Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates whose hard-line tactics were blamed for much of the riots
Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates whose hard-line tactics were blamed for much of the riots

The world news is of the U.S. Riots spreading from the Californian cities to other ghettos across America so that already at least 30 people have died as I spend time with John Brown attending the Little Paxton Annual Parish Meeting and tussle with Norfolk Building Control with the help of a local colleague.

A new month but the start of which was dominated by the crescendo of the last. The "no peace without justice" riots raged for a second night in Californian cities and spread to other ghettos across America so that already at least 30 people have died, 900 were injured and billions of pounds worth of property damage has been sustained. After the recent earthquakes and with my reluctance for us to go back to southern California anyway, Diana is upset for she knows that this will now stop us for good. The TV views from Hollywood Hills of the building fires with the whole city of Los Angeles ("The City of the Angels") blanketed in smoke was quite dramatic.

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The US people have really failed here by supporting the right-wing tax-shy politicians who did not want to spend sufficient to deploy a large-enough police force to control the city without recourse to intimidation. This was the police answer to coping with the problem, encouraged by "Rambo" and "John Wayne" film characters who break the conventions to deal with villains their way. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. This incident had been videotaped and widely shown in television broadcasts.

Back home, I was pre-occupied today in trying to make sense of the necessary alterations to our building control application and precipitated a flood of faxed specs of building boards suitable for fire protection. This just allowed time to write up this last few day’s journal and attend to the range of domestic tasks that now includes the swimming pool - which is ready for use after much work. I wanted to spend more time on the new boat-shed design, but this evening's Annual Parish Meeting was more important.

At least I heard from David Townend and have updated structural requirements and this evening, the head of HDC Building Control (who also happens to be a neighbour and village Parish Councillor) lent me the benefit of his advice, a copy of the building regulations and some more data sheets on fire board products. There were quite a few people in the village hall for the annual meeting and, although John Brown had turned up, Nichola Kay (his Tory opponent) was a notable absentee. It was a good meeting with many problems and issues raised but I noticed that several of the parish councillors were a bit frosty with John and perhaps reacted to his presence. Home and to bed.