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Never Again: A Never Before Told Insight into the 1992 Los Angeles Riots
Never Again is based on a true account of the most violent and destructive civil disturbance in the United States in the last century. It is a never before told insight into the hours leading up to, during, and after the Los Angeles Riots erupted on April 29, 1992. The story deals with the emergent preparations and tough decisions a Watch Commander faced while preparing Lennox Sheriff s Station to intervene, as the Los Angeles Police Department found itself totally unprepared to handle this deadly and dynamic crisis. Never Again shows, detail by detail, how close the Sheriff's Department was to potentially changing the course of history as the Watch Commander copes with his internal instinct to take action, waged against his self-discipline to follow orders, leading up to the final moment when he is ready to put his daring plan into action."
"Never Again" was just chosen (November 2016) as a double book awards winner in the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Awards as the best book (True Crime) and best book cover design (Non-Fiction).
The book resonates with many of the current events we face today. It was also written to educate and connect with the young adult and teenage reader who is too young to have experienced the 1992 riots.
"Never Again" was just chosen (November 2016) as a double book awards winner in the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Awards as the best book (True Crime) and best book cover design (Non-Fiction).
The book resonates with many of the current events we face today. It was also written to educate and connect with the young adult and teenage reader who is too young to have experienced the 1992 riots.
148 pages, Paperback
Published November 1, 2016
2 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Bill C. Weiss
1 bookBill Weiss was a fairly new patrol sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in April of 1992, and was promoted only 20 months earlier to that rank. He was the acting watch commander of a patrol station, a position customarily held normally by a tenured lieutenant, during the initial hours of the most violent and destructive civil disturbance in the United States in the last century.
Never Again is a true account of this never-before-told insight into the hours leading up to, during, and after the Los Angeles Riots erupted on April 29, 1992. The story reveals the emergent preparations and tough decisions Weiss faced while preparing Lennox Sheriff’s Station in South Los Angeles to handle this unbelievable event.
Drawing upon his training and experience, Weiss reveals the sequence of events behind the scenes as the Los Angeles Police Department is thrust into the limelight and finds itself totally unprepared to deal with this deadly and rapidly evolving crisis.
Never Again shows, detail by detail, how close Weiss was to potentially changing the course of history. In those initial hours of turmoil, Weiss struggled against his trained self-discipline of a law enforcement official following orders and with an instinctual drive to take action. In the moment of crisis, he must deal with a commanding officer in opposition to his daring plan of action. To this day, he feels a surge of regret at the recollection of these events. A moment that could have changed the outcomes that rocked Los Angeles was lost. Viewing newspaper articles and photos, hearing personal stories and media reports, he still struggles to come to terms with what could have been.
A 32-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Bill Weiss worked various patrol, custody, administrative, investigative, and special assignments during his outstanding career. Either as a deputy, sergeant, or lieutenant, he was viewed as an aggressive, diverse, fair, honest, and hard-working cop who spent the majority of his law enforcement career in a supervisory and leadership capacity.
Weiss was an incident commander for several major tactical incidents throughout the years. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, with a Master’s degree in Public Administration. Weiss is a contributing author in a section titled, A Lingering Guilt, in the recently published book, Writer to Writer. Since retiring as a lieutenant in January of 2013, he continues to reside in California.
Never Again is a true account of this never-before-told insight into the hours leading up to, during, and after the Los Angeles Riots erupted on April 29, 1992. The story reveals the emergent preparations and tough decisions Weiss faced while preparing Lennox Sheriff’s Station in South Los Angeles to handle this unbelievable event.
Drawing upon his training and experience, Weiss reveals the sequence of events behind the scenes as the Los Angeles Police Department is thrust into the limelight and finds itself totally unprepared to deal with this deadly and rapidly evolving crisis.
