Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992

I don't even need to look at the videotape to tell you.

The attack on Bart Bartholomew.

The Vacas.

The Bejars.

I believe that's the Volvo.

Larry Tarvin.

Reginald Denny.

Fidel Lopez.

You know, I don't need the videotape

to see those attacks.

I... I can still picture them

and almost how they happened

or what the individual looked like.

Or what was taking place.

I mean, I can remember that whole day.

You can ask me what happened on April 23rd, I probably couldn't tell you,

but I can tell you everything that happened on April 29th.

The radio was putting out calls like...

The radio operator couldn't speak quick enough to get her calls out.

And these weren't calls like shoplifting.

These were assault with deadly weapon.

Robbery in progress.

Assault with deadly weapon in progress.

Looting in progress.

I mean, these were all Code 3 calls, which are the highest priority.

Lights and siren calls.

I remember seeing a lady coming down the street,

she was driving eastbound on Florence

and I could see her face through the windshield of her car.

She was scared to death. She was driving really slow.

There was a guy in front of her with a rock in his hand,

as if he was going to throw it through her window.

It was... It was crazy.

It was scary.

I'm watching the buildings burn up,

the indoor swap meets I used to go in to buy things, on fire.

The neighborhood grocery stores we used to go in, um, in shambles.

You could see the fire, you could see the broken windows.

And you could see the assaults taking place.

And the arson, the crime,

and it kinda gave you a sick feeling.

I can't say it was as bad as terrorism,

but you can kind of say it was terrorism in the community.

But any type of terrorism needs to be handled.

Everybody I spoke to from that day on,

when I asked them where they were

and what they were doing

and what they were watching on the TV

or what they were hearing on the radio, they were terrified.

Whether they lived in Brentwood, Bel-Air, Long Beach, East L.A.,

South Central L.A., downtown L.A...

They were terrified,

because they were watching the city begin to burn.

My goal was to make it to the NFL.

That was one of my biggest dreams.

I'm from Vicksburg, Mississippi.

I grew up on a plantation.

And I know about the colored signs

and the white signs

and the back door

and not being able to go to school

as long as some cotton was in the field.

I can smell racism from 1,000 miles and I hate it.

And I will spend the rest of my life

making it better for our sons and our daughters.

I moved to California with my parents when I was a small child

and lived in Santa Monica briefly.

And then ultimately relocated to Placentia, California,

in Orange County.

And I grew up next door to a, um,

a Los Angeles Police motorcycle officer.

So, at a young age I was interested and fascinated with police work.

Growing up in South Central was great.

I mean, you had well-manicured lawns.

All the kids played on the street.

We played baseball, we played football on the street.

We played basketball in each other's driveway.

Um, it was just a great time.

All my friends were there.

When I lived here from '80 to '83 going to law school,

I didn't really stray from the west side of Los Angeles.

I was so involved with, you know, learning how to be a prosecutor

and working 14 to 15 hours a day

that, uh...

I didn't really have time for much,

other than working, getting married.

My dad worked in downtown Los Angeles.

My mom stayed home and raised my sister and I.

And my parents, they were born here.

They were both kids when World War II broke out.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,

they, um...

The U.S. government rounded up most of the Japanese Americans

and put them in a concentration camp.

Um, so my mom was in a camp for,

you know, about five years.

My dad, my grandfather took him,

sent him to Japan to get an education when he was 10.

And right when...

Right after he sent them,

that's when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,

and then he got stuck over there.

And they knew he was an American too,

so he had a rough time.

I lived in Pacoima, California and... It was all right.

It was mixed. Black and Mexican, mostly.

We got along pretty good.

So we hung out and doing things,

you know, like hangin' out at the park,

sometimes we'd go to the beach.

My brother probably had problems with the police, but...

Like I said, I was young. I didn't have any problem with them.

Um...

Mincey had a problem with them. (CHUCKLES)

I'm sorry, I called James "Mincey"

because I had too many Jameses in my life.

So I was like, "So, what can I call you besides James?"

I was 17. He was 17 too. We was around the same age.

My birthday is on the 3rd and his on the 5th of January.

Um, I was walking home

'cause my ride didn't show up

and he started walking with me.

But then he got me in trouble

'cause my boyfriend did show up later

and they end up in a fistfight.

So after they fought, I ended up going with Mincey.

To me, he had a good heart. He was a kind person.

He loved karate. He was a black belt.

And, um...

He was goofy. He loved to take pictures.

He took a really pretty picture of me with...

Smelling a flower.

After we turned 18, we thought we was grown and we jetted to Missouri

to live there. (LAUGHS)

But when winter came, I ended up leaving him.

'Cause it was too cold for me in Missouri.

I was like, "No, I have to go home."

So we all came back and he was trying to save for an apartment.

And, um, I had got pregnant.

I don't know, he was only 20 but he acted older.

Oh, my God, he was only 20 at the time. (CHUCKLES)

Uh...

We was young.

Early 1982, I got out into the streets in Foothill Division.

Drugs had become a real big deal.

The rock cocaine and PCP was everywhere.

When I'm talking about PCP, it's phencyclidine.

It was mostly the PCP

where the people were acting violent.

It wasn't just that they didn't feel pain,

they were extremely strong.

Their system just goes into overdrive with that drug.

(MAN SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY OVER POLICE RADIO)

We tried Tasers,

and the Tasers most of the time didn't work

on a person under the influence of PCP.

So, if you can't do that,

how are you going to control them?

Okay, okay.

Well, we had choke holds, and the choke holds worked.

(INSTRUCTOR SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY)

Well, there were two choke holds that LAPD used.

The one choke hold was the bar-arm.

And that's where the bone in your forearm is placed against the person's windpipe.

And that was the most dangerous one.

And the other one is the carotid,

where they do sort of a "V" shape

and then come in behind the head.

And that cuts off the blood to the carotid,

and that's much less dangerous.

I think it was March of '82.

I'm in a pursuit of a James Mincey Jr.

The way I heard the story,

he was driving to his mom's house,

one set of cops pulled him over...

He was, uh... He'd been stopped by two other officers

for a cracked windshield.

They gave him a ticket.

And so he was continuing, going to his mom's house.

Five minutes later, he's driving somewhere...

There was another set of police there.

And so, they put the siren on him.

So he's thinking we're the same cops that had stopped him before.

He thought they was harassing him, by the end.

It's not a fast pursuit.

It's 45, 50 miles an hour.

He's trying to continue to his mom's house.

They always told us if you didn't feel safe,

drive to where you feel safe.

Because of the pursuit,

now we have to handcuff him.

I'd ran out of the car as he pulled up in the driveway

and I... I dropped my baton to grab him.

And so he's coming toward me and I spray him with tear gas.

And he puts his hands to his face

and says, "Ow, my eyes."

And I'd run up with my partner to grab him.

He was trying to struggle to get the mace out of his face.

I mean, he's real slippery and he just pulls away from us

and he runs toward the house.