UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS--SIX MONTHS LATER : Touched by Fire / A Legacy of Pain and Hope : Then and Now -- Voices from the Streets

When the fires died out and the sun rose on the fourth day, sections of the city lay in ruins. Block after block in South Los Angeles had been scavenged by looters or leveled by fires. Hundreds of victims had been treated in hospital emergency rooms, and thousands more were left nursing emotional wounds as severe, if not as visible.

In the six months since the last pillars of smoke rose from the landscape, the city’s institutions and its residents have begun the difficult process of recovery and renewal.

The police department is being remade in a new image. There are signs of new-found business interest in the inner city. Ethnic groups are flexing their social and political muscle.

But what of the individuals whose lives were most directly touched by the fires that swept through our city for three days and nights last spring?

A flood of jumbled images lives in our collective memory: Motorists being dragged into the streets and savagely beaten, then rescued by strangers who risked their own lives. Businessmen-turned-vigilantes, shooting it out with would-be looters on streets abandoned by police. Suburban families venturing into inner-city neighborhoods, offering food, clothing and help to clear away the blackened debris.

As the city tries to dig itself out from beneath the rubble of damaged buildings and broken hearts, it is, perhaps, the efforts of those everyday people that will matter the most.

In this section, we explore the changes that have gripped our city through the eyes of those whose lives were touched by the fires: The Korean widow who lost her family’s business and her life savings on the riot’s first night. The Vietnamese refugee whose dream of freedom suffered at the hands of a mob bent on vengeance. The Ventura County juror who lives in fear because her verdict helped spark the civil unrest. The police officer forced to give up his career amid finger-pointing over who was to blame for the escalating violence.

Together, they paint a picture of a city still grappling with the trauma of the riots, a city confused and uncertain of what lies ahead.