Never Again shows, detail by detail, how close Weiss was to potentially changing the course of history. In those initial hours of turmoil, Weiss struggled against his trained self-discipline of a law enforcement official following orders and with an instinctual drive to take action. In the moment of crisis, he must deal with a commanding officer in opposition to his daring plan of action. To this day, he feels a surge of regret at the recollection of these events. A moment that could have changed the outcomes that rocked Los Angeles was lost. Viewing newspaper articles and photos, hearing personal stories and media reports, he still struggles to come to terms with what could have been.
A 32-year veteran of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Bill Weiss worked various patrol, custody, administrative, investigative, and special assignments during his outstanding career. Either as a deputy, sergeant, or lieutenant, he was viewed as an aggressive, diverse, fair, honest, and hard-working cop who spent the majority of his law enforcement career in a supervisory and leadership capacity.
Weiss was an incident commander for several major tactical incidents throughout the years. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, with a Master’s degree in Public Administration. Weiss is a contributing author in a section titled, A Lingering Guilt, in the recently published book, Writer to Writer. Since retiring as a lieutenant in January of 2013, he continues to reside in California.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 11, 2016
Author Bill Weiss lived the Rodney King riots in a way few of us did--wearing an LA Sheriff's Department uniform. Those of us at home and watching on television kept screaming at the tv screen for the LAPD to do something. LAPD watched while the city burned.
Bill Weiss' book gives us a behind-the-blue-curtain look at the actions of both the Sheriff's department and LAPD. He was a small distance away from the flashpoint. What was happening?
A fine book, a true account, and a damn good story.
Bill Weiss' book gives us a behind-the-blue-curtain look at the actions of both the Sheriff's department and LAPD. He was a small distance away from the flashpoint. What was happening?
A fine book, a true account, and a damn good story.
August 24, 2016
Full disclosure: I am an interested party in the publication of Never Again: A Never Before Told Insight Into the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, Bill C. Weiss' memoir about the 1992 Los Angeles riots that occurred a quarter-century ago after the acquittal of four white Los Angeles Police Department officers for their beating of a black man named Rodney King. A copy of a hand-drawn map of mine graces p.109 of this slim trade paperback, and I received an autographed advance copy from the author.
Although Bill and I come from very different perspectives, we lived through some of the same history (and, it turns out, we liked a lot of the same music). Weiss is a career law-enforcement officer (now retired); I worked (and still do) in tech. support. I'm just a fellow citizen, in other words—a "civilian" (though I do feel compelled to point out that police officers are civilians, too).
That said, I am also very happy to say that I liked this book a lot.
True, Bill C. Weiss is not a seasoned historian, nor is he a literary author. This is his first book, and it's written like a police report—a no-nonsense, straightforward account. This does make Never Again a quick and entertaining read, with few if any stumbling blocks to understanding. Weiss was in a unique position—he was the sergeant in command at the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (L.A.S.D.) Lennox station when the acquittals of L.A.P.D. officers Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseño were announced. It may not be obvious to the average citizen, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is (and was) a totally different organization from the L.A.P.D. While the L.A.P.D.'s reaction was slow and disorganized (many of the L.A.P.D.'s patrol captains were out of town at a training seminar when the rioting started), Weiss and his fellow officers in the Sheriff's department were already on alert, and could have responded to the intersection of Florence and Normandie within minutes when truck driver Reginald Denny was pulled from his vehicle and beaten nearly to death on live television... but that intersection is in the L.A.P.D.'s territory. The L.A.S.D. had no official jurisdiction there, and so Weiss was ordered not to respond.
Weiss considers this a crucial turning point, and he might be right. Quick, visible action at Florence and Normandie by any law enforcement agency could—perhaps—have mitigated the personal violence and property damage that escalated to the rest of L.A. over the next few days.
I'm not so sure—it seems to me that the best time to prevent a riot is before it starts, and that by the time Reginald Denny was being pulled from his truck at that intersection, events had most likely already progressed too far to be stopped. The role of law enforcement is to help maintain order, after all—"To Protect and to Serve," as the motto goes. The willing cooperation of the majority is an indispensable part of law enforcement, and when that cooperation breaks down, the police cannot, by themselves, restore order.
