Never Again by Bill Weiss

Bill 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 another nearby major law enforcement agency is thrust into the limelight, finding 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 career.

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.