As has been said, back in the 60s the rioting was contained in the black neighborhoods. Same thing happened after the King verdict in the 90s. I don’t remember rioters heading into BelAir or Holmby Hills. Will that change? Not likely.
I was in DC the day MLK was killed, and the rioting started not too very far from where I worked, but far enough away. All the businesses closed down and the town was pretty much evacuated. At the time I lived in Arlington VA, across the bridge from DC. We watched the smoke rising throughout the city from my balcony.
The following Monday we returned to work and I cannot tell you how creepy it was. My bus went across Key Bridge into Georgetown; parked at the “T” at the end of the bridge was an Army bank. Walking M Street (Georgetown’s main drag) were pairs of fully armed soldiers. I’d never lived through anything like that before, even tho I remember seeing news clips of riots in Harlem when I lived in NY.
With the post-MLK assassination riots in DC, again, it was contained in the then-all black neighborhoods. The rioters didn’t get into Woodley Park or Kalorama or other upscale white neighborhoods that are geographically not far from black neighborhoods. However, in 2013, DC is far more white than it was in 1968. Neighborhoods that were black then are mixed now, with lots of young white professionals coming and gentrifying them.
I DO have concerns about a son who lives in Richmond in a mixed neighborhood. I don’t like the thought that he could be a victim by being in the wrong place at the wrong time when SHTF.
He needs to be really heads up when the GZ verdict is rendered, if a NG or hung jury comes through.