Post by Maudizzle on Feb 19, 2010 4:31:18 GMT -5
Not Guilty.
WHAT? I couldn’t believe it. April 29th, 1992 and I was fresh off a cross country trip from Atlanta where I had been living for the prior 9 months. I had done some legendary fu?kin up in my household, but I had somehow got myself back in the good graces of my moms and pops. To make a long story short I was back in LA… at least until I graduated.
Now the big deal at this point was that Rodney King’s drunk a$s had gotten whooped up by LAPD which was a natural part of growing up in LA for any black man for YEARS b4 this particular incident. This difference this time was that somebody caught it on film. Because of this tape, this thing had gone to trial and everybody was pumped cuz they knew these punk a$s police would get their a$ses handed to them. Needless to say, they didn’t. As a matter of fact, they got off scott free! Man I couldn’t fu?kin’ believe it…
Well neither could the City of Los Angeles.
We were mad as hell. Race relations had not been going well in LA. Blacks and Latinos were beefing throughout the High Schools and a bunch of schoolwide fights had been breaking out across the city between the two. There was a rift between Black consumers and Asian business owners over fair treatment and stereotyping of black customers in their business. Businesses which were thriving in black neighborhoods and barely employed any blacks. This all came to a head about a year earlier and just 2 weeks after the Rodney King beating tape surfaced. A 15 year old girl named LaTasha Harlins was shot dead by a Korean store clerk who claimed the young girl was trying to rob the store. When the cops arrived they found 2 dollars in her hand and the orange juice that she was allegedly trying to steal. The stores security tape showed that as the girl tried to leave the store, without the orange juice mind u, the store clerk shot her in the back of the head. The woman received 5yrs probation, community service, and a $500 fine.
No jail time.
After that incident most people that I knew just had it out for any Asian person running a mini mart…As if they all had something to do with it. The level of disrespect thrown at even the owners of the gas station in my hood, people that I had known since I don’t know when, was over the top. They got scared. They armed up… U couldn’t blame them. I would have done the same thing.
I came straight home from from school ready to check this Rodney King verdict out. When those cops stood up I got a bad feeling in my stomach. “Not Guilty”… I sunk down in my seat like somebody had let the air outta my a$s. Wow. This dude got beat for like 5 mins AFTER he was on the ground subdued. How could they NOT be guilty? I was pissed… I turned off the TV and went outside. I sat on my front porch with a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a Apple Slice. (Yall remember that?
LOL) I swear my blood was starting to boil…
LA is a melting pot. Every race is represented here. This is some dumb down South 60’s sh!t. I always hated cops but always knew it was our word against theirs and we stood no chance. The 2 biggest, most dangerous street gangs in LA have never been the Crips and Bloods, but tha LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. I know cuz I had taken a few billy clubs upside the head and also got dropped off in Inglewood somewhere a couple times. Cops in LA are as shady as they come..
Gunshots in Compton, CA is like the equivalent of birds chirping. It’s a natural thing. So when I heard them start up on this particular day I thought nothing of it… But they didn’t stop. They started coming from different directions. It sounded like “drums”… I closed my eyes and listened to them. Without sight I realized that something serious was going on… I opened my eyes when I heard a loud “BOOM” that seemed to shake my whole house. Little did I know that it was that same gas station exploding from a Molotov Cocktail attack. I opened my eyes and saw 4 or 5 Ghetto Birds in the air heading northwest toward South Central. Some serious sh!t was happening in LA today… I went inside and my mom was sitting watching the news and shaking her head. The first thing I see is some guys at an intersection pull a truck driver out of his truck and slam a fire extinguisher on his head. The man was unconscious and from the helicopter shot u could see a pool of blood pouring from his head.
Just as Ice Cube had predicted on “Death Certificate” a year earlier. Los Angeles was in a full scale riot. People were tired of getting sh!tted on. Angelinos took to the street wanting revenge for all the previous years’ bullsh!t. They were malotov-ing everything in site. The main targets were Asian owned businesses in Watts, Compton, and South Central. That day if u weren’t black or Latino, U weren’t safe… I went back outside and hopped up on my roof. I will never 4get that sight…
The sky was red and black smoke plumes rose up far into the sky from all across the city. It looked like Iraq or something. Wild like the jungle… And I was as mad as a savage animal. I was mad for Latasha. I was mad for Rodney. I was mad because these punk a$s police were getting let off the hook again! Throughout the evening the drums kept sounding off and getting closer… Separated by huge explosions every 5 minutes or so. The natives were restless. I got a lil choked up. Half because I was on the roof and the smoke was so thick and half because I was watching this city which I loved so much being destroyed and there was nothing I could do about it.
