UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS / PART 3 : WITNESS TO RAGE : ‘We stayed up looking at all the fires.’

When the verdicts came out not guilty, I said, “Well, we better get ready, because something is going to happen.” I just realized that people are tired of all the things that have happened and they were about to let their frustrations go.

Our lights went out at about 9:30 Wednesday evening. We got out flashlights and candles and a radio and then we checked out the fires down the street. So we would go out, and every time we would see a fire start we would go out and try to guess what building it was. I guess, me and my younger brother stayed up most of the night just looking at all the fires.

We woke up Thursday morning and we could still here sirens and still see the smoke. We walked out to the corner store and saw that it was gone. And most of the stores around our neighborhood were gone.

It’s depressing because now the people are going to start realizing they have nowhere to go. Nowhere to go shopping. And no where to get something to eat.

And when they finally realize that then they are going to say, “Oh, now what?” And so it’s kind of depressing for me because we have to go way out to another city to go get something to eat or do our shopping or whatever.

It’s not my fault. But it’s something I’ve got to live with.