Reginald Denny

While L.A. residents, primarily poor black and brown people, were subjected to extremely violent and uneven treatment by the police, the subsequent riots were a mix of frustration, the momentary intoxication of mob mentality, and opportunism.

Soulja famously stated that she had no problem with the violence perpetrated against white and Asian Angelenos, most notably Reginald Denny.

She said, quote, white people, this government, and that mayor were all aware of the fact that black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence.

So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Yeah, that's what she said.

But then on the other side, he was this hate figure for liberals and stuff.

But I remember when poor Reginald Denny got moved on by them people in South Central.

It was that truck driver who got pulled out of his truck and beaten in an inch of his life.

He had skull fractures.

The choppers, swashbuckling and loud, are a signature of the region, indispensable in a metropolis encompassing thousands of square miles.

In 1992, they carried the news during the Los Angeles riots as crowds at the intersection of Florence and Normandy Avenues attacked the trucker Reginald Denny.

Two years later, they filled the sky when O.J. Simpson led the police on a riveting two-hour chase through Southern California freeways.

Come flames or floods, rose parades or ice protests, they are as ubiquitous as seabirds, watching and swooping in from above.