By Dexter Gauntlett
Daily Bruin Staff
Fifteen miles from downtown Los Angeles, many in Westwood
watched the city self-destruct in 1992, feeling helplessly
disconnected and isolated.
But in South Central, feelings of isolation and disconnection
““ exponentially greater in degree and tainted with rage
““ sent an angry mob off, breaking microwaves and televisions,
looting shops and setting fires.
After the acquittal of four police officers accused of using
excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King, thousands took to the
streets of Los Angeles to express dissatisfaction, and to many,
oppression by the judicial system and police.
“The flames of April came out of season,” wrote Bebe
Moore Campbell in her novel “Brothers and Sisters,”
about post-riot Los Angeles. “They chose their own time,
creating destruction that spared no one. Long after the flames were
quelled, the city was still smoldering, and even those whose lives
were cooled by ocean breezes felt the heat.”
But for many in Westwood, the only physical impact was a faint
odor.
“It was a very eerie time in Westwood,” said
Westwood historian Steve Sann. “You could actually smell the
burning scent in the air, even though there weren’t any fires
in the area.”
UCLA and Westwood were impacted by the riots, but they were not
ruined: Undergraduate Students Association Council elections were
postponed and freeways were clogged, but these inconveniences paled
in comparison.
The UCLA community felt the fire, but was not in it.
An impassioned speech by then-USAC President Danette Martin did
much to keep the peace after the verdict was read, said Mike Cohn,
a Student Affairs officer for the Center for Student Programming,
who remembers the event.
“In terms of civil unrest 10 years ago, one of the saving
graces, Danette Martin, got up in Bruin Plaza and gave a riveting,
outstanding speech to keep calm on the campus,” Cohn
said.
Martin, who now works for a non-profit organization that assists
low-income families, said her growing up in the city’s urban
center allowed her to identify with many of the specific events of
social injustice in history and relayed that message to
students.
The jury’s verdict was not satisfying for most people in
Los Angeles, she said, and at UCLA, race was a pressing issue.
“There were injustices at (UCLA), in admissions, tenure,
color and how people are just treated at the campus,” Martin
said.
Berky Nelson, director for Student Programming who also holds a
doctorate in African American urban history, said racial tensions
on campus were in no way comparable to the level of those in South
Central.
“People were upset with the verdict, but for the students,
there was a private consternation rather than public dismay,”
Nelson said.
“In Westwood, you don’t have a preponderance of
low-income people who would identify with Rodney King and go
berserk,” he said.
People felt there was an injustice done and many who looted were
Latino, black and anyone who felt alienated and dispossessed, he
said.
“The verdict was an attack on their humanity,” he
said.
The riots lasted three days, accruing nearly $1 billion in
damage, more than 4,000 injuries, 50 deaths and 12,000 arrests.
Then-mayor Tom Bradley imposed a curfew that closed schools and
businesses and then-governor Pete Wilson dispatched 4,000 National
Guards to patrol the streets.
But the West side was not violated.
Nancy Greenstein, spokeswoman for the university police, was
public safety administrator for West Hollywood, which was closer to
the chaos and had access to the Sheriff’s Department, which
stood right at the border of the city.
The difference between South Central and West Los Angeles is the
difference between “two worlds,” Greenstein said.
“Watching the riots on TV is almost surreal,” she
said. “You know people who live there, or whose kids go to
school there and those connections are what make people concerned
and fearful,” she said.
“But it’s more of an indirect concern,” she
added.
Outsiders cannot fully understand what was going through the
minds of those who were rioting, especially for people in Westwood
and the rest of the West side, said Nelson.
“It would be very difficult for anyone who has not
experienced depravity or discrimination … to their humanity to
understand how those people felt,” Nelson said. “The
realities they have do not coincide.”
“It felt like it could never happen here in Westwood or
Beverly Hills,” said Stan Shane, owner of Shane Jewelry
Company in Westwood since 1968.
And while the fires burned and stores were pillaged, the village
stood in a distant awe.
“Westwood was definitely protected,” said Ted
Gottlieb, Shane’s associate.