Argumeative Effects Of The Los Angeles Riots

Though sparked by the Rodney King verdict, there were many other causes of the riots that erupted on the streets of Los Angeles on April 29, 1992. The Los Angeles riots in 1992 were devastating. The obvious issue portrayed through the media was black versus white. If you did not live in Los Angeles or California chances are you did not hear full coverage of the story, you heard a simple cut and dry portrayal of the events in South Central. If you heard one thing about the riots, it was that there was a man named Rodney King and he was a black male beaten with excessive force by four white Los Angeles police officers on Los Angeles concrete. The media portrayed the riots as black rage on the streets due to the

Urban Blacks were also encounter with extreme racial violence in neighborhoods and at work. Different ethnic groups of new immigrants obtained power and used conflict as a strategy of diminishing urban Blacks power level. They began blocking Urban Black workers going to work throughout new immigrant’s neighborhoods. Race riots have played a crucial role in the social establishment of race, prejudice, and discrimination across the United States. Race riots uncovered fundamental tensions in societies experiencing swift technological and economic changes. In 1920, there were many race riots and other violence in many places, such as Red Summer Race Riots of 1919 and the St. Louis Riot of 1917 that took place during the segregation in the South and the Black urban migration to the North. These race riots were response to the reality that Urban Blacks were carrying on a powerful struggle against White supremacy. During race riots, Urban Blacks lived through a renewed flow of riots, massacres, and racial terrorism.

The Watts riots began in the summer of 1965, in a city in Los Angeles called Watts. It all began with the arrest of a young African American by a white California Highway Patrol officer. Now, it was not because he was arrested for already doing something illegal, it was for the way the police officer treated the individual. According to Lacine Holland, an eyewitness to the arrest, the officer “took him and threw him in the car like a bag of laundry and kicked his feet in and slammed the door.” (Flournoy) This caused lots of unrest among the fellow residents of Watts. This was just the beginning of years of pent up oppression for the minorities, which participated in the event. Similarly, in 1992, the Rodney King riots also arose due to the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers for their brutal beating

For decades racial discrimination has been a reoccurring issue that has shaped the relationships across the country. Riots, in the case of the L.A. riots, are a form of venting and a negative form of freedom of expression. Almost immediately after the jury`s decision to seize the officers of charges that included assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force towards King, riots broke out across Los

The riots helped bring a change to the community for the African Americans because before the riots they didn't have a voice, any protest or march they did didn't receive attention. When the riots happened, they got the attention that they were searching for. The communities were said to be too "poor" to care about them. In the article Sandy banks publish it said "The devastation was heartbreaking, but I understood the rage behind it. Los Angeles had been building to this moment, with years of protests, meetings, and marches that got little attention outside a black community seemed too wretched and too poor to care about." Los Angeles was going to have a breakout sooner or later due to the little attention put for the communities that were in need. The communities felt that with Rodney King, they finally had a voice. For the community Rodney King was their voice because of him the people

When the judge, Bernard Kamins, who was Caucasian declared three of the four (also white) officers not guilty the public saw his decision very racist. The riots began in the evening after the judgment, and grew over the next two days, but they would continue for several days. Angry Los Angels residents went out to the streets to show their fury. “These people are angry and they have every right to be!” said a man to the news cameras during the destruction. Authorities failed miserably to control the people. As time went by the madness did not decrease but enlarged.

On April 29, 1992, the City of Los Angeles was surrounded in a riot in response to the "not guilty" verdicts in the trial of four white Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers accused of unlawfully beating Rodney King. Six days later, when the fires were finally extinguished and the smoke had cleared, "estimates of the material damage done vary between about $800 million and $1 billion, 54 people had been killed, more than 2000 injured, in excess of 800 structures were burned, and about 10,000 people were arrested."(Khalifah 89) The 1992 riots in the City of Los Angeles were arguably the most devastating civil disturbance in the history of the United States.

April 26th, 1992, there was a riot on the streets, tell me where were you? You were sittin' home watchin' your TV, while I was paticipatin' in some anarchy. First spot we hit it was my liquor store. I finally got all that alcohol I can't afford. With red lights flashin' time to retire, and then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire. Next stop we hit it was the music shop, it only took one brick to make that window drop. Finally we got our own p.a. where do you think I got this guitar that you're hearing today?

Even though the L.A. Riots affected black americans, it also affected korean immigrants and americans. Some of the riots took place in Koreatown and Richard Rhee, a man that was involved in the riots, was interviewed about what has the riots done to the korean community. Richard Rhee knew and saw other korean stores being vandalized during the L.A. riots. Rhee had guns ready for the onslaught of rioters and many koreans had shotguns. Koreans made their stores into fortresses against the rioters and they knew the police cannot help them. The attacks on Koreatown would continue for the whole riot ordel. There were many of evenings were korean americans had to defend their stores from rioters. Protecting their shops and their families from the dangers of the rioters. During and after the riots, the korean community and the black community would have a racial tensions for a few decades. But recently, the tensions have been dropped after a few decade years.

On April 27th the day of Gray’s Funeral riots broke out in the city. These riots were met by heavy scrutiny and criticism from people across the country. There was significant damage to the city and there were over two hundred people arrested. Surprisingly though on May 1st 2015 six officers were indicted for the murder of Freddie Gray. They were charged with a litany of infractions, and had the potential to face significant jail time. This as stated previously was very uncharacteristic of the law system to that point, but was seen as a triumph to many across the

This paper will cover the events that took place within the first five days in south central Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict .

The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 caused an uproar in the United States due to all the violence, and “cost the state of California over a billion dollars in damage” (history.com). The Riots were caused by a video that was leaked to the public of a black man that was assaulted by LAPD officers. Chaos raged on the streets of Los Angeles for a total of three days until the President of the United States stepped in to bring some order back to the city.

The history of African-Americans in the United States is full of many periods of achievements, as well as periods of struggle. The Los Angeles riots of 1992 were the result of many years of systematic racism in the United States following the Civil Rights Movement. The beating and unjust trial of Rodney King exposed the unfair and brutal treatment of African Americans by the police. As well as the shooting of 15 year-old Latasha Harlins 2 weeks after the beating of Rodney King to further ignite hatred within African-Americans in Los Angeles. What came forth was a week long riot not only changed Los Angeles, but the United States. That is why the Los Angeles riots was the most devastating, yet consequential, civil uproar in the history of the United States.

The Detroit riots occurred in the summer of 1967. The riot initially started because of race when poor African Americans got kicked out of their houses. They started living on 12th street in Detroit. The riot started there because African Americans were fed up with the way that they were being treated. Many years prior to the riot there were already racial issues. The government made it hard for African Americans to buy houses in the 1950s. During that time, white people were resisting African Americans from moving into Detroit. They were gathering outside of houses owned by African Americans until they would leave. According to Stanford, “I was blissfully unaware of the pervasive racism and resentment that was simmering in my city” (28).

After the riots started, people saw it as a chance to do whatever they wanted to do and could care less who or what the hurt. ¨ At 6:45, the news recorded from helicopter, showed rioters pulling Reginald Denny a white truck driver, from his vehicle and beat him.¨ (Los angeles riots of 1992) the 4 men who beat him had little regard for his life as they continually beat him till four people emerged from the crowd to rescue him. When the people saw the carnage of the riots on tv people called on rodney king to tell them to stop. ¨Can we all get along¨ Rodney King pleaded on television on the 3rd day of the riots.¨ after the plead half of the rioters stopped and the rest could've cared less because they didn't see it as his riot they saw it as a free pass to do whatever they wanted, but they would be arrested soon. The people were outraged and did not care what laws they broke or who got