The Founders' Plot

MIKE FLICKED ON the news as he prepared to leave for the day and heard that crowds were gathering in East Los Angeles and other heavily Hispanic parts of the city. It wasn’t a riot—at least not yet. But rocks and bricks were being thrown into storefront windows, and police were cordoning off the areas.

He called Josephine to say he’d be late, perhaps even do an all-nighter, because of the disturbances. Then he got Los Angeles Mayor Dave Dawkins on the phone. “Can you get this under control?”

“Eventually, but it’s progressing quickly,” Dawkins answered. “There’s about a hundred rioters headed downtown. But there could be a bigger problem. There are roving bands going into non-Hispanic middle-class neighborhoods. That’s dangerous. Those people will protect their homes. I’m sure some must have guns. This could turn into a nightmare.”

“I have National Guard units close to you on alert. I’ll activate them and put them under your control,” Mike said. “They’ll report to their armories soon and will be available in three hours or so.”

“Good. Right now, we’ve shifted about 200 cops into the area, which leaves us thin in other parts of the city.”

“Okay,” Mike said. “I’ll keep abreast of things and …”

“You know what set this off, don’t you, Governor? You know what those rioters were yelling? ‘Fuck DiGrasso. Obey the Court. DiGrasso is a criminal.’ This was your doing. This has been simmering since you banned our sanctuaries. And then you ignored the Supreme Court. What did you expect? I could have told you this was going to happen. I could have—”

“You knew!” Mike’s grip on the phone tightened. “Then why the hell didn’t you prepare for it?”

“Don’t tell me how to run my city! Don’t tell me what I should have done!”

Mike took the phone from his ear and looked away. This was not the way to tackle the situation. He breathed in deeply and put the phone back to his ear. “All right. I’m not telling you what you should have done.”

“It sure sounded like—”

“Hold on, Dave. We’re both pissed off, and that won’t get us anywhere. Let’s calm down and talk about this tomorrow.”