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Slow Burn

The L.A. Riots | 7. Into Ashes

Slow Burn

Slate Audio

Politics, Society & Culture, History, News, Documentary

4.625.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2021

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On April 29, 1992, Los Angeles had erupted into chaos. Over the following days, thousands of people took to the streets. Some were unleashing their anger at the police and the justice system. Some were driven by frustration at living in poverty in one of the world’s richest cities. And some just saw a chance to plunder while law enforcement was scrambling. This is what happened next.  Want more Slow Burn? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately access all episodes of Slow Burn (and your other favorite Slate podcasts) completely ad-free. Plus, you’ll unlock subscriber-exclusive bonus episodes that bring you behind-the-scenes on the making of the show. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/slowburnplus to get access wherever you listen. Season 6 of Slow Burn is produced by Joel Anderson, Jayson De Leon, Ethan Brooks, Sophie Summergrad, and Jasmine Ellis.  Mixing by Merritt Jacob. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:30.0

A quick warning.

0:31.0

This episode has some explicit language.

0:35.0

Hector Tobar watched the chaos of April 29, 1992 from the Los Angeles Times' third floor newsroom.

0:42.0

That night, a large crowd of people gathered

0:45.1

outside the building and started pelting it with rocks. And then a little bit

0:49.2

later on I said, hey am I the only one who smells fire? You know there's smoke there's smoke something's burning

0:56.8

and unbeknownst to me down on the first floor a few members of this particular mob had managed to break through the windows

1:05.3

the offices down there and had set a couple of small fires in the first floor.

1:10.0

Tobar kept on working that first day he collected notes from reporters in the field and wrote a story about the

1:17.3

L.A. P.D.'s response to the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King.

1:21.8

He left the newsroom around 11 p.m.

1:24.0

Eventually the mob went on and dispersed and we went home and everybody thought it was

1:30.0

over. It was like wow that was a horrible night that the city went through. It's all over. And we all went to bed thinking that the next morning, the city would start sweeping up the glass and taking stock of what had

1:44.6

happened the politicians would make their speeches and everything would go

...

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