But Bill C. Weiss does make a forceful and well-informed case, from an insider's perspective—and whether he's right or wrong, I have no doubt that he is presenting the unvarnished truth as he experienced it. Never Again is a slice of previously-untold history, and as such is well worthy of your attention.
Although Bill and I come from very different perspectives, we lived through some of the same history (and, it turns out, we liked a lot of the same music). Weiss is a career law-enforcement officer (now retired); I worked (and still do) in tech. support. I'm just a fellow citizen, in other words—a "civilian" (though I do feel compelled to point out that police officers are civilians, too).
That said, I am also very happy to say that I liked this book a lot.
True, Bill C. Weiss is not a seasoned historian, nor is he a literary author. This is his first book, and it's written like a police report—a no-nonsense, straightforward account. This does make Never Again a quick and entertaining read, with few if any stumbling blocks to understanding. Weiss was in a unique position—he was the sergeant in command at the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (L.A.S.D.) Lennox station when the acquittals of L.A.P.D. officers Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseño were announced. It may not be obvious to the average citizen, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is (and was) a totally different organization from the L.A.P.D. While the L.A.P.D.'s reaction was slow and disorganized (many of the L.A.P.D.'s patrol captains were out of town at a training seminar when the rioting started), Weiss and his fellow officers in the Sheriff's department were already on alert, and could have responded to the intersection of Florence and Normandie within minutes when truck driver Reginald Denny was pulled from his vehicle and beaten nearly to death on live television... but that intersection is in the L.A.P.D.'s territory. The L.A.S.D. had no official jurisdiction there, and so Weiss was ordered not to respond.
Weiss considers this a crucial turning point, and he might be right. Quick, visible action at Florence and Normandie by any law enforcement agency could—perhaps—have mitigated the personal violence and property damage that escalated to the rest of L.A. over the next few days.
I'm not so sure—it seems to me that the best time to prevent a riot is before it starts, and that by the time Reginald Denny was being pulled from his truck at that intersection, events had most likely already progressed too far to be stopped. The role of law enforcement is to help maintain order, after all—"To Protect and to Serve," as the motto goes. The willing cooperation of the majority is an indispensable part of law enforcement, and when that cooperation breaks down, the police cannot, by themselves, restore order.
But Bill C. Weiss does make a forceful and well-informed case, from an insider's perspective—and whether he's right or wrong, I have no doubt that he is presenting the unvarnished truth as he experienced it. Never Again is a slice of previously-untold history, and as such is well worthy of your attention.
January 13, 2026
So I 'am a Ventura county native. When I'm in a major city people usually ask where that is as they have never heard of it. When I say what we are famous for I reference the Rodney King verdict. Ventura county to be frank is very lame and the people there are ignorant sheep. It was very inconsiderate what simi valley did to Los Angeles and the entire nation. As far as Daryl Gates is concerned, I read his book I liked him. I did not know or remember that he was in Brentwood for anti-"prop F" campaign the night of the start of the riots. I think the LAPD command structure was tainted during this time. Cool Daryl, put down the cocktail and get to work!
I don't know who Captain Monroe is or was if he is still with us, that was a really crummy call he made. I wont spoil what the call was but I think it was very characteristic and impressive that the then deputy Bill Weiss didn't disobey that order. If he did and pending his unit took no causalities he may have been backed up by Sheriff Block.
This book is a quick read and keeps attention. I know that law enforcement authors can have really bad ego's and it ruins the book. This particular writing was very organized and didn't drag on too much. He does have a thing for 80's music. That all I listened to in high school. Loved it! I was reading a book on the 67' Detroit riots and I learned Paris, France is designed so insurrections can be more easily quelled. Los Angeles after the riots wasn't really the same.
