European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 9, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Picking up the pieces future rests on what children learn from riot by Anne c. Roark and Sandy Banks los Angeles times years from now historians and educators will look Back on the Spring of 1992 As a defining moment for the children of los Angeles. As the City struggles to rebuild itself in the Wake of the worst civil unrest of this Century its children lace their own Healing process a and the City s future May rest on the lessons they draw. The complicated dimensions of the situation a the beating of a Black Man by White police officers the not guilty verdicts handed Down by a mostly White jury the violence that seemed to be aimed at asian shopkeepers in Black and latino neighbourhoods a pose a dilemma but also an Opportunity for adults who will now have to answer children a Tough questions about who is right who is wrong and Why it happened. Quot one of the Quot Good news Quot things about what has just happened in los Angeles is that this is the sort of experience that shapes moral development in children a said James Garbarino a Chicago psychologist and author of a Book to be released this week children in danger coping with the consequences of Community violence Quot we can enhance it or we can suppress it Quot Garbarino said. Quot it will depend on what we As adults say and do Over the course of the next Days and weeks and months 1 experts in child development and race relations from around the country who watched events unfold in los Angeles Are now preparing to help children begin the Long and arduous process of recovery a process already under Way in Many Homes and classrooms. Some parents have tried to shield their children irom the horror of what happened by turning off the television or leaving town. Ashley Denny the 8-year-old daughter of the White trucker beaten senseless in the first hours of the riot was kept from watching television by her Mother Shelley Montez who told the child Only that Quot people took their anger out on daddy and he a in the Hospital now and that s the safest place he can  in some Cates anger has spilled out in tears and racial epithets. For some the bitterness is aimed at politicians and police for others the villains Are arsonists and looters. Quot i m angry at the african people because they went crazy. And burned Down the garage where my father worked Quot said a 10-year-old korean american girl who attended a massive peace March in Korea town with her family last week. Quot in a afraid that now we re going to be poor Quot some children found themselves standing with their parents on shifting moral ground. In parts of the City parents took their children on looting sprees one Day and neighbourhood cleanup missions the next. How children Are to make sense of what has happened m los Angeles when the adults they count on Are confused and bewildered themselves is a question that looms for Many families one answer has been a multiracial cleanup Effort. It is a hopeful first step and a Way to help children regain a sense of control said or. Alvin f. Poussaint a Harvard psychiatry professor Well known for his research on children. But it May not be enough to prevent bigotry and serious emotional problems in some children. The next Steps will be harder a to identify those children who Are in crisis to teach those untouched by the violence to empathize and to see to it that this generation of youth understands better than their elders the Complex web of problems that led to riots across the country. Quot you can to talk about love your neighbors and we should All work together and not address the underlying problems Quot said or. James p. Comer a child psychiatrist at Yale University and co author with Poussaint of the Book Black child care. Quot if we get into the year 2000 without having articulated a commitment to make some changes in this society we re going to have psychological problems As a nation that will  us straight downhill a Comer said the children who need the most immediate help Are those who even before the uprising have been constantly exposed to violence there is Quot a common sense idea that kids who already live Tough lives Are inoculated to violence Quot Gabarino said. In fact research has shown just the opposite Quot we re placing these kids at a very High risk for getting Hurt or hurting someone else Quot said or. James Rosenberg chief psychiatric resident at the University of California los Angeles. Quot we re talking about huge numbers of people. If they done to receive some kind of care you might be talking about 10 percent to 20 percent of children in los Angeles being at  among children who witnessed the fires and looting firsthand As Many As one third May develop Quot serious psychological problems Quot he said. In a recent Pilot study or. Eugene l. Jennings a Urcla psychiatrist examined the effects of gang violence on the people of South los Angeles. He found that 25 percent of the 73 people studied a a much higher number than anticipated a suffered from Post traumatic stress disorder a psychiatric ailment sometimes seen among soldiers returning from War. Symptoms include recurring nightmares difficulty concentrating feelings of estrangement and a Host of other problems that make it difficult to succeed in school hold Down a Job or maintain Normal relationships with friends or family. Thoa problems will Only intensify in the Wake of the riot Jennings predicted. Quot six months or a year from now we re going to see a lot of kids unable to concentrate in school or a acting out Quot he said. Quot they la steal or become violent. Or maybe they la experience psychic numbing they la just shut Down emotionally. They won t feel. They won t care. When it happens people will say wow that kid suddenly went bad. And no one will know Why. They wont connect what is happening then to what went on  to counteract these problems a number of trauma trucker Reginald Denny and daughter. At symbols of Tho riot Fin and looters. A Many of the rioters were youngsters whole lives already have been shaped by violent lifestyles authorities said. Children can be profoundly changed by Tho images they be seen whether it s an army Street patrol tar left Orpet Lelve video violence. And violence experts around the City have volunteered to go into schools to screen children and provide specialized counselling. Upon hearing her parents reaction to the Rodney King verdict a preschool child of Liberal White parents concluded a ooh