Shoot, Loot & Scoot '92

[Jonathan Doe]

2 weeks straight 12 hour shifts without a day off. It was tough 2 weeks. But, overtime was good. LAPD was jealous that I was authorized to carry an AR-15.

I took some interesting photos.

[tahoetarga]

I had been at Parker Center a couple of days before the verdict (doing a b.i. on a lateral candidate). Talked to the guy in the parking lot booth. Later saw the booth on its side

[retired]

The first day, my station drove to another station in our division. We were there for a couple of hours and then told to return to our station. We ate pizza and watched the riots on tv in the briefing room waiting to be called up, but nothing happened that day.

The next day I came to work and discovered one of my fellow deputies had brown nosed the sgt. in charge of the group of the responding deputies and I was off the team and had to work the station area. That was the day our station was deployed to the riots and I missed out. I was pissed at both of them, but nothing I could do.

No stories for me. No shirt either.

[sharkman]

I medically retired, at age 31, a year earlier (5-1-91), and crud, it makes me feel OLD, to be referred to as "Old School".
I was managing a restaurant and bar, at the time, in Pomona, and it was a hangout for several of the guys, from a few local agencies, and believe me, it was good to hear the stories, told by the guys at the bar. Pomona was not South Central (oops, is that no longer politically correct?), but there was a good deal of trouble, in a few neighborhoods around there.
It's still fun to talk to a few friends, from back then, and hear "War Stories" about that time.

[Notorious]

Pomona is still pretty dangerous... no?

[Ron-Solo]

Pomona is still pretty dangerous... no?

If I am unarmed, I drive around Pomona. Always.

Before I retired, I was assigned to the Pomona Courthouse. I covered a large area (from Pomona to Glendale) but I started and ended my day in Pomona. I would hear gunshots in the neighborhood around the courthouse almost every night as I went to the car.

CHP Officer Thomas Steiner was murdered in the parking lot of the Pomona Courthouse after leaving court one day. The suspect was a local gang member. He died a few feet from where I parked my car every day.

Rest in Peace, Tom. You are not forgotten.

http://www.odmp.org/officer/17288-officer-thomas-joel-steiner

[eltee]

A colleague and I arrived at LAPD Joint Command Post at the academy (we are from another agency). Saw a bunch of National Guard folks and vehicles. The PD fed us, but there were no assignments so we were free. We had taken our girlfriends down to LA with us, so we took a tour of the "war zone." Our girlfriends were wide eyed at the violence and the burning buildings, then we went to Disneyland. IT WAS ALMOST EMPTY. It was the least crowded day at Disneyland I'd ever seen, and I go all the time. WONDERFUL time there. We stayed in the LA area and played tourists for a couple days and then drove home.

We heard that some National Guardsmen got cornered by some gangsters and lost their M4's. Also heard stories of how K-Town protected their businesses by circling the strip malls with cars and took defensive positions on rooftops with firepower.

[Notorious]

Also heard stories of how K-Town protected their businesses by circling the strip malls with cars and took defensive positions on rooftops with firepower.

That was true... enough videos showed that. Some stores had a few expensive German autos and SUV's forming the blockade.

My Korean buddy took a few guys with him to defend his family store with lots of firepower... so yeah, it happened.

[Anchors]

Good point!
A dear friend who was in the middle of it, told a hilarious story that ended with:

"...and right about then they realized that they had a basic terminology problem. Evidently the phrase 'cover me' means something completely different to Marines, than it does to Cops."

Hmm.
PM sent. I heard the same story from a buddy who was in the Marine Corps who's older brother was also in the Marine Corps during that time and was deployed to the Riots.

*not a LEO

[yzErnie]

There was some pretty crazy stuff (even by my old school standards) that happened during those days there. We'll never know how many times we go sniped and probably don't want to know either. Somehow, by the grace of God, we survived it to return home to our families.

[IrishJoe3]

There was some pretty crazy stuff (even by my old school standards) that happened during those days there. We'll never know how many times we go sniped and probably don't want to know either. Somehow, by the grace of God, we survived it to return home to our families.

Years ago I arrested an old school gangster from Compton. He was amiable and we were talking about south-central LA area during the riots. He said that his gang assigned members to roof tops whose job was to snipe at LEOs.

[gesundheit]

That was true... enough videos showed that. Some stores had a few expensive German autos and SUV's forming the blockade.

My Korean buddy took a few guys with him to defend his family store with lots of firepower... so yeah, it happened.

Remember this photo from LA Times?



Some paid the ultimate price protecting their businesses from looters

[Che762x39]

I was there too as a cop. Got two ribbons, had to pay for the t-shirt.

[Che762x39]

If I am unarmed, I drive around Pomona. Always.

Before I retired, I was assigned to the Pomona Courthouse. I covered a large area (from Pomona to Glendale) but I started and ended my day in Pomona. I would hear gunshots in the neighborhood around the courthouse almost every night as I went to the car.

CHP Officer Thomas Steiner was murdered in the parking lot of the Pomona Courthouse after leaving court one day. The suspect was a local gang member. He died a few feet from where I parked my car every day.

Rest in Peace, Tom. You are not forgotten.

+1

I went to Pomona to look at a 1924 Ford and my wife asked me why I was "heavily armed". I said, "going to Pomona".

[RedFord150]

...I was managing a restaurant and bar, at the time, in Pomona, ...Pomona was not South Central (oops, is that no longer politically correct?), but there was a good deal of trouble, in a few neighborhoods around there. ....

Not LEO here, but firsthand experience from Pomona in 1992.
Wife and I living in La Habra at the time. Our good friends owned a trailer in the park on Beaver Court and Garey, across from the DMV. They dropped their teenage daughters at our house for the week of LA Riots after they had drive-by shootings at their trailer park. The residents of the park created their own 'Blockade' with cars fearing the gangs would drive into the park and shoot up the trailers. I can tell you that 'Neighborhood Watch' group was very heavily armed.
Many years later, my wife served on a Jury in Pomona Courthouse for a Gang Banger accused of several murders in Pomona and nearby. He was convicted of 2 out of 4 murders that were charged. Last 2 murders were just not proven clearly enough for a conviction. His loser gangbanger friends testified against him (there is no honor among thieves). My wife LOVES you Pomona Courthouse Cops. You were the ones that escorted her and her fellow Jurors to their cars after the verdict was read. My wife says that was the single scariest moment of her life. She had nightmares that these losers were coming after her for months.
I am not so sure Pomona is all that different from the worst parts of LA.