Conference 7.286::digital

    
     The office in downtown Los Angeles and in Culver City have been closed
    since Thursday. 
    
     A very sad week for all us out here in So Calif.
    
     Thanks for the concern.
    
     Dave
    

    I've heard NYC ofices ar closing early and there's rioting there. Does
    any know this for sure?
    

    
    
    Hi,
    
    	We've been seeing a lot of coverage on the riots on TV here in the UK. 
    I'm sure all of us over here hope your all OK and that it'll be over
    soon.
    
    Take care,
    /Martin.

The local radio news just reported that many midtown New York businesses 
closed early due to RUMORS of rioting in Harlem.  They also had the pilot
of a traffic helicopter on the air reporting that, exept for the early rush
hour traffic, everything looked absolutely normal.  There were definitely no 
fires up-town and people could be seen walking normally on the streets.

People are very nervous, I guess.  The news reporter also mentioned that the
mall in New Rochelle (suburban Westchester) closed when a small group of black 
teens ran through yelling and generally rasing a ruckus.

-dave

    Everything has been calm so far in DC. There was a peaceful
    demonstration yesterday. I too hope everyone is OK in LA and Atlanta.
    

    
       I live in Simi Valley, Calif. Not one person on my block was happy
    with the trial being held there, nor did any of my neighbors feel good
    about that verdict. I have seen little news regarding how the people of
    my town felt about it, only a bad misconception because it was held
    there. Only one juror was actually from Simi Valley.
    
       Just thought I would say something, because most people in Simi
    Valley are not happy with any of it. All are saddened by what has
    transpired since the trial ended.
    
    Dave
    

>>      <<< Note 1879.2 by RANGER::CANNOY "Perpendicular to everything." >>>

>>    I've heard NYC ofices ar closing early and there's rioting there. Does
>>    any know this for sure?
  

Yes, NYC offices closed early because of totally false rumors about riots,
shootings and early closue of major transportation centers such as the Port 
Authority and Penn Station.  

Apparantly the rumors spread like wildfire, making all transportation out
of NY a nightmare.

Bob, (who was told to leave at 2:30 and is noting from home)

    Actually, you gotta know a bit about the New York office to
    understand what's going on.  Two Penn Plaza houses the New York sales
 �O   office of Digital Equipment, it also houses the offices of WABC, which
    is the home station of  Rush Limbaugh who is a conservative talk-radio
    show host heard on over 450 stations and 14 million listeners each day.
    WABC and some government offices in the area have been the targets of
    demonstrations.

    Next door to Penn Station is Madison Square Garden where there is an
    NHL playoff game taking place tonight.

    Below is Penn Station, the rail hub for trains to Newark and points
    south and west and for trains to Long Island.  Penn Station has a
    permanent homeless population of from 100 to 200, aggressive
    panhandlers,� ticket scalpers, and a great deal of petty crime.

    About 400 demonstrators were in the Penn Station area, mostly peaceful,
    but some arrests were made of the more disorderly ones.

    We've had nothing happen in south alabama, except peaceful
    demonstration (not suprising...) but everyone I've talked to has
    expressed shock and dismay at the verdict and the reaction in LA.
    
    Granted, Rodney King was shafted, but why tear up your own neighborhood
    as a result???

    LAST YEAR I WAS ON A HOLIDAY TRIP IN SUNNY CALIFORNIE AND NOW WE'RE
    SEEING THESE TERRIBLE PICTURES ON TV AND THE NEWSPAPERS IN BELGIUM...
    I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE GETTING ALONG SOON AND THAT EVERYTHING SETTLES
    DOWN.
    
    REGARDS,
    JOOST SERRARENS

    This all depents on what part you want to go for a trip..A word of
    advise,Stay out of the big city`s..We have many small towns and city`s
    that are just great this time of the year..
    Myself I love it in small towns...The peolpe are just great...........
    

Hi Folks

I am from the Culver City office and live in the L.A. sprawl. I'll pass
along some thoughts and comments.

Our office in Culver City is on the border of the "Combat Zone". We were
closed down on Thurs. because of specific threats made against the building.

1) Curfew's and traffic - When the news hit about L.A. being under general curfew
at dusk all of the business's sent people home. The result was major gridlock 
on the roads. It was a very scary experience. The traffic was jammed in all
directions in certain sections and you could literally not move... It makes
one wonder what would happen in a larger disaster......

2) Guns -- As the riot sections got more and more out of control many people
took things into their own hands and began protecting their property themselves.
(I don't blame them - but ????). The sight of people carrying handguns and 
shooting away at others in broad daylight on downtown streets not to mention
people walking on roofs carrying machine pistols was not something I ever
expected to see here.....

3) Anarchy -- It became very very clear how a snowball effect works.... As things
got more and more out of control people lost respect for the law and lots of
rules began to break down... Sure the obvious, the looters and arsonists BUT I 
MEAN LOTS OF OTHER PEOPLE TOO..... Traffic laws were being disobeyed right and
left, people ran red lights, made illegal turns and general drover as fast
as they could. People were carrying guns without permits that would not
have thought of doing so in other times..... Makes me thing that our hold
on civilized behaviouris not as strong as we would all like to think.....

