Riot

In addition to 1992, let's remember 1985, when Los Angeles was cocky. Twenty years had passed since the notorious Watts riots, and civic leaders congratulated themselves on what their city had become since then. They had just wrapped up the wildly successful Olympics. L.A. was the capital of the emerging Pacific Rim and held a key position on the international stage. An African American mayor presided over a multiethnic city of the future. South Los Angeles residents had access to a full-service medical center, and there were promises of new grocery stores and retail centers in the very near future.

Re "An intersection's forgotten victim quietly moved on," Column, May 6 I, of course, have heard of Reginald Denny. I remember being absolutely horrified at his senseless beating. It was a scene straight out of a horror movie, and to me, it was akin to the end of the world - Armageddon, indeed, at Florence and Normandie. I was unaware of Fidel Lopez's plight. Steve Lopez's article about him was intriguing yet painful to read. The hopeful aspect of this story, which lifted my heart, was the appearance of a guardian angel in the form of the Rev. Bennie Newton, who stopped Lopez's attackers.

Pity this year's Republican candidates: Insurrection in L.A. and no U.S.S.R. to blame it on. GEORGE C. BALDERAS Corona

They had names like Rebuild L.A., Community Coalition, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance. Their goals were nearly identical: provide new jobs and services to an underserved community. Improve neighborhoods. Build better relationships. The aftermath of the 1992 riots was a galvanizing moment for community activism, spawning groups formed out of City Hall, churches and local nonprofits. Some have endured over the last two decades, shifting their priorities as the city changed.

Repairs underway at the riot-damaged California Institute for Men at Chino include replacing ceramic bathroom fixtures with stainless steel and cotton bedding with flame-retardant fabrics to prevent the kind of widespread destruction that occurred there in August, state prison authorities said Tuesday. In a report on lessons learned from the Aug. 8 riot that injured 249 prisoners and eight staffers, investigators with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation praised staff response to the violent disturbance for preventing escapes and fatalities.

Column One ("Looking for Faces With No Names," Aug. 16) tells about the problems in identifying dozens of suspects in the 1992 rioting despite the fact they were captured in photos or videos. Three elements are needed: 1) Wide exposure to the citizenry of photos of the men wanted. 2) A monetary reward for accurate identifications. 3) Complete anonymity given to providers of information. The article mentions that "some residents say their hesitancy to come forward stems from a fear of retaliation."

Charred cotton mattress stuffing is heaped on a scruffy lawn outside Joshua Hall dormitory at the California Institution for Men, the interior ankle-deep in ash and evidence of inmate-on-inmate brutality that has destroyed precious space in one of the state's most volatile prisons. In neighboring Otay Hall, dried blood stains a lower bunk mattress where a reclining inmate's chest would be, two deep gashes in the fabric suggesting a stab wound. Between the two dorms -- one destroyed by fire, the other smashed and debris-strewn -- stands an empty carton marked "White Kittey," testifying to the racial divides that run deep among the facility's 5,900 prisoners.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Thursday. The Electric Daisy Carnival documentary had its premiere in Hollywood last night, and a near-riot broke out. ( Los Angeles Times ) The cast of the 25th anniversary touring company of "Les Miserables" mashed up its musical with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" for a video. ( Los Angeles Times ) A woman tried to burgle Alex Trebek's hotel room in San Francisco, but the "Jeopardy!" host gave chase.

A major riot had to occur to push foreign affairs to the back pages of newspapers. MARIAN R. FERTIG, Los Angeles

THE TIMES' word of choice for one of the most destructive weeks in L.A.'s history -- from April 29 to May 4, 1992, when more than 50 people died, thousands were injured and hundreds of millions of dollars in property was destroyed -- is "riot." The Times has used "riot" for the Rodney G. King verdict furor well over 1,000 times since then. Webster's defines "riot" as "a raucous or violent disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled for a common private purpose."

Here are some of the other 23 victims of unsolved homicides related to the L.A. riots. Click for an interactive map of the riots deaths to learn more about all of the incidents: Howard Epstein , 45, was shot and killed April 30, 1992, near Slauson and 7th avenues in Hyde Park. Epstein, who had flown from his Northern California home to check on his South Los Angeles metal manufacturing business, was struck in the head by a bullet apparently fired from a pickup truck that had pulled alongside his car. His car careened into a liquor store parking lot, where a crowd quickly gathered.

