It has become a ritual since the start of the riots in Los Angeles: in the middle of the afternoon, all the Angelenos’ phones vibrate in unison. On the screens, an urgent message from the authorities immediately appears to warn them of the impending curfew.
There was already the Covid-19 which had prevented us from operating normally for three months. Now that the restrictions are slowly starting to be lifted, we are under house arrest again at 5 p.m., as if we were living in the midst of a civil war.
, sighs Susan Cunningham, a retiree, watering her lawn. Above his neighborhood, several helicopters are noisily raking the sky, while a new demonstration in memory of George Floyd is taking place, a few streets away.
Tens of thousands of protesters
Since the death of this African American, who died on May 25 after his arrest by the police in Minneapolis, the city of Los Angeles has quickly become one of the centers of protest against police violence in the United States. Large protests, sometimes involving tens of thousands of people, have sprung up across the city to demand that Derek Chauvin, the police officer accused of killing George Floyd, be charged with intentional homicide.
Some of these rallies quickly degenerated into clashes with the police, looting and burning of shops in beautiful neighborhoods. Overflows in which the police found themselves powerless, forcing the city’s mayor, Eric Garcetti, to call in the National Guard.
The echo of the 1992 riots
Along the main boulevards, before each passage of demonstrations, more and more traders protect their storefronts with large wooden panels to prevent theft and destruction. Some had just reopened after California relaxed restrictions on Covid-19.
For many residents, this heavy climate echoes the great riots of 1992 that set Los Angeles on fire and blood after the acquittal of police officers who had lynched an African-American, Rodney King.
I’m afraid it’s going to be a blaze like it was in 1992. I have friends who have pulled out their guns when they barely know how to use them
said Jason McCarthy, a Pasadena resident, very scarred as a child by the images of the riots he had seen on television.
Most of the people who take part in these rallies are peaceful, assures Zack Ritter, a 34-year-old educator, who took to the streets last Saturday, mask and sunglasses on his nose. I saw with my own eyes demonstrators trying to prevent some from committing acts of vandalism.
These demonstrations are different from those of 1992, when most of the protesters were black. The crowd of demonstrators is today much more mixed, like American society. “
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