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TIME: Almanac (Reference Edition)
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Time Almanac Reference Edition (COMPACT Publishing)(1994)(Mac 4 TM-030).iso
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TIME
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051892
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0518990.000;1
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1994-04-13
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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THE WEEK, Page 18NATIONSmoldering Embers, Scared Politicians
Candidates scramble to fix blame for the Los Angeles fire storm
The count might yet go higher: some 200 of the nearly 2,400
injured might succumb, and cleanup crews might find more bodies
in burned-out buildings. But the death toll, currently 53,
already certifies the Los Angeles riots as the bloodiest in the
U.S. in at least 75 years. And the embers from more than 5,500
fires still smolder, metaphorically -- as George Bush found out
touring the riot areas last week. His guardians were so
concerned for his security that they would not tell TV crews
what route he would take, lest live coverage draw hostile
demonstrators. But some showed up anyway, chanting "Go Home" or
"No Justice." In response, Bush delivered a many-sided message.
"Just wanton lawlessness," he said, viewing the twisted
skeletons of washers and dryers in a torched laundromat. But he
also told police officers that he wanted to "get at the root
cause" of the unrest, and he promised federal help in rebuilding
Los Angeles -- while yet remarking that "dumping largesse" from
Washington on the community was not the answer. Sturdier values
are needed, said the President, and the Federal Government
cannot teach youths how to tell right from wrong.
The attempt to cover all bases was understandable.
Politicians are sure that the riots and their aftermath will be
a major issue in the November elections. But past the immediate
impact -- another drop in Bush's popularity -- they cannot be
sure how it will play. Will frightened voters respond to stern
pledges to restore law and order, or heed calls for new efforts
to heal racial animosity, or demand some elusive combination of
both? Unable to fix immediately on the right blend, candidates
instinctively responded by trying to place blame, while piously
denying that they were doing any such thing. White House
spokesman Marlin Fitzwater initially blamed Democratic Great
Society social programs enacted in the '60s and '70s that had
backfired -- a statement so widely derided that Bush quickly
amended it to say merely that those programs had lamentably not
worked very well. Democratic heir presumptive Bill Clinton in
turn decried "12 more years of neglect" of racial and urban ills
while Republicans have held the White House.
What the Administration might do is not yet clear. It has
been trotting out Housing and Urban Development Secretary Jack
Kemp to talk up a conservative-activist agenda featuring
inner-city enterprise zones and measures to enable
public-housing tenants to own their apartments, but Bush has not
made it a priority. He has so far promised $600 million in
federal assistance for rebuilding. More might be needed.
Property damage is already estimated at $785 million, and the
figure is bound to go higher, quite likely topping $1 billion.
An estimated 10,000 businesses have been shut down, many never
to reopen. Peter Ueberroth, the former baseball commissioner and
1984 U.S. Olympics organizer, who has been designated chief of
Rebuild L.A. by Mayor Tom Bradley, puts the number of lost jobs
at 25,000 minimum -- maybe three times that many.
Los Angeles authorities were still booking the last of some
16,900 people arrested for riot-related crimes. California
Governor Pete Wilson signed a special law giving them more time.
Under existing law, which specified that they had to be
arraigned within 48 hours of arrest, thousands would have had to
be allowed to walk free. In the city, as nationally, the air was
filled with recriminations, mostly over charges that the police
had been slow to mobilize to contain the riot -- in fact had
pulled out after the first confrontations and, lacking a
contingency plan, taken a disastrously long time to regroup. The
physical rebuilding job has barely begun. But it will be far
overshadowed by the task of rebuilding, or building for the
first time, some sense of hope and racial reconciliation -- if
that can in fact be done.