LAPD’s Response to the Riot

I disagree with the Monday morning quarterbacks who think that the Los Angeles Police Department’s measured response to the riot was too little, too late. As a graduate student in the 1970s, I lived in some of the worst areas of Boston and Philadelphia, and had the misfortune to be caught in several riots in which the police responded forcefully and made things much worse. Los Angeles should thank its lucky stars that the LAPD and the National Guard did not respond with a great show of force during those first critical hours.

The LAPD showed remarkable sensitivity and restraint by focusing on protecting lives rather than property during those first critical hours. Using the National Guard at that time would have greatly exacerbated the riot, since it does not have the training to defuse a situation without using deadly force; remember Kent State?

If the media need a scapegoat for the extent of the destruction, they should look in a mirror. During the middle of the rating “sweeps,” the TV stations fell all over themselves to greatly magnify the situation and convince many that the violence was more widespread than it initially was. Our leaders, including Mayor Tom Bradley, Jesse Jackson, and Jerry Brown, did not initially decry the rioting, but gave the rioters excuses to continue looting. The only cool heads in this situation were the local clergy and the LAPD itself.

HENRY G. BAKER, Encino