1996: A Year in Quotes

“It was foolish to bring Duke here and not think this would happen.”

Cal State Northridge sophomore Leslie Moyer on the disturbances that broke out when ex-Klanman David Duke appeared at the college for a debate on affirmative action.

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“I love the Valley. Stay in the city.” Mayor Richard Riodan to members of the United Chambers of Commerce of the San Fernando Valley at a meeting in Van Nuys on the question of Valley secession.

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“In today’s entertainment world, Hollywood is the Valley.” Howard Weitzman, vice president of MCA Inc., on the rapid growth of film, television and multimedia businesses in the Valley.

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“We all see disasters happen on the news, and you watch them with a certain amount of detachment. When this one happened, I somehow knew.” Lisa Michaelson, whose son Yon Rojany was killed in the crash of TWA Flight 800.

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“The concept across the country is that California is a natural-disaster theme park.” Rep. Michael Flanagan (R-Ill.) at a congressional subcommittee meeting, saying lawmakers from other parts of the country are beginning to resent the amount of federal disaster aid given to California in recent years.

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“We get alot of pornographers living up here, but not this.” A neighbor of the gated Chatsworth home where an indoor farm of 400 marijuana plants was found by firefighters called to a blaze started by a wind- downed power line.

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“He was acquitted? So was O.J.” Celebrity photographer Scott Downie, on the verdict acquitting actor Alec Baldwin of battering a paparazo outside Baldwin’s Woodland Hills home.

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“I got robbed and I thought I was going to die. Aside from that, everything is great.” Actor Harry Dean Stanton, after being tied up and slightly injured in a home-invasion robbery at his Mulholland Drive house in January. Two men were arrested after crashing Stanton’s car during a subsequent police pursuit.

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“I’m not one of the Care Bears. I’m a prosecutor.” Deputy Dist. Atty. David P. Conn, responding to defense attorney Leslie H. Abramson’s argument that he had mounted a cold, heartless prosecution of Erik Menendez in Van Nuys Superior Court.

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“It would have to be eating someone alive before I shot it.” Lt. Marshall Vernon of Animal Control on options for controlling a black bear found roaming a residential neighborhood of Porter Ranch.

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“Do it for your team.” Court testimony from a teenager about what Burbank schools fund-raiser Salle Dumm, 51, said when allegedly inviting a 17-year-old high school football player to have sex with her. Dumm’s trial ended in a mistrial and a judge refused to refile charges against her. Dumm is pictured below leaving court with her son, Rick.

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“You like my Halloween costume?” Glendale Firefighter Scott French, his head and arm bandaged to cover burns received fighting the Calabasas / Malibu fire, in late October at the Grossman Burn Center in Sherman Oaks.