Putting race in the mirror

This week marks the silver anniversary of President Bush's ordering of federal troops and law enforcement into Los Angeles to bring an end to the violence that ravaged the city for days. While some recall the presence of Army and National Guard troops, a lesser number know the impact a smaller contingent of U.S. Marines had on portions of the city a quarter century ago. As military appreciation month gets underway, it is fitting to bring attention to some of the accomplishments of our diversified armed forces during this austere time.

While the city and much of Southern California was paralyzed with fear, the cries for peace were pervasive, leading to an unbridled fury for order. City, state and eventually federal leadership responded in kind. The decades-old plan to defend the city against extreme civil unrest, known as Garden Plot, was activated, and the military was directed to assist.

Days after the riots started, an overt media display aired live footage on multiple channels showing dozens of light armored vehicles (LAVs) barreling towards a smoldering Los Angeles. It sent a message. Interstate 5, the busiest highway in the country was shut-down from San Clemente to Tustin to allow swift passage. Highway overpasses were lined with hundreds of citizens for miles, cheering for the cavalry as it headed into certain danger. As the Marines headed north to reinforce the 7th Infantry and California National Guard, their LAVs were halted in Tustin, so they could train for non-combatant operations. They entered Long Beach and Torrance unceremoniously the next day via trucks.

To date, nearly all of what's been produced for the archives has been overly hyped nonsense - perverse justifications of death, violence, destruction and yes, revenge. Most films and documentaries are bloated with pathetic hubris – glorified recounts of youthful indiscretions by gang members or now aging rappers who sold-out long ago. Now they appear in Sony films and on Sesame Street, or make insurance commercials, reality shows and ironically portray cops on TV dramas. A few YouTube searches of footage from '92 will show very different characters than the one who appeared with Elmo just a few years ago. 

Heavy attention was paid to those who proclaimed the horror of the L. A. riots was a movement, occasionally feigning regret or worse yet, shunning responsibility by claiming temporary insanity. Some threatened to take the violence nationwide and to burn down the White House. In addition to a billion dollars' worth of damage, hundreds of uninsured businesses destroyed, the brutally harsh irony was the overwhelming majority of deaths during the riots were black citizens. It was disgusting and embarrassing.

The exceptions to this would be some of the newer works, such as John Ridley's, Let it Fall, which aired this week on ABC. His documentary varies wildly from the others, especially with respect to parity – multiple parties to the events, of multiple races offer their perspectives and ideologies. It works – and it puts race in front of a mirror. Few filmmakers have taken a hard, thorough look at the entire story and laid it out, assessing the humanity and reality of events before, during and after the riots.

Ridley shows us Tim Goldman, a former U.S. Air Force officer who filmed many of the events on the ground. The piece also highlights the lesser knows stories of Police Chief Gates’ ordeal with his child’s drug addiction, and a Korean incident of fratricide while defending a family store. Other recent docs show the deep history & pathology leading up to May 1992 as in, L.A. riots – 25 years later, and the poignant all-footage work titled, LA92.

In reality, when the military arrived in Los Angeles, particularly the Marines from the 1st Marine Division @ Camp Pendleton, the rioting and looting ceased in short order. As with most mob dynamics throughout history, the real trouble makers came from outside L.A. city limits - opportunists, anarchists and bona fide assholes looking to wreak havoc with impunity. Without opposition, they ran amuck, taking advantage of an overwhelmed police force and frightened community. A 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew was rigidly enforced. A few fires still burned, but the streets were mostly clear of rioters and looters once the Marines were on the ground. Rumors ran wild of gang alliances, thefts of Ryder trucks to transport gangs to other counties – even some idiots in Simi Valley threatened a KKK rally – all empty threats. None of them ever materialized. They were simple bullies incapable of functioning against real force.

