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    3 Visions For The Future Of Police In South LA

    As the country seethes after George Floyd's killing, three black men from South Los Angeles who lived through the Watts or Rodney King riots share their ideas of what just policing would look like.
    by Ailsa Chang Jun 09, 2020 5 minutes
    Bruce Patton (left), Gilbert Johnson and Marqueece Harris-Dawson share their perspectives on living in South LA during the unrest of previous decades and today.

    In the weeks since police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, people around the U.S. and the world have flooded the streets in rage and protest against police violence toward African Americans.

    There's particular resonance for Los Angeles, which has a long and familiar history with police brutality and civil unrest. For those who lived through earlier convulsions — the Watts rebellion of 1965 and the Rodney King riots of 1992 — today's events surface intense personal memories.

    NPR's All Things Considered spoke with three African American men who bore witness to one or both of those events. Over the decades, each of them has thought seriously about how policing in Los Angeles should change — and each has arrived at a different answer.

    Get rid of the guns

    Bruce Patton was born in South Los Angeles

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