apparently they haven't studied the effects of riots in the past 20 years. Merchants move it, taking with them the local jobs, buildings are rebuilt using union guys who are mostly from outside the community, and in some cases the people who live there are displaced. It's a net loss for the people in the area looters and regular citizens alike.
Agreed about the economic impact, but one thing that resulted from the LA riots was that the LAPD's old guard was practically dismantled when Daryl Gates resigned, and there hasn't been a police chief like Gates since, which is a very good thing. LA has a dark history of white midwestern and southern transplants controlling the city's government and police department and using brutal tactics to keep people of color out of power. It's just in the past 20 years that Latinos began to dominate politics in LA, when they had the numbers to do so long beforehand in many districts. When you consider law enforcement officials like Joe Arpaio in Arizona, there might still be a police chief similar to Daryl Gates in LA if the riots hadn't have happened.
It's interesting that people say Latinos don't riot, but they sure did benefit from the rioting that blacks did in LA in '92. It dismantled the good old boys club that oversaw a police department that brutalized poor Latinos at will. There's still some high profile incidents of police brutality, but it is nothing like it was before 1992. Look at what recently happened with the LA Sheriffs department.
