Ten Years After L.A.'s Riots

"The new strip malls, gas stations, shoe and tire stores that had replaced the old were easy to spot: They were the structures with cleaner and, sometimes it seemed, thicker stucco walls. Many were outfitted with metal window coverings and imposing iron fences. At a few stores, I noticed waist-high barriers erected between the parking lot and building proper; whatever the actual design purpose, it was not difficult to imagine these walls providing cover for sentries wishing to repulse a mob. This fortress architecture can be subtle: steel posts, painted a soft green, arrayed in a tight picket line across a store at Vermont and 8th where, in 1992, looters had gained entrance by ramming a pickup truck through the wall: Not the next time, these posts declare."

Thanks to Gwenn Hilburn