In 1985, Los Angeles rapper Toddy Tee released what could be considered West Coast hip-hop's opening salvo against police brutality in black neighborhoods. The electro-grooved "Batterram," named for the battering ram that then-LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates used to smash into homes of suspected drug dealers, was a hit on local radio station KDAY-AM. The track went on to become a protest anthem in minority neighborhoods around the city where the device was often deployed against homes that were later proved drug-free: "You're mistakin' my pad for a rockhouse / Well, I know to you we all look the same / But I'm not the one slingin' caine / I work nine to five and ain't a damn thing changed …" rapped Toddy Tee. The L.A. riots of 1992 arrived with its soundtrack in place.

In addition to 1992, let's remember 1985, when Los Angeles was cocky. Twenty years had passed since the notorious Watts riots, and civic leaders congratulated themselves on what their city had become since then. They had just wrapped up the wildly successful Olympics. L.A. was the capital of the emerging Pacific Rim and held a key position on the international stage. An African American mayor presided over a multiethnic city of the future. South Los Angeles residents had access to a full-service medical center, and there were promises of new grocery stores and retail centers in the very near future.

The civil unrest that devastated Los Angeles in spring 1992 and lighted a fire under the city's police department and political establishment also sounded an alarm to L.A.'s major cultural institutions: They needed to diversify their programming, expand their audiences, and step up their outreach efforts toward a population undergoing rapid demographic change. Over the past 20 years, institutions such as LACMA, the L.A. Phil, the Getty and L.A. Opera have attempted to attract larger audiences, particularly younger ones, from the region's growing Mexican American, Central American, Asian American and other ethnic-minority populations.

Twenty years ago Sunday, on a warm spring afternoon, Los Angeles fell apart. It started with the announcement of not-guilty verdicts on all but one count against the police officers who had beaten Rodney King into submission. It flared in confrontations in neighborhood after neighborhood, was fanned by television images of a truck driver being dragged from his vehicle at the intersection of Florence and Normandie, and was inflamed by a raucous mob that rampaged through downtown that night, starting at police headquarters and spreading out from there.

Re "The past still grips," April 23 and "King discusseshis 'Riot Within' at Festival of Books," April 22 For 20 years I have dreaded this time of year, when the 1992 L.A. riots and Rodney King are brought to the forefront. I am sorry King was beaten by police; I am sorry the jury brought back a verdict that was not popular with many people; I am sorry the riots ever happened. You see, my 24-year-old son was one of the 54 people who died because of the riots.

Inmates decapitated a prison official during a riot. Deputy Director Jorge Augusto Mendoza was slain in Chimaltenango prison. A spokesman said the riot began after two women were caught smuggling in drugs. Inmates said the violence was in reaction to guards' brutality.

I was an event official at the Op Pro Surfing Championships in Huntington Beach during the Aug. 31 riot, but I am writing as a private citizen concerning the way in which the police handled the situation. I noticed in your account of the riot that some interviewed youths thought the police were overly zealous in their use of force, and I would like to respond to that. First of all, I watched the entire episode develop and take place from a point 20 feet above the sand; in other words, I witnessed the entire riot.

Two decades after the L.A. riots brought pledges of help to rebuild South Los Angeles, the area is worse off in many ways than it was in 1992. Median income, when adjusted for inflation, is lower. Many middle-class blacks have fled in search of safer neighborhoods and better schools. And the unemployment rate, which was bad at the time of the riots, has reached even more dire levels. In two areas of South Los Angeles - Florence Graham and Westmont - unemployment is almost 24%. Back in 1992, it was 21% in Florence Graham and 17% in Westmont.

It is the first morning of May 1992, and the air outside my Koreatown apartment is acrid with lingering smoke. I gingerly wander through the neighborhood, hoping to find a place to buy a quart of milk. Around the corner on Vermont Avenue is a now-famous ruin, a block-long strip mall whose smoking, melted contours have been broadcast around the world in the last 24 hours. Dozens of stores on the street have been stripped and looted. The day before, I had lingered on my stoop watching people stagger down the block with pillaged sporting goods, small appliances, VHS tapes, cheap furniture, toys and plastic-wrapped suits from the dry cleaners.