'Let It Fall': 'L.A. Four' member speaks about life lessons, 25 years after riots
Damian Williams was convicted in the attack on trucker Reginald Denny.
— -- Damian "Football" Williams was 18 years old on April 29, 1992, when he participated in a series of attacks on motorists at the intersection of Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles, following the acquittals of four white police officers in the Rodney King beating trial.
The notorious attack on truck driver Reginald Denny and other assaults were videotaped and broadcasted on live television and quickly came to symbolize the violence of the riots. The group of young black men who were charged became known as the "L.A. Four" and Williams, who was accused of throwing a brick at Denny's head, was considered the most high-profile member.
Williams was eventually sentenced to a maximum 10 years in prison for the attack on Denny and four other people. He was released after four years, and went back to prison in 2003 for his role in a murder unrelated to the 1992 social unrest.
From Calipatria State Prison, Williams gave a rare interview to John Ridley for the documentary "Let It Fall." The following are excerpts, in his own words.
"Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992," an ABC News documentary television event, airs April 28 at 9pm (8pm central), marking the 25th anniversary of the L.A. uprising.
EARLY LIFE
I grew up in a household with a very religious mother, who I love dearly. My upbringing as a youth was very good. My mother provided for me very well and attended the best Christian school that was in Los Angeles, Marcus Garvey I was deep into sports, playing football and baseball and at the same time I was doing a lot of boxing at a local gym in my community. I didn’t have a father. He choose to leave when I was very young, for what reasons- I don’t know. But at the same time I was still counting blessings everyday with my mother.
GANG LIFE
I think there was a turning point when I got probably about 10. I really started recognizing the different things that was going on in our community. I seen that- how the gang violence was rising, the police was doing a lot of patrolling in our community, a lot of people had started using drugs, a lot of people --days using alcohol and things that were very unbeneficial, in my eyes at that particular time: People coming into my community with a new car, new clothes, things of that nature, I had become very curious and I wanted to know what it was. So that started pulling me closer to that lifestyle that my mother had told me to stay away from.
I played football all the way up into high school. But at the same time, by me playing sports I was losing focus based on the street life that I was living. I wasn’t as disciplined as I should’ve been, when I first started. My goal was to make it to the NFL. That was one of my biggest dreams, so I could provide for my family and get my mother a way better life than she could ever imagine because of all the sacrifices she had made for me as a single-parent. Unfortunately, I wasn’t straight, but that was my goal to make it.
I had become more engaged into that gang life and getting put on a gang and joining a gang and doing the things that gang members do. The gang that I was affiliated with is the -- gang, The Crips. I thought I’d seen the power, I’d seen the semi-structure that they had, I’d seen the togetherness.
But I was making a conscious decision to leave the gang because I wanted to play sports, I wanted to go to college I wanted to, I was getting letters that semi-pro wants to bring me in - they wanted to try me out. So I went to some of the older dudes- what we call in our community our “big homies” and I told them that I wanted to walk away from this life, I got a call from an older one. He said, “I heard you wanted to leave the gang,” I said, yea I want to go so I can play sports and everything- I want to leave this lifestyle alone.” And he told me, “It’s too late.”
I was in so deep, and I was around individuals that I had a great deal of respect for, I had to conceal what I was really feeling because I didn’t want to show signs of weakness. Years later when I spoke to him about that same situation and as a man of god that he is now, He told me “I wish I never told you, I wish I’d let you go.”
EVENTS AT FLORENCE AND NORMANDIE
What I’m going to say, what happened on that day was unjustified. To be honest, if I would have knew what that incident- how it would affect my life- my name would have never been mentioned, in that situation. Especially what I know now.
I had a choice. I could have stayed on the front porch and continue to grow the way my mother intended for me to grow, but I made a bad decision, I came off the porch and I went in the streets and I got caught up. So most people would say, “Oh we’re a product of our environment.” No, I’m a product of bad decisions.
There are so many other ways to correct the injustice that we are inflicted with by law enforcement, by those in power. You don’t fight fire with fire. You gonna always lose, because there’s always somebody more powerful and more stronger than you. But when you don’t know better, you don’t know how to do better.
BEATING OF REGINALD DENNY
The only image that they had of me for 25 years, I’ve been quiet. I haven’t spoken to nobody about this incident- about what occurred. So, if I had to just look at it for what it is and never heard any reports after the fact, I would think he’s somebody that was evil. Somebody that didn’t have no sense of feelings or emotions or didn’t care for nothing. Because of that image. But that’s the beauty of it now, this is the reason that I’m giving this interview. So I could shed a new light on myself and know that who I was when I was 18- I’m not that person now. And there’s a great saying that I live by- “It ain’t how you started, it’s how you finish what matters most.” And I’m starting to finish on a good note.
So when I do leave this world, what people do speak about me, they speak about the good that I contributed, not the bad things that I got caught up in as an adolescent in South Central.
I never had anger with white kids at different schools, schools that I went to, so I didn’t have anger because as a kid at the time, I didn’t know what anger was because I had always been sheltered. I’d been with my mother all my life and my mother had worked with white people as a nurse- some of the most nice and compassionate people. But everybody is not the same.
Reginald Denny, to see face-to-face, I would talk to him and I would let him know how I feel from my heart. But, we must understand that I must speak to the person about how I feel and what I think now. The thing is, he is the one that suffered, his family suffered, for what took place over there. So my thing is, I would want to talk to him and not the world, because the world don’t need to know about how I feel when it comes to this, but Denny needs to know it.
WHY SPEAK NOW
I believe it was the perfect time. It was time for people to hear the new me. Because as they say, in Biblical times: born again. Even though I’m not a Christian, but born again from within. That means, what, I’m packing in the old for something new. The people that know me, they see me in a negative light, or the people that have heard about me, they see a very bad, negative image of me. So who can change the image better than me? So that’s why I finally stepped to the forefront. To show the world a new me. And it’s not a game. It’s not no jailhouse or prison talk, this is the life that I’m living every single day. I’m far from perfect. But the point being that I do know how to do that, I know I know how to make good decisions, I know how to be humble, I know how to be compassionate.
I wanna be known as being a sincere person. I want to be known as one day, I started off in a life that's full of trials and tribulations, and I was able to overcome because I was willing to work on myself. And what I mean by work on myself, I was willing to correct my negative thoughts and I was willing to cleanse my heart and become a new man and I want people to be able to recognize and see that. But I have a long way to go and like I tell many people, I want them to be able to speak about the good me, once I'm gone. And the only way I can do that, I have to live my life with honesty, with integrity, with peace, with compassion and genuine love. Not, just for my community, but for mankind.
And I want to do the good work now and help those that are suffering like I suffered as a young teenager in the streets and some of them that are still suffering today as adults. Because a lot of us have a lot of anger that we're not willing to confront. And I bear witness, once you confront those issues that live with you, lives within you, your life can be beautiful and even as I sit in prison, I'm at peace with myself. Yes, I have struggles. Yes, I have good days and bad days, but in the end of the day, I believe in myself. Whatever goes on with me, I can fix it in a positive way. And that's what I want the people to know. Live a positive life now. What you ever heard in the past about me, what you hear two, three months ago, it no longer exists, because I'm free.
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