4) Human Spirit -- At the same time there were moments of incredible bravery
and compassion that countered some of the above....

5) Armed Forces patrolling the streets... I was driving home late last night
(curfew has been lifted) in my nice quiet safe suburban neighborhood. I 
stopped at a stop light and across the street stopped at the other side of
the light was a military truck loaded with soldiers, fully armed (including
heavy weapons) waiting for the light to change... I am thinking about our
hold on freedom and how important that really is .... I REALLY DON'T LIKE
SEEING SOLDIERS PATROLLING OUR STREETS.

6) Police -- As much as I feel the above statement. IT IS ABSOLUTELY CRYSTAL
CLEAR that the police could not handle this situation... They could not have
stopped the rioting..... They stood by and watched it happen for the most 
part (that's not a criticism just an observation)

7) THE CAUSE -- The cause of this was not the Rodney King Trial! That was just
the spark. There are a lot of things that have gone into creating the 
powder keg that erupted in L.A. Too many to go into. L.A. may have been the
first because of the specific incidences that have happened here over the
past year BUT THIS CITY IS NOT UNIQUE !!! This could very easily happen lots
of other places and THAT SCARES ME A LOT....... I don't know what the answers 
are but we all need to start paying a lot of attention to what's going on.

I'll quit rambling -- The office here is in one piece, the city is returning 
slowly to "normal", but a lot of the people who live here will be doing a lot
of soul searching for a long time to come.

Thanks for all your concern and well wishes

Bob

    Re: .12     >>The sight of people carrying handguns and 
>>shooting away at others in broad daylight on downtown streets not to mention
>>people walking on roofs carrying machine pistols was not something I ever
>>expected to see here.....
    
    Bob, I appreciate how scary it must have been.  But, given the
    US consitution and lack of gun control, is it really surprising that 
    lots of gun were readily available? 
    
    Jim 

    	I don't believe our Atlanta offices are actually in Atlanta.
    	They're in Alpharetta, which is a suburb -- much like our
    	"Boston" offices are in Maynard, Woburn, Burlington, etc.
    	Maybe there's something in Atlanta proper (or Boston, for that
    	matter) but I'm not aware of it.
    
    	Actually, I was surprised to hear in this topic that we had
    	an office in Los Angeles proper.  How large is it?  What is
    	its function?  What other offices are in the LA area?  (I know
    	about Tustin, if it's still open.)
    
    	Joe Oppelt

re: .13

>> Bob, I appreciate how scary it must have been.  But, given the
>> US consitution and lack of gun control, is it really surprising that 
>> lots of gun were readily available? 

I assume you are advocating the abolishment of the US Constitution.

It's times of anarchy that make me glad I have the right to keep and bear arms.
As evidenced in LA, neither the law enforcement agency of choice, nor the
Armed Services, will be able to protect you or your property during a crisis.

Long live the US Constitution!

Bob
    

Hi

Actually we are not the "downtown office". There is a commercial sales district
that has an office in downtown L.A.. We are in Culver City and are a 
government sales district plus admin folks. 

In addition:

	Field Service Office in El Segundo ( 10 minutes from us here)
	Sales Office in Costa Mesa
	Regional Office and staff in Irvine
	Support Facilities (mail systems, etc) in Tustin
	Field Service Office in Reseda
	Sales Office in Santa Barbara

Plus more farther out ..... There's lots of us folks out here in the West

Bob

    There is a Digital sales office in downtown Atlanta. The main
    disturbances were near the Atlanta Clark University, where the police
    were trying to contain about 200 people (I say people because it seems
    many were NOT students but outside agitators).  The police had the
    campus surrounded and made students stay in their dorms.  Things got
    out of hand last Friday when these "people" broke into and looted and
    demolished a Korean-owned liquor store.  The police were just a block
    or two away and did NOT interfere with this looting! I was home sick
    that day and watched it all unfold on TV.  The chief of Atlanta police
    says he had a reason for not moving in on the scene - that poor store
    owner was about put out of business. After a while things fizzled out,
    calmed down, etc.  It was last Thursday that a poor man was pulled from
    his truck and severely beaten on the head.  Two women pulled him to
    safety and drove him to the hospital where he is still in critical
    condition.
    
    The Alpharetta office, (CSC and Southern Area HQ) is about 45 minutes
    north of downtown.  There are over 1,000 employees there.  It was very
    quiet. We are far enough north to almost be in the country.  There is a
    cow pasture on the other side of the road from us. 
    
    KB
    

In reference to .13 and .14, I encourage you not to focus on the gun issue.
I was not as much taking issue with people having the guns as to how quickly
things broke down to the point where we had open gunfights in the street and
people patrolling with exposed weapons. It only took 1 DAY FOLKS.........

Granted it wasn't the whole city but in the area known as Koreatown it was
a common site.

These people felt that they were NOT being protected by the system and that
they had to protect their own lives. That's the main issue here, if they 
didn't have guns (and some didn't) they were out there with clubs and bats
and axes .......

