I worked on pretty big news today — former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates died. Gates became most famous — or maybe infamous — for being the chief during the Rodney King beating and 1992 L.A. riots. As I worked on a slideshow about Gates’ career, reading about the riots brought me back. I was about 14 or 15 at the time and I was riveted by the television footage. When my father said that he had to go into L.A. (it was possibly to check on his office, but possibly also to help out his friend), I remember telling them I wanted to go with. They all looked at me as if my nose were upside down and dismissed me as crazy. Later on, my father came home bearing relics of the rioting — charred 40-ounce beer bottles that were once for sale at his friend’s 7-Eleven store in L.A., which had been torched by rioters.

The L.A. riots were the first newspaper pages I ever saved, feeling like I had a piece of history as a keepsake. It was also the first news event that made me aware of the world and made me want to be a journalist.