Dennis RomeroAs we approach the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Riots on Sunday, NBC Los Angeles has started an account to live tweet the events of April, 1992.
The Twitter account is already up and running and tweeting about what was happening that week before the unrest, when the final court happenings in the trial of four LAPD officers accused of beating motorist Rodney King were on public display.
The feed answers the question every newsroom has been asking this week:
What if Twitter was around during the riots? L.A. would have broke it.
Already the feed is blasting things like:
Chief #DarylGates: warns of “some kind of uprising, some kind of violence will erupt because of it.”
— Real Time LA Riots (@RealTimeLARiots) April 23, 2012
And:
#MichaelStone: “Everything every one of these officers did out there that night was done in good faith and for a good reason.”
— Real Time LA Riots (@RealTimeLARiots) April 21, 2012
Eek.
NBC Los Angeles notes that ” … on April 29 at 3:15 p.m., the verdict will be announced … “
Of course, the account opens the possibility of insensitivity.
What will it tweet, for example, when Reginald Denny is being brutally beaten on live television, or when Korean Americans are arrested for defending their businesses with pickup trucks full of rifle-toting citizens?
Well, can't be any worse than watching it on live television.
To the question, “Too soon?” we'd have say, Not this time.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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