All I could do was “Listen to The Drums”…
This was the inspiration for “Pop Pop” which is the 1st song on my new Album “Kind of Blue” In stores and Online March 23rd, 2010
Stay Tuned… More to come.
tqsblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/pop-pop-the-tale-of-las-darkest-day/#comments
WHAT? I couldn’t believe it. April 29th, 1992 and I was fresh off a cross country trip from Atlanta where I had been living for the prior 9 months. I had done some legendary fu?kin up in my household, but I had somehow got myself back in the good graces of my moms and pops. To make a long story short I was back in LA… at least until I graduated.
Now the big deal at this point was that Rodney King’s drunk a$s had gotten whooped up by LAPD which was a natural part of growing up in LA for any black man for YEARS b4 this particular incident. This difference this time was that somebody caught it on film. Because of this tape, this thing had gone to trial and everybody was pumped cuz they knew these punk a$s police would get their a$ses handed to them. Needless to say, they didn’t. As a matter of fact, they got off scott free! Man I couldn’t fu?kin’ believe it…
Well neither could the City of Los Angeles.
We were mad as hell. Race relations had not been going well in LA. Blacks and Latinos were beefing throughout the High Schools and a bunch of schoolwide fights had been breaking out across the city between the two. There was a rift between Black consumers and Asian business owners over fair treatment and stereotyping of black customers in their business. Businesses which were thriving in black neighborhoods and barely employed any blacks. This all came to a head about a year earlier and just 2 weeks after the Rodney King beating tape surfaced. A 15 year old girl named LaTasha Harlins was shot dead by a Korean store clerk who claimed the young girl was trying to rob the store. When the cops arrived they found 2 dollars in her hand and the orange juice that she was allegedly trying to steal. The stores security tape showed that as the girl tried to leave the store, without the orange juice mind u, the store clerk shot her in the back of the head. The woman received 5yrs probation, community service, and a $500 fine.
No jail time.
After that incident most people that I knew just had it out for any Asian person running a mini mart…As if they all had something to do with it. The level of disrespect thrown at even the owners of the gas station in my hood, people that I had known since I don’t know when, was over the top. They got scared. They armed up… U couldn’t blame them. I would have done the same thing.
I came straight home from from school ready to check this Rodney King verdict out. When those cops stood up I got a bad feeling in my stomach. “Not Guilty”… I sunk down in my seat like somebody had let the air outta my a$s. Wow. This dude got beat for like 5 mins AFTER he was on the ground subdued. How could they NOT be guilty? I was pissed… I turned off the TV and went outside. I sat on my front porch with a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a Apple Slice. (Yall remember that?
LOL) I swear my blood was starting to boil…LA is a melting pot. Every race is represented here. This is some dumb down South 60’s sh!t. I always hated cops but always knew it was our word against theirs and we stood no chance. The 2 biggest, most dangerous street gangs in LA have never been the Crips and Bloods, but tha LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. I know cuz I had taken a few billy clubs upside the head and also got dropped off in Inglewood somewhere a couple times. Cops in LA are as shady as they come..
Gunshots in Compton, CA is like the equivalent of birds chirping. It’s a natural thing. So when I heard them start up on this particular day I thought nothing of it… But they didn’t stop. They started coming from different directions. It sounded like “drums”… I closed my eyes and listened to them. Without sight I realized that something serious was going on… I opened my eyes when I heard a loud “BOOM” that seemed to shake my whole house. Little did I know that it was that same gas station exploding from a Molotov Cocktail attack. I opened my eyes and saw 4 or 5 Ghetto Birds in the air heading northwest toward South Central. Some serious sh!t was happening in LA today… I went inside and my mom was sitting watching the news and shaking her head. The first thing I see is some guys at an intersection pull a truck driver out of his truck and slam a fire extinguisher on his head. The man was unconscious and from the helicopter shot u could see a pool of blood pouring from his head.
Just as Ice Cube had predicted on “Death Certificate” a year earlier. Los Angeles was in a full scale riot. People were tired of getting sh!tted on. Angelinos took to the street wanting revenge for all the previous years’ bullsh!t. They were malotov-ing everything in site. The main targets were Asian owned businesses in Watts, Compton, and South Central. That day if u weren’t black or Latino, U weren’t safe… I went back outside and hopped up on my roof. I will never 4get that sight…
The sky was red and black smoke plumes rose up far into the sky from all across the city. It looked like Iraq or something. Wild like the jungle… And I was as mad as a savage animal. I was mad for Latasha. I was mad for Rodney. I was mad because these punk a$s police were getting let off the hook again! Throughout the evening the drums kept sounding off and getting closer… Separated by huge explosions every 5 minutes or so. The natives were restless. I got a lil choked up. Half because I was on the roof and the smoke was so thick and half because I was watching this city which I loved so much being destroyed and there was nothing I could do about it.
All I could do was “Listen to The Drums”…
This was the inspiration for “Pop Pop” which is the 1st song on my new Album “Kind of Blue” In stores and Online March 23rd, 2010
Stay Tuned… More to come.
tqsblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/pop-pop-the-tale-of-las-darkest-day/#comments