Looking for the Meaning, One Year Later

A year after the riots, many South Bay residents are still trying to make sense of the violence that swept their communities. Although the South Bay escaped with relatively little physical damage, painful memories remain. Still, some residents told Times reporter Kim Kowsky they see signs of hope. A sampling of perspectives:

“The riots made us all, I think, take very seriously the problems that result from all the divisions in this city . . . but I don’t see us doing much. As a community, we’re very isolated. . . . I think the effect of that is people get consumed with the details in their own lives and they forget to look outside at bigger issues.”

--Max Lyon, 34, outdoor education director for Chadwick School, a private school on the PalosVerdes Peninsula “I think it (the unrest) brought our community a little closer together. I think people realized it was important for the community to stick together, to support each other so they can deal with a situation like this. One of the things I liked were the banners that went up around the city. They said ‘We love Lawndale--keep the peace.’ I thought that was neat because it showed that people . . . need to work together if they want to keep their community safe.”

--Nancy McKee, 42, Lawndale’s Neighborhood Watch coordinator “This was a very good exercise in sensitivity training for people in the South Bay. People are a lot more friendly, especially if you’re of color. I don’t know, maybe it’s me. But it seems everyone has just kind of eased up, chilled down. . . . I think now there’s a sense that maybe justice is coming, that finally we’re going to get ours, to have our opportunity to be people and not be treated like animals.”

--Michael Rayo, 27, a former gang member who is now an associate pastor in charge of the gang and drug prevention program at Del Aire Assembly of God in Hawthorne “It did some good and it did some bad. The people who want to look at things with blinders on, it didn’t change them. It almost made them bitter. . . . But I also think the legacy is that desperate people have to do desperate things sometimes to get things done. . . . I’m not condoning violence. I wish it didn’t have to come to that. But like Malcolm X said, ‘By any means necessary.’ And in that sense, I think some good came out of it.”

--Vanessa Gibson, 37, a telephone customer service representative and mother of two who lives inLawndale “Since the riots we have become more sensitive to keeping children out of harm’s way and out of the hands of gangs. In the past, when a youngster was expelled, the parents would be scrambling to find a place to put the child. . . . This year, we formed an agreement to operate a community school so that . . . we can have a place for them because we don’t want them at the hands of gangs and at loose ends. This was a specific outcome of saying we can do better for children than we are doing.”

--Rebecca Sargent, 47, a trustee for the Redondo Beach Unified School District and a director of the California School Boards Assn. “I think the youth of this community have a racial perspective that is overshadowed. And I’m not talking about the ones that usually show up on TV. I’m talking about the A and B students who are never heard from, who are active in this community and don’t have the racial conflict that everyone alleges. . . . But the media spends 99% of their time reporting on 1% of the populace. If the racists don’t have a forum, if the gangs don’t have a forum . . . then maybe they’ll shut up.”

--Kevin Smith, 39, a board member of the Multi-Racial Youth Center in Inglewood “Sitting where we are on the peninsula, our lives weren’t really affected at all. It was a shame that it happened. And of course, all we did was watch it on TV. . . . I do think we’re more cognizant of the fact that there’s a problem and the problem needs to be fixed. But the question is what needs to be done and how much money is there to fix it.”

--Lee B. Byrd, 62, a Rancho Palos Verdes planning commissioner and retired aerospace manager “We weren’t really affected that much in this area, but the senior citizens I work with have been affected. They are afraid that everything is going to happen again. . . . The fear is still there. It’s like a stench in the air. I feel more relaxed now . . . but we don’t go out as often as we used to. We don’t go to the stores at nighttime. We walk looking over our shoulders--like you’re waiting for someone to attack you.”

--Maria Perez, 56, vice president of the Lennox Coordinating Council, a community group “Nothing really good has come out of the riot, except that maybe people are trying to work closer together. I think it’s going to be a very, very long time for South-Central Los Angeles to get better than it was. . . . Until we start getting jobs, until we start hiring these minorities, we’re still going to have these problems.”

--Carmen Cruz, 48, a Carson resident who is president of the Mid-Cities chapter of the NationalWomen’s Political Caucus of California “I’m not sure whether it has much to do with the unrest or just the general increase in crime, but it has affected us in how we think and act. I don’t go off the hill as much, not even off my back yard much. . . . Whereas we used to do a lot of shopping down on Western Avenue in San Pedro, we’re more likely to go west now.”

--Warren Sweetnam, 66, a retired aerospace engineer and president of the Rockinghorse RoadHomeowners Assn. in Rancho Palos Verdes