan Khan for the Los Angeles Times.
These are only a few of the images from one city in this country. Thousands of images like these have been captured in just about every major city and lots of small towns as well. This isn’t going away and it shouldn’t until real reform and change take place. It may seem an unsurmountable challenge but it starts with voting at the local level where you can effect change among civil leadership. Not yet registered to vote? It takes two minutes right here.
Thanks to the Los Angeles Times and its staff photographers for the images.
Visit the following links for ways you can help, get involved and make a difference:
• https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
• https://naacp.org/campaigns/we-are-done-dying/