The book that Mr. Weiss here wrote, is a testimony saying that these riots may have been prevented or reduced if certain actions were taken, and that's the moral of this story. I would like to see a televised interview with this man.
I don't know who Captain Monroe is or was if he is still with us, that was a really crummy call he made. I wont spoil what the call was but I think it was very characteristic and impressive that the then deputy Bill Weiss didn't disobey that order. If he did and pending his unit took no causalities he may have been backed up by Sheriff Block.
This book is a quick read and keeps attention. I know that law enforcement authors can have really bad ego's and it ruins the book. This particular writing was very organized and didn't drag on too much. He does have a thing for 80's music. That all I listened to in high school. Loved it! I was reading a book on the 67' Detroit riots and I learned Paris, France is designed so insurrections can be more easily quelled. Los Angeles after the riots wasn't really the same.
The book that Mr. Weiss here wrote, is a testimony saying that these riots may have been prevented or reduced if certain actions were taken, and that's the moral of this story. I would like to see a televised interview with this man.
June 29, 2025
The author has one of three most inflated egos I have ever encountered in my life, believing that he alone could have stopped the LA Riots in 1992. Like author copaganda memoirs, this contains casual racism, glorification and of state violence. Weiss’s unique feature is that he includes the titles of the songs playing in his head as he navigates his life, including “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins during the televised beating of Reginald Denny.
July 29, 2020
From a LAPD Sgt who had a firsthand look and lived through the LA Riots after Rodney King. This book explains what the correct response it to such riots and why! its an amazing read. Thank you Mr Bill for this book and insight.
February 21, 2017
I respect the author's natural writing talent and (especially) his 30+ years in law enforcement . . .
However, I felt this book was split too much between career biography and/or the '92 riots, consequently covering neither in enough detail. (My copy was only about 120 pages.) I would have preferred straight 'war stories' from his storied career or an in-depth examination solely on April '92 from a police / LA-based POV. Also, the final chapter 'Historical References' seemed tacked-on.
SO maybe at the end I wanted quantity, though the quality was not lacking at all.
I want to end of a positive note, though -- Deputy Weiss, please write another book! I would bet that you have experiences that would make a best-seller, or at least one hell of an enjoyable read. Maybe even a comprehensive history of your former agency - I would read that in a heartbeat.
However, I felt this book was split too much between career biography and/or the '92 riots, consequently covering neither in enough detail. (My copy was only about 120 pages.) I would have preferred straight 'war stories' from his storied career or an in-depth examination solely on April '92 from a police / LA-based POV. Also, the final chapter 'Historical References' seemed tacked-on.
SO maybe at the end I wanted quantity, though the quality was not lacking at all.
I want to end of a positive note, though -- Deputy Weiss, please write another book! I would bet that you have experiences that would make a best-seller, or at least one hell of an enjoyable read. Maybe even a comprehensive history of your former agency - I would read that in a heartbeat.
December 6, 2016
I have to say, picking up a book about a riot, written by a member of law-enforcement, I braced myself for a one-sided view. However, though the events are recounted from the author's perspective, an admirable effort was clearly made to examine the situation from all angles. This book weaves between historical document, a tale of personal struggle and regret, a birds-eye view of various communities struggling to weave and grow together, and at times, tales of valor and hope. This isn't just an examination of what happened over twenty years ago, but of what is still happening today. For those interested in history and cultural conflicts within our country now, I definitely recommend this work. Make sure you read all the way through the historical reference chapter as it contributes greatly to the theme of the entire book.
August 25, 2016
They say history repeats itself, probably because people don't learn the lesson. In the book never again, about the 1992 Los Angeles riots written by Bill C. Weiss, he talks about the past, Present, and future. In this detailed accounting that hopefully Will open our eyes and prevent this from happening again. This True story is interesting and is captivating. It's a fast read and worth it. I liked it.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews