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I vividly remember watching video of the Rodney King riots every day on the evening news during that time. I had never seen such a thing. Every day, I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

I was very impressed with the resolve and the resourcefulness of the "rooftop Koreans." They did what they needed to do to protect themselves and their property under very uncertain circumstances.

I was also shocked at seeing the savagery of the merciless beating and attempted murder of truck driver Reginald Denny (and also remember being surprised that he survived such a vicious attack).

But another scene that I saw during those events also made a lasting impression on me in a different way. I think it was after the Reginald Denny beating (or maybe the same day?). It was footage shot from a news helicopter, showing rioters milling around on the street, and showed some cars either stuck in place, or moving very slowly through traffic and obstructions.

So anyway, this one guy in a car is stopped, waiting for a chance the get through an intersection, when a group of 8 or 10 or 12 guys that are 20 or 30 yards away from him notice that he is stopped. The group of rioters then begins moving directly toward this guy in this one car. As I'm seeing this, I thinking to myself "oh no, this is going to get real ugly, real quick."

The helicopter filming this is then just about directly overhead looking straight down, and all I remember seeing at that point is a long arm coming out of the driver's side window of the car, with some kind of big ol' gun in his hand! Suddenly, all these rioters coming towards the guy must have all simultaneously remembered that they had an urgent appointment somewhere else. The entire group all together at once just made a sharp 90 degree turn and moved off in another direction. The guy in the car just pulled the gun back inside and then drove off - neat, quick, clean, easy, no shots fired, no one hurt. THAT one scene spoke volumes to me that day!