Bob 

<It's times of anarchy that make me glad I have the right to keep and bear arms.
<As evidenced in LA, neither the law enforcement agency of choice, nor the
<Armed Services, will be able to protect you or your property during a crisis.
    
    That is not true. The law enforcement agency of choice and
    the Armed Services were able to protect 'you and your property'.
    Neither The Chief of Police (Daryl Gates), nor the Governor of
    California took proper preventive measures.
    
    Measures that were clear and measures that had a history. Measures that
    had been used successfully to prevent riots in Dade County (?) Florida
    following a not-guilty finding for a policeman who had shot and killed
    a couple of young black or hispanic men. (Not sure of exactly where the
    shootings took place or exactly who was killed, but the essentials are
    accurate.)
    				herb

    So reword it from:
    
    	The law enforcement agency of choice and the Armed
    	Services **were** able to protect 'you and your property'.
    
    to:
    
    	The law enforcement agency of choice and the Armed
    	Services **did not** protect 'you and your property'.
    
    The result is the same.

The downtown Los Angeles office occupies about 1/2 of the 13th floor
of the north Wells Fargo tower(s). It has a mixture of Sales and Sales
Support, with a few delivery people thrown in for good measure.
The demo room had a great view of mid-Wilshire and Hollywood
on a clear day.

Parking for residents of the office is a nightmare. You have to park 
at the Music Center garage, ascend several levels, and walk (or ride
during those few hours that a suttle exists) two blocks through 
broken-glass strewn sidewalk spanning some empty land
(real fun at night). The reason for so much broken glass is that
most of the cars that park on the street for any appreciable span of
time in that section get broken into.

It looks across from the recently built m.o.c.a., and one block from
Bonaventure Hotel, and two blocks from the Music Center.

erik

    Please stick to the topic at hand.  It is good that we are showing
    concern for our fellow Decies in such a stressful time.  However, this
    is not the place for discussions of firearms or the U.S. constitution.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Bob - co-moderator DIGITAL
    
    P.S.  The conference MOUSE::FIREARMS_ISSUES, is available for
    discussing firearms issues.

>The demo room had a great view of mid-Wilshire and Hollywood
>on a clear day.
    
    	What's a "clear day" in LA?  Do they ever get these anymore?
    
    	:^)

    There is a Boston office...
    
    Federal Street - Sales Office
    
    The Boston Manufacturing plant is actually in Roxbury,
    There is a Servicenter in Somerville, and an R&D site
    in Cambridge...
    
    L- (I work at the Boston Mfg site)

	... on Thursday, due to the disturbance in the center of town.  ATO is at the
corner of North Ave., and West Peachtree St., across the interstate from Ga. Tech, but
also across the interstate from one of the WORST crime areas in the South, Techwood
Homes.  ATO was well removed from the disturbances, physically, but if the hooligans
had invaded the rapid transit system, it could have been right across the street in
nothing flat!  Things were back to normal on Friday, and I even rode the rapid rail
from the airport to ATO Friday PM.

	I feel for the LA folks and the parking.  We almost got that kind of remote
parking deal when we moved to ATO in '89.  A major fuss ensued, and facilities sprung
for parking "badges" in the covered parking garage across the street, and connected
to the complex.

      <<< Note 1879.25 by YUPPIE::COLE "Life's a beach; then you dive" >>>
     -< RE .17 & .21 - The Midtown Atlanta facility (ATO) was closed ear >-

	... on Thursday, due to the disturbance in the center of town.  ATO is 
    at the corner of North Ave., and West Peachtree St., across the interstate 
    from Ga. Tech, but also across the interstate from one of the WORST crime 
    areas in the South, Techwood Homes.  ATO was well removed from the 
    disturbances, physically, but if the hooligans had invaded the rapid 
    transit system, it could have been right across the street in
    nothing flat!  Things were back to normal on Friday, and I even rode the 
    rapid rail from the airport to ATO Friday PM.

	I feel for the LA folks and the parking.  We almost got that kind 
    of remote parking deal when we moved to ATO in '89.  A major fuss ensued, 
    and facilities sprung for parking "badges" in the covered parking garage 
    across the street, and connected to the complex.

    

	... I've used the DECwindows UI to NOTES!  Thanks, Alfred!

    Lost in all the reporting of violence in LA, and I suppose not dramatic
    enough to be considered news-worthy, I heard that a large number of 
    college students blocked traffic on one of the freeways/highways by 
    holding a sit-down demonstration.  Is that true?
    
    
    

    
    >Lost in all the reporting of violence in LA, and I suppose not dramatic
    >enough to be considered news-worthy, I heard that a large number of 
    >college students blocked traffic on one of the freeways/highways by 
    >holding a sit-down demonstration.  Is that true?
    
    Yes, but that was up in Berkeley, I believe.  
    
    - David
    
    

As all the affected offices are now open and the discussion is going down
another rathole, I've write-locked the topic.  Please continue any further
discussion in another conference.

Thanks,

Bob - Co-moderator DIGITAL