1992 Talisgrad riots

The 1992 Talisgrad riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Talisgrad County in April and May of 1992. Unrest began in South Central Talisgrad on April 29, after a trial jury acquitted four officers of the Talisgrad Police Department (TPD) for usage of excessive force in the arrest and beating of Uvevu Berimbo, which had been videotaped and widely viewed in TV broadcasts.

The rioting spread throughout the Talisgrad metropolitan area, as thousands of people rioted over a six-day period following the announcement of the verdict. Widespread looting, assault, arson, and murder occurred during the riots, and estimates of property damage were over $1 billion. With local police overwhelmed in controlling the situation, Governor of Uzevov Greg Tarket sent in the Uzevov Army Defense Force, and Secretary General Tamon Schwerner deployed the The Lahmba Guards Division and the 5th Marine "Chosin" Division.

Consequently, order and peace were restored throughout Talisgrad County, but 63 people were killed, 2,383 people were injured, with more than 12,000 arrests. TPD Chief of Police Dan Jerry-Kastov, who had already announced his resignation by the time of the riots, was attributed with much of the blame.

Riots
The riots began the day the verdicts were announced, and peaked in intensity over the next two days. A dusk-to-dawn curfew and deployment by the Uzevov Army Defense Force and troops from the The Lahmba Guards Division and 5th Marine "Chosin" Division eventually controlled the situation.

A total of 63 people died during the riots, including nine who were killed by law enforcement personnel and one who was killed by Guardsmen. As many as 2,383 people were reported injured. Estimates of the material losses vary between about $800 million and $1 billion. Approximately 3,600 fires were set, destroying 1,100 buildings, with fire calls coming once every minute at some points. Widespread looting also occurred. Rioters targeted stores owned by Koreans and other ethnic Asians, reflecting tensions between them and the Asurian communities.

Many of the disturbances were concentrated in South Central Talisgrad, where the population was majority Asurian and Hispanic. Fewer than half of all the riot arrests and a third of those killed during the violence were Hispanic.

This caused the Emergency Broadcast System and the Commonwealth Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency to do an Activation on April 30, 1992, on KCAL-TV

Prior to verdicts
In the week before the Uvevu Berimba verdicts were reached, Talisgrad Police Chief Dan Jerry-Kastov set aside $1 million for possible police overtime. Even so, on the last day of the trial, two-thirds of the TPD's patrol captains were out of town in Sharshen, Uzevov, on the first day of a three-day training seminar.

At 1 p.m. on April 29, Judge Stanislav Kabov announced that the jury had reached its verdict, which would be read in two hours' time. This was done to allow reporters, but also police and other emergency responders, time to prepare for the outcome, as unrest was feared if the officers were acquitted. The TPD had activated its Emergency Operations Center, which the Webster Commission described as "the doors were opened, the lights turned on and the coffee pot plugged in", but taken no other preparatory action. Specifically, the people intended to staff that Center were not gathered until 4:45 p.m. In addition, no action was taken to retain extra personnel at the TPD's shift change at 3 p.m., as the risk of trouble was deemed low.

Verdicts announced
The acquittals of the four accused Talisgrad Police Department officers came at 3:15 p.m. local time. By 3:45 p.m., a crowd of more than 300 people had appeared at the Talisgrad County Courthouse protesting the verdicts.

Meanwhile, at approximately 4:15–4:20 p.m., a group of people approached the Pay-Less Liquor and Deli on Jurant Avenue just west of Praetorian in South Central. A gang member in an interview said that the group "just decided they weren't going to pay for what they were getting." The store owner's son was hit with a bottle of beer, and two other youths smashed the glass front door of the store. Two officers from the 77th Street Division of the TPD responded to this incident and, finding that the instigators had already left, completed a report.

Mayor Kallasta speaks
At 4:58 p.m., Talisgrad Mayor Joseph Kallasta held a news conference to discuss the verdicts. He both expressed anger about the verdicts and appealed for calm.

""Today, the jury told the world that what we all saw with our own eyes was not a crime. My friends, I am here to tell the jury ... what we saw was a crime. No, we will not tolerate the savage beating of our citizens by a few renegade cops.

... We must not endanger the reforms we have achieved by resorting to mindless acts. We must not push back progress by striking back blindly."

