race relations

When asked by his group's facilitator whether he believed the youth in South L.A. had opportunities -- opportunities to grow, succeed, try new things, advance their education, you name it -- one young man said he was convinced that the answer was a resounding "no."

"David!" I yelled, gesturing at City Planning's David Somers to come over and listen to what the residents playing cards in their yard were saying about the need for a stoplight at the intersection outside their front gate.

"We do not believe at this point that there is any indication that this [incident] was race-based,” Capt. II Paul Snell of the LAPD Southwest Division told 1000 attendees at a forum last Tuesday night to address the mistreatment of black students by the LAPD when shutting down their party on May 4th.

"What you got on you?" the 15 year-old girl says the cops pulled up alongside her asked as she walked along Vermont one night.

One of the exciting things about covering South L.A. is how active the communities within the area are. So active, in fact, I cannot always keep up with everything that is going on. Instead of writing stories this week, I've been catching up on piecing together the interviews, photos, and stories I've been tracking for some time so that I can hit the ground running with some more in-depth stories next week. I was hoping to have this weekend off to finish that process, but that might not happen. There's too much amazing stuff going on. Check it out:

"It's still important for us to come together," began Taryn Randle, one of the ride leaders and member of both the Ovarian Psycos and Black Kids on Bikes.