Letters to the Editor: How much has L.A. addressed the problems and inequalities of 1992?

To the editor: In my lifetime of reading op-ed articles in local newspapers, I cannot recall ever being brought to tears. Helena Ku Rhee’s poignant piece, “For my Korean-Black family, the aftermath of the L.A. riots cut deep,” did.

In my decades of work as a licensed clinical social worker with experience in community development projects both domestically and worldwide, I so empathize with her concluding words, “I will never be you nor will you ever be me, but love is a bridge that can close the gulf between us.”

I grew up in South Los Angeles and attended John Muir Middle School and Manual Arts High. Somehow, in those days, those of us of diverse ethnic backgrounds managed to “meet halfway,” as Rhee eloquently pleads for us all to do now.

Terri Elders, Westminster

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To the editor: We should not reduce the context of the times in 1992 and now as problems of “race relations.” The problem in 1992, 2020 and still in 2022 is law enforcement officers not being adequately subject to law enforcement themselves.

It is a frustrating time for those looking for law and order in Los Angeles. We are mired with a district attorney whose idealism has led him to ignore the opinions of his own staff, and at the other extreme, an authoritarian sheriff who is more concerned about investigating journalists than with the gangs in his own ranks.

Hopefully this 30th anniversary of the 1992 riots helps inspire new leadership in Los Angeles.

John Ennis, Los Angeles

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To the editor: For those of us older residents with good memories, the 1992 uprising was the second major L.A. riot.

I remember all the politicians after the 1965 Watts riot with same stories of how they were going to fix the system and address problems for Black communities. So much for politicians and their same old promises.

Bob Stover, Huntington Beach