20 Years later - Part 1

20 Years Later - Part 1

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Riots. A moment that will live in the mind of my 12 year old self for as long as I live. I saw the national guard out in full force. Stores get boarded up with owners on the roof with shotguns and other weapons protecting their shops. It was, for all intent and purpose, the closes to an all out pandemic and what a zombie apocalypse could possibly be.

I should get into what caused the tension in the air, but doing so would be too long. Los Angeles and the police have always had a very explosive tension behind it going back to the 70's and going back to the god damn 30's and so forth. Police and corruption in Los Angeles have always gone hand in hand. So how about we just start with some music that reflects the mood..



It should be noted that the title of the song was correct. The riots happened on April 29th, not as Brad sings April 26th. For some reason he just said it wrong and no one pointed it out for some reason. I don't know how to explain that.

Then we get the racial aspect and the tension between minorities in the black communities and the police. There's no better example than N.W.A.





Or maybe this just didn't help that tension at all. I mean, they were popular and while the tail was wagging the dog on this one, in that the music was created because of the police situation, their popularity caused more resentment in the public eye toward the police officers - which in turn just created way more tension.

It was a perpetual cycle of insanity and police hostility. Then again, I hate the police, so there's my personal feelings on the subject.

More to come as this week goes on.