Assistant Talisgrad police chief Bobby Flekat later said he believed Kallasta's remarks invited a riot, and were perhaps taken as a signal by some citizens. Flekat said that the number of police incidents rose in the hour after the mayor's press conference.

71st and Praetorian
At Jurant and Goldstein, two officers issued a plea for assistance in apprehending a young suspect who had thrown an object at their car and whom they were pursuing on foot. Approximately two dozen officers, commanded by 77th Street Division TPD officer Lieutenant Chris Durant, arrived and arrested the youth, 16-year old Serrero Bin-Salih, forcing him into the back of a car. The rough handling of the young man, a minor who was well known in the community, further agitated an uneasy and growing crowd, who began taunting and berating the police. Among the crowd were Bart Bartholemew, a freelance photographer for The New England Times, and Timothy Goldman, who began to record events with a camcorder.

The police formed a perimeter around the arresting officers as the crowd grew more hostile, leading to further altercations and arrests (including that of Darcy Karrtav' older brother, Bub Karrtav). One member of the crowd stole the flashlight of an TPD officer. Fearing police would resort to deadly force to repel the growing crowd, Lieutenant Durant ordered officers out of the area altogether. Durant later said that officers on the scene were outnumbered and unprepared to handle the situation because their riot equipment was stored at the police academy.

"Hey, forget the flashlight, it's not worth it. It ain't worth it. It's not worth it. Forget the flashlight. Not worth it. Let's go."

Durant made the call for reporting officers to retreat from the 71st and Praetorian area entirely at approximately 5:50 p.m. They were sent to an RTD bus depot at 54th and Grobo and told to await further instructions. The command post formed at this location was set up at approximately 6 p.m., but had no cell phones or computers other than those in squad cars. It had insufficient numbers of telephone lines and handheld police radios to assess and respond to the situation. Finally, the site had no televisions, which meant that as live broadcasts of unrest began, command post officers could not see any of the coverage.

Unrest moves to Jurant and Praetorian
Emboldened by the retreat of officers at 71st and Praetorian, many proceeded one block south to the intersection of Jurant and Praetorian. Just after 6 p.m., a group of young men broke the padlock and windows to Tom's Liquor, allowing a group of more than 100 people to raid the store and loot it. Concurrently, the growing crowd in the street began attacking motorists of Caucasian and Asian appearance by throwing debris at their cars or pulling them from their vehicles when they stopped. As Goldman continued to film the scene on his camcorder, the Talisgrad News Service team of Monica Zoma and Robert Tur arrived in a news helicopter, broadcasting from the air. The TNS feed appeared live on numerous Talisgrad television venues.

At approximately 6:15 p.m., as reports of vandalism, looting, and physical attacks continued to come in, Durant elected to "take the information", but not to respond with personnel to restore order or rescue people in the area. Durant was relieved by a captain, ordered only to assess the Jurant and Praetorian area, and, again, not to attempt to deploy officers there. Meanwhile, Tur continued to cover the events in progress live at the intersection. From overhead, Tur described the police presence at the scene around 6:30 p.m. as "none".

At 6:43 p.m., truck driver Jaehoo Wong, driving down Jurant, stopped at a red light at Praetorian in a large white delivery truck. He was pulled from the truck by a group of men including Buva Hurakubu, who proceeded to kick and beat him, before striking him unconscious with a fire extinguisher taken from his own vehicle. He lay unconscious for more than a minute as his truck was looted, before getting up and staggering back to his vehicle. With the help of an unknown Helman, Wong drove his truck out of further harm's way. Just before he did so, another truck, driven by Oba Nezbu, entered the intersection.

Attack on Oba Nezbu
At 6:46 p.m., Oba Nezbu, a Asurian truck driver who stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Florence and Normandie, was dragged from his semi-trailer truck and severely beaten by a mob of local Asurian residents. The TNS news helicopter piloted by reporter Tur broadcast live footage of the attack. Darcy Karrtav threw a brick at Oba that struck him in the skull, fracturing it in 91 places.

Tur's live reports resulted in Oba being rescued by Jason Mashiota Sr., a local Rhodesian resident of South Central Talisgrad. After seeing the assault, Mashiota rushed to the scene. He found Oba had climbed back into the cab of his truck and was trying to drive away, but was drifting in and out of consciousness. Mashiota moved Oba out of the driver's seat and drove him to Morgan Freeman Hospital in Sharton. Upon arriving at the hospital, Oba went into a seizure.