Thirteen years ago, thugs and morons in southern California terrorized law-abiding business owners and citizens and sent Los Angeles up in flames. Coddling apologists still insist on referring to the L.A. riots as “civil unrest” or the “disturbance.” Korean-American shopkeepers in particular will not soon forget. Meanwhile, one of the most famous hate-mongers to emerge from the episode, Ice Cube, is living large.

See also my 2002 column on the forgotten angels of the L.A. riots. An excerpt:

One of the fearless angels who tried to lift up his fallen city was the Rev. Bennie Newton. I met him once, and I’ll never forget him. Newton, himself an ex-con, ran an inner-city ministry for troubled black men. On April 29, 1992, he tuned into the TV to see brutal animals assaulting Reginald Denny on the corner of Florence and Normandie. Newton rushed to the scene. When he arrived, Denny was gone. Four other good and humble Samaritans — Lei Yuille, Titus Murphy, Terri Barnett and Bobby Green - had come to Denny’s aid.

But a gang of young black males - with Damian Williams still present - was pummeling another innocent bystander. Fidel Lopez, a self-employed construction worker, had been ripped from his truck and robbed of nearly $2,000. Someone busted his forehead open with a car stereo; another rioter tried to slice his ear off. The mobbed stripped off Lopez’s pants and underwear after he blacked out. Williams and others then spraypainted the married father’s chest, torso, and genitals black. Newton daringly threw his body over Lopez’s to stop the depravity.

“Kill him and you have to kill me, too,” Newton yelled while waving a Bible. The crowd dispersed. The minister prayed in the street as Lopez regained consciousness. When he could not get an ambulance, he drove Lopez to the hospital himself…

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