Early 1990’s was a difficult time, especially for the south central. During 1991 and 19992 was the worst record for crime; the murder rate was the highest in LA in history. There were about 1077 murders many of which came from gang violence in south central. The match that set off the 1992 LA Riots. Was the videotape of Rodney King being brutally beaten by five police officers, as well as the murder of Latasha Harlins in 1991. The officers were found not guilty by a mostly white jury, so the African American grew angry and disappointed. The Korean woman who killed Latasha didn’t serve jail time, which caused a deep strain on the relationship between Korean and Africans. White people were the main targets, but Koreans also experienced gun battles
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
Monroe Harless is a 12 year old girl who lives in Buford, Georgia with her parents and her brothers. She goes to Jones Middle School, where her favorite subject is Social Studies. She also attends Buford School of Ballet, where she dances ballet, tap, and jazz for their company. When she is not busy with school or dance, she likes to play outside with her two little brothers, Brock and Baret. She adores reading, especially books like The Outsiders, and watching HGTV. Some of her favorite activities involve singing and acting. On Sundays, she looks forward to church and going to her youth group. She is thrilled to be going into 7th grade and to meet her new teachers.
riots started the afternoon of April 29, 1992, when four white Los Angeles Police Department officers were acquitted in the brutal, videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. Los Angeles was rocked by widespread rioting and acts of arson. The verdict was an unethical climax to a year of political uproar and national outreach, and the reaction to it prompted Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley to declare a state of emergency and request assistance from the National Guard as chaos spread from the city’s mostly black south side to downtown Civic City Center. In one of the many outbreaks, looters ran wild and drivers were pulled from their cars and attacked at an intersection in Central Los Angeles. Truck driver Reginald Denny was delivering sand to a cement plant when he drove into an intersection of the Los Angeles riots that had begun a few hours before.
Laura S. Haviland risked her own life trying to make a difference for the lives of others. She was not very concerned about what would happen to her, she just wanted to make sure others were getting what she thought they deserved. She was an abolitionist and a writer. Throughout her life she was devoted to helping people in many different ways, spending much of her life doing different activities that involved helping people, most importantly slaves and their families. These were things she never had to do, but chose to do. She took it upon herself to spend her life doing this. One of the biggest things she devoted her life to was the underground railroad. She also helped to make big improvements for African Americans. This almost cost her, her life, but she kept going and helping. Without Laura Haviland's demanding work and dedication Michigan would not have made such drastic improvements as they did during this time. Laura worked her whole life to selflessly help so many different people in their current situations. Laura was a teacher,
On March 3, 1991 an African American man named Rodney King became a posterboy for racial tension and police brutality in America. On this day, police officers Stacey C. Koon, Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind, and Theodore J. Briseno attempted to pull Rodney King over because they suspected he was driving under the influence. Mr. King then lead the officers on a 110 mph chase through San Fernando Valley, California, and finally stopped his car in a residential area. Police officers began beating Mr. King after he got out of his car. Officers tasered, kicked, stomped on, and hit Mr. King with their batons for about 10 minutes.
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.
I suffered a lot , physically I was beaten till I had broken bones and
In the 1996 case Koon v. United States, four white police officers were accused of using excessive force to arrest African-American, Rodney King, igniting claims of racism and police brutality. 1991 was a short 27 years after civil rights had been established and racism was still a prevalent factor in the streets of Los Angeles. Donna Batten states that, “The controversy surrounding each of these actions raised the issues of race, racism, and police brutality in communities throughout the United States” (Batten). The King Beating Trials promoted the idea that race meant people should be treated differently, and tensions rose. Relations between police and civil rights activists were plummeting after receiving national media coverage of police brutality. Megan Condino, author of African American Eras: Contemporary Times, reports that, “there were several well-publicized incidents of police assaulting peaceful demonstrators [and] clubbing and setting their dogs on child picketers” (Condino “Police Brutality”). The strain between police and the people created much anger and distrust during the trial The feelings and tensions across the nation strongly influenced the verdict of the King Beating Trials.
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.
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. caused racial tensions to escalate even more. “Many whites openly celebrated the murder.” (Westheider 97) “The feeling of anger and frustration did not
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 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
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.
Police brutality against African Americans was a huge impact in Los Angeles, California in 1991, and continues to be a problematic situation in America today. On March 3, 1991, a group of white LAPD beat Rodney King. After this incident occurred a lot of negative events started to transpire. A lot of African Americans were angry and demanded justice. The relationship between the LAPD and the Los Angeles community in 1991 were horrific and still continues to be awful today. Police brutality just seems to be increasing more overtime, which means the increase in the community not trusting the police. Police brutality can be a huge disadvantage when it comes to community policing.
Racism was a larger issue back in the 1930’s than it is today. During the 1930’s many Black Americans were unable to find jobs. With the Great Depression came the “last hired first fired” mindset. Many African Americans felt that this was targeted towards them (Racial 5). This along with Jim Crow laws kept most blacks in a level of poverty, which added to the discrimination (Racial 7). Throughout this time, all the way up into the 1960’s and 1970’s African Americans were under great segregation. During this thirty years, great strides toward social equality were made, but at the cost of numerous racial driven incidents. Many great African American icons were assassinated during this time. Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965 because he stood up against racial oppression as well as Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated in 1968. Both of these two men were part of the leading force in the desegregation of America (Rosenberg 1). This movement led to great tension between the African American culture and white culture, which led to many very violent cases between the races. A great