The Marines were young – many of them still teenagers - the same age, if not younger than the rioters, but far better armed and certainly better trained. The end result was not a single shot was fired in anger by any military asset on the ground. And not a single looter, rioter or gang member ever mustered the courage or crazy to attack… Out-manned, out-gunned and out-smarted, they did what cowards do – ran and hid.

Some of the Marines grew up in L.A. They had family living there, saw them often and occasionally worked there on weekends. Some of them worked at the businesses that were razed, many of them knew the owners that lost everything. None of them were heralding the riots or the aftermath - they were highly offended their neighborhoods were ruined, but they maintained their composure. Black, white, Mexican, Korean and others, they were a team of Marine green.   

What the archives don’t contain is the good that occurred amidst the carnage.

For the Marines stationed throughout Long Beach and Torrance, the nights were long and arduous. They worked during the curfew, on post all over Los Angeles, and slept during the day in a mall parking garage. One night, an attempted drive-by shooting was foiled when a van approached a hospital. The sliding door opened and the gunman was greeted with a platoon of Marines with their weapons at the ready. The van drove off erratically without incident.

Early one morning, a Korean man came by his destroyed store to sift through the hot ashes & rubble, trying to salvage whatever remained. Before calling it a night, a platoon of Marines stayed with him four extra hours after their shift. They helped him load his car with the damaged property. Black, white, Mexican, Korean and others, they were a team of Marine green.   

At the Carmelitos housing area on 52d St & Atlantic Ave, the Marines saw first-hand what gratitude can do to bridge learned bias. One of the first nights they were on post, a black woman brought cookies to feed them because she thought they were too skinny. She thanked them for saving her home and asked about their mothers. The next night, there were ten women standing in line to feed the boys - the night after that, there were thirty, and so on. They were neighbors, but some met for the first time in that line – they were exchanging recipes, laughing smiling - for the first time in a week. Within days, styrofoam coolers were stacked next to the Marines’ post, cases of soda, foil-covered plates and boxes, and a line fifty-plus people long – all waiting to say their thanks. Most of these residents needed welfare and food stamps to survive, yet they were giving food away to say thanks.

Marines integrate together by nature - always have. If you've earned the title, little else matters - you're a Marine for life. Arguably, in Los Angeles, their greatest weapon was their diversity. Multiple races, one uniform, one mission - black, white, Korean, Mexican and others – all green. Teachers of coexistence, humanity & tolerance.

Aside from the Marines impact on the community, there were others who rose above the ugliness as champions of humanity. Tim Goldman is also known as the only person who stood in front of an angry mob when the riots first started - essentially saving NY Times videographer Bart Bartholomew's life when a hostile mob encircled him, trying to steal his cameras. Goldman would later be run out of town for selling the footage to the media, which led to arrests of hundreds. Death threats & all, he decided to leave. He was on Oprah not long afterwards telling his story.

Rev. Bennie Newton single-handedly saved Fidel Lopez by shaming his attackers. Bobby Green & Titus Murphy (both black) helped save Reginald Denny's (white) life - very few people care to hear the story. Donald Jones saved Choi Sai Choi. The brave Rev. Cecil Murray at 1st AME Church held the first meetings during the riots and forced the conversations on coexistence. As with the others, few remember the efforts of James Brown, Arsenio Hall, and Sean Penn…. or the volunteer groups that came into the city to clean up, led by actor Edward James Olmos. All citizens in the community that chose peace over violence for the greater good.

Many will argue little has changed in L.A. and elsewhere. As T. R. Fehrenbach said, "Those who edit history to popular taste each decade will never understand the past—neither the horrors nor glories of which the human race is equally capable—and for that reason, they will fail to understand themselves.” 

It's never too late for any of us to stand in front of the mirror.

Brian Lynch served in the enlisted and officer ranks of the Marine Corps, and was leading Marines as a platoon commander with 1st LAI during the L.A. riots. He chronicled his experiences in: Thorn in my Pride, a novel of the L.A. riots of 1992.