Editor’s note: This story was originally published in April 2017, on the 25th anniversary of the civil unrest in Los Angeles that began when four police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. We are republishing it now as America again reckons with racial injustice, this time on a national scale, after the killing of George Floyd.
***
LOS ANGELES – A gray light pole outside the corner gas station bears two notices. One for a young woman who has gone missing. Below it, one for a puppy, also gone.