In Los Angeles, the Ghosts of Rodney King and Watts Rise Again

LOS ANGELES — Patrisse Cullors was 8 in 1992, when Los Angeles erupted in riots after four police officers were acquitted of assault for the beating of Rodney King, which occurred outside a San Fernando Valley apartment building not far from where Ms. Cullors grew up.

“I was scared as hell,” she recalled. “As children, when we would see the police, our parents would tell us, ‘Behave, be quiet, don’t say anything.’ There was such fear of law enforcement in this city.”

With America seized by racial unrest, as protests convulse cities from coast to coast after the death of George Floyd, Los Angeles is on fire again. As peaceful protests in the city turned violent over the past few days, with images of looting and burning buildings captured by news helicopters shown late into the night, Ms. Cullors, like many Angelenos, was pulled back to the trauma of 1992.

The parallels are easy to see: looting and destruction, fueled by anger over police abuses; shopkeepers, with long guns, protecting their businesses. The differences, though, between 1992 and now, are stark. This time, the faces of the protesters are more diverse — black, white, Latino, Asian; there has been little if any racially motivated violence among Angelenos; and the geography of the chaos is very different, with protesters bringing their message to Los Angeles’ largely white and rich Westside.

“South Central has been completely quiet and peaceful,” said Ms. Cullors, now a prominent activist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter who organized a protest on Saturday in the Fairfax District, west of downtown. “That’s an important distinction, that these current situations are not happening in black communities.”