On days like this . . .
– May 2, 1992 – CBS World News Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
May 2, 1992. L.A. woke up to relative calm, as the curfew and the presence of National Guard, as well as Army and Marine units patrolling the streets attempted to restore something resembling order.
Many are breathing a cautious sigh of relief as hopes that the worst of it is over. But even at this stage, the violence that shook the city during the aftermath of the Rodney King trial far outweighed the violence that overtook L.A. in 1965, when that insurrection turned a city upside down.
But the violence wasn’t over – there were still reports of sporadic gunfire, looting and buildings blazing. But the presence of troops and President Bush’s address the night before, vowing to send in more troops was slowly bringing calm and acting as a deterrent for the most part.
Not so much in the rest of the country, as reports of violence in other cities sprang up in the form of demonstrations, rock throwing and arson everywhere from Seattle to Georgetown, Washington D.C.
And if all that wasn’t bad enough, reports of a high school shooting and hostage situation at Lindhurst High School near Sacramento got everyone just a little more on edge. Eric Houston, a former student who failed to graduate three years earlier, returned dressed in battle fatigues and armed to the teeth with rifle, shotgun and with a bandolier of ammunition. He killed three students and a teacher and wounded 11 others in a hail of gunfire covering three separate classrooms. He then took 80 students hostage, releasing them unharmed, in small groups in exchange for Advil and Pizza. Houston finally surrendered peacefully, some 8 1/2 hours after the siege began.
And while L.A. slowly came to grips, and cities around the country were having their own battles,that’s just a small slice of what went on in this fractured world of ours, May 2, 1992 as reported by the CBS World News Roundup.
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