Voices

“We had numerous occasions where there were attempts to kill firefighters. They (rioters) tried to kill them with axes. They tried to kill them with gunshots.” Fire Chief Donald Manning “(Gates had) his own scheme to allow the violence to go forward. I think he said let them (blacks) show their violent nature so he could say, ‘See, I told you they were violent people.’ He wanted to show on TV how violent our community is, and if that were played out in the media it would support his position that he needs to be there in control.” State Sen. Diane Watson, a Democrat who represents the heavily black, riot-torn areas of South Los Angeles “If you win a case, you’re a hero. If you lose, you’re a goat. He’s toast. It goes beyond goat.” Sam Singer, who ran Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s 1990 campaign for attorney general “It represents permission to permit genocide against black males.” The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference “I don’t really understand how the jury came out that way, because that tape we all saw looked pretty convincing.” Robert H. Bork, the former federal judge who was rejected as Ronald Reagan’s nominee to the Supreme Court “I think, just looking at (the demonstrators), that they’re capable of staying a good long time. It bothers me, though, that they may be turning people against what they are fighting for.” Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum “I’m hoping this is the start of a racial revolution.” Demonstrator Sherman Asher, 22, of Los Angeles “Yes, in some places in America, there is regrettably a cycle of poverty and despair, but if the system perpetuates this cycle, then we’ve got to change the system. We simply cannot condone violence as a way of changing the system.” President Bush “The City of Angels is turning into a city of Armageddon. (To those who are angry) I say, ‘Think about what you’re doing before you do it.’ But it doesn’t matter what I say. A lot of them are asleep right now. . . . Unless we change the system around, it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.” John Singleton, 23, director of the controversial film “Boyz N the Hood.”

“Over the course of the last 12 to 14 years, there’s been a meanness in America, whereby people no longer think of themselves as being an American, or a citizen. . . . It’s black or white, educated or non-educated. You either got some money, or you don’t. . . . Burning it down? The only people who are going to suffer the most are the people who are already suffering. We’ve got to channel this energy so it’s something meaningful.” Don McHenry, 41, co-producer of “New Jack City,” a 1991 film that explored the urban black experience. “No justice. No peace.” Demonstrators