Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise.
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On this date in 1992, the LA Riots started when the Rodney King verdict was announced. In 2012, Off-Ramp aired a special edition looking back at the event on the 20th anniversary.
One of the things I'm most proud of is the time we spent setting the context for the riots, in particular the culpability of the LAPD.
As Joe Domanick reminded us, the riots didn't happen just because the cops were cleared of beating Rodney King, they happened because the department had killed scores of unarmed black and brown men with impunity for years (often with choke holds), and the verdict touched off long-simmering and justifiable anger.
And, Domanick said, they happened because Daryl Gates was derelict and did not prepare the department for the violence everyone else expected would erupt. He sent shifts home (and went to a political fundraiser!) while TV stations brought in extra staff.
We also talk with many Angelinos who remembered the day: a then-6-year old who lived in the neighborhood and now works at KPCC; Wait Wait Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal, who ran into Gates during the riots; former Mayor James Hahn, who only missed being a casualty because he happened to turn on the radio and hear about what was going down at Florence and Normandie; and many others.
We also put together a slideshow of Gary Leonard's photos from the riots.