1992 Los Angeles Riots

[Jim Eshelman]

Today is the 25th anniversary of the start of the 1992 Los Angeles riots (aka the Rodney King Riots), and you haven't been able to easily miss this fact for the last couple of weeks. I think I've never done a mundane breakdown of it, though. (I lived through it. It's lumped in my head as an unstable period roughly the same time as the Northridge earthquake.) I have extremely vivid memories of the time - including intentionally driving through the worst of it the next morning with my windows rolled up and my psychic sensors on full alert status.

The riots ran from April 29 to May 4. The verdict was read at 3:15 PM. By about 4:15 PM, the igniting mob was forming at Florence and Normandie to begin looting. By 4:58 PM the Mayor was holding a news conference. And on it went... leading to truck driver Reginald Denny being pulled from his vehicle at 6:43 PM to be beaten nearly to death by the mob, which then looted his truck.

I think this last event is the most critical flashpoint moment, although events were already in motion by then.

Year: Capsolar (Dormant.) Moon-Pluto op. (2°20')

Year: Cansolar (Dormant.)
Moon-Uranus sq. (1°37' in mundo)
Moon-Neptune sq. (1°32')

Bridge
t Mars sq. Capsolar Asc 4/26-5/1

Quarter: Aries
Venus sq. Asc (2°07')
Moon-Mars op. (2°12' in mundo)
Moon-Jupiter conj. (3°37' in mundo)
Neptune on Asc (5°58')
Uranus on Asc (6°06')
-- Uranus-Neptune conj. (0°08' in mundo)
Sun on IC (7°37')

Month: Caplunar (Dormant.)
Week: Liblunar (Dormant.) Moon-Sun op. (2°36')
Week: Canlunar (Dormant.) Moon-Venus sq. (1°52')
Week: Arilunar (Dormant.)

Day: Capsolar Quotidian & Transits
p Asc sq. s. Saturn (0°17')
p MC conj. s Sun (0°50')
p EP conj. t Venus (0°58')
----------------------------------
t Mars sq. s Asc (0°41')
t Mercury op. s MC (1°28')

Day: Cansolar Quotidian & Transits
p MC conj. t Mars (0°57')
p Asc op. s Uranus(0°58'), sq. t Mercury (1°31')
--------------------------
t Mercury op. s Moon (0°11')

SUMMARY
Year (Capsolar): (Dormant.) Moon-Pluto.
Year (Cansolar): (Dormant.) Moon-Uranus Moon-Neptune.
Bridge (+2): Mars (Cap).
Quarter (+1): Venus (Sun Uranus Neptune). Moon-Mars Moon-Jupiter Uranus-Neptune.
Month: (Dormant.)
Week (Liblunar): (Dormant.) Moon-Sun.
Week (Canlunar): (Dormant.) Moon-Venus.
Week (Arilunar): (Dormant.)
Day (Capsolar, +2): Sun Venus Saturn (CapQ, +1). Mercury Mars (transits, +2).
Day (Cansolar, +2): Mercury Mars Uranus (CanQ). Moon-Mercury (transits).

[Jim Eshelman]

BTW, I was looking for my diary from the time. I spent time down in the worst of the rioting area near its peak, and wrote quite a lot at the time that I was going to copy here as a first person account; but I guess that diary (like most of them) is in storage. After the first full day, Anna-Kria and I left town for several days, and spent the first night or two watching events centered on businesses near our home attacked, sometimes burned, often vandalized.

The explosion of the riots originally was about violent emotion. There was a huge rage rising up almost palpably, and this turned into masses of smoke rising up physically as buildings were burned. Within that, though, it seemed to me that the primary motive (after first breakout) was avarice. I've never seen so much looting, it became (after the first rage blow-off) the main feature. Between the avarice and what I might call the entertainment value, the Arisolar may actually deserve a higher score than I gave it.

In this regard, one scene I worth describing. At the Crenshaw and Rodeo intersection, one small shopping center was being openly looted in broad daylight. The neighborhood considered it a great show, I guess: Across the street from it, almost a dozen people had brought out lawn chairs and coolers of beers and sodas so they could sit out there in a line and watch all day from across the street.