so we re rooting for the Blacks and against the  Quot while there May be some truth in that for the parents Quot said Tarabino Quot it is important that the parents not leave it there for the child. Rather they need to go on and explain a no the police Aren t always bad but in this Case they behaved very badly and it makes us angry or sad or whatever it is you  experts Are cautiously optimistic that Young people will get the help they need. There Are Many people reaching out a ministers teachers psychologists psychiatrists a people All Over the City Are offering to help children Cope with their intense feelings. The problem said Urcla s Jennings is unlike the Campaign to rebuild the City that Peter Ueberroth will  the Effort to help children recover from the strife has no chief to make sure the vital services reach All the children who need them. Before l.a., there was East St. Louis until the rioting in los Angeles this Mississippi River town was the scene of the 20th Century a bloodiest . Race riots. In july 1917, riots sparked partly by the migration of Black labourers from the South claimed the lives of 48 people a 39 Blacks and nine Whites including two White police officers. Earlier that year some 10,000 Blacks had poured into East St. Louis from Southern states after factory owners said they needed workers to fill positions of striking White employees in the City a booming Metal chemical and agricultural products industries. They moved into slums and accepted lower wages than White workers heightening racial tensions to the Point that gov Frank o. Lowden sent in troops to maintain order for weeks. When the troops left july 2, the riots began. A group of Whites shot at Blacks Homes and Blacks retaliated by killing two White police officers. In the next 24 hours the death toll Rose to 48, and about 250 buildings and 40 loaded freight cars were torched. Some rioters Cut off appendages from their victims As souvenirs said Milton s. Wharton a judge in nearby Belleville who has studied the riots. Mobs also set fire to Blacks Homes and shot families As they tried to flee. National guardsmen were called in to restore order but Wharton said there was evidence they participated in the mayhem. During a grand jury investigation that followed 144 men including five police officers were indicted on charges ranging from arson to murder. There were no convictions. The grand jury blamed agitators from both races and officials who allowed slum overcrowding. Black scholars baffled angered by indifference by Bill Hendrick and Robert Anthony Watts Cox news service the last time Thomas d. Boston was this mad and discouraged was 23 years ago when the blast of a Booby trap shredded his Abdomen and legs in a steamy Jungle in South Vietnam. Today he makes More than $75,000 a year and owns a four bedroom Home in Dunwoody a suburb of Atlanta he is a professor at Georgia tech. Holds a . From Cornell University and is working for the joint economic committee of Congress. But when he watched the policemen who heat Rodney King go free none of that seemed to matter what mattered was that he is Black. Quot the Rodney King verdict just reinforces the Nohon we All hold a that society is not equal that Justice is not equal that economic Opportunity is not equal Quot said Boston 44. Boston an so part in Black economic history can t understand Why 129 years after the emancipation proclamation so Many . Blacks still seem to be fighting a losing Battle for Quot any Chance at Equality. Quot nearly three decades after the passage of the civil rights act of 1964, experts say Black americans still feel profound anger helplessness and powerlessness despite impressive growth in the Black Middle class a larger percentage of Urban Black people live in poverty today than at the time of the Watts riots in 1965, . Census Bureau statistics show. The Gap Between Black and White unemployment rates is widening. Black americans still hold barely 1.5 percent of All elective offices in the United  matter How economic numbers Are crunched they Bear out such assertions a the unemployment Rale among Black people is More than twice that for White people. And it has been at least twice As High As that for Whites for As Long As the . Bureau of labor statistics has kept records. A in raw numbers almost 2 million people out of the 7 million unemployed Are Black. Blacks compose about 12 percent of the . Population and of the total workforce a but 27 percent of the unemployed. A and one of every four Quot discouraged Quot workers who Are so pessimistic about employment prospects that they Are no longer Job Hunting is Black. Quot despair has been an abiding part of our existence in this country Quot said Ronald Walters a political science professor at Howard University in Washington d c. Quot we live with the knowledge of despair because of the awareness of our second class citizenship Quot to Boston one of the More astonishing findings in his years of study of the economic history of Blacks is that most of society has shrugged off the fact that Black unemployment has always been so High. Quot there is a tendency to ignore the problem of such distress in the inner cities because they Are predominantly occupied by  like Boston. Adrian Tibbs 23, does t fall into that Quot typical Quot Mold but he s angry too. He s about to receive a Bachelor s degree from Clark Atlanta University in broadcasting and take a Job in the $25,000 Range in los Angeles which is Well above the median income for Black males of about $12,000. Also ilk Boston his parents were Quot working class people who crimped to put him through College but when he heard about the King verdict a despite Tho euphoria that precedes graduation a Quot it threw me Back into the Lynching time period. Quot it made me say right Here and now minorities on this Earth Are not Safe it seemed the White sheets and hoods were around Quot said Tibbs. More than anything else social scientists said the Rodney King verdict yoked images of Lynch mrs and Kun flux klansmen. That s Why so Many Black youths a even relatively affluent ones erupted in fury at the verdict said Bradd Shore an expert on human behaviour who teaches anthropology at Emory University. The image of a prostrate Man being beaten by uniformed officers has been played and replayed on television so much that Quot it s been burned into our minds like the Grainy zapruder film of president John f Kennedy s assassination in 1963, Shore said Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday May 9, 1992 the stars and stripes Page 15