Los Angeles Riots 1992

In Los Angeles in 1991 Rodney King was driving under the influence of alcohol, and also speeding at excessive high speeds. Around 12:30 am, Officers Tim and Melanie Singer, of the California Highway Patrol, noticed King 's car speeding on the Highway. The officers pursued King, and the pursuit attained high speeds, while King refused to pull over. He would later state that he did not pull over because he was attempting to outrun the police because he would violate his parole from a previous robbery conviction for driving under the influence. After king exited the highway there were about five police cars behind him, with a helicopter following. King exited the Highway and was ordered out of the car. His passengers exited first

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.

In 1992, a series of riots broke out in the city of Los Angeles. After footage of four police officers using excessive force on an African American man, Rodney King, a jury acquitted the four officers of their wrongdoing. The verdict sparked an outrage in the city, the incident was not the only point which played a role in the riots. However, after Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old girl, was shot in the back of the head by a store owner. As a result, the people of Los Angeles responded in anger over how African Americans were being treated by other races. The Rodney King verdict can be considered as the start of the riots instead of Latasha Harlins’ murder because it remained in the hands of the police, consisted of a large group of White American men, which displays an abuse of power in the race.

March 3rd, 1991. A day that has lived on in infamy for more than 20 years. Rodney King was just a normal 25-year old guy who had a family, a job, people who loved him. He had work the next day, so he decided to pop open some beers with one of his friends. According to King, around the time of 20th anniversary of the LA riots, “I know drinking and driving is not OK, and I shouldn't have been back then, and there's no excuse for it. But I had a job to go to that Monday, and so I went over to a friend's house and popped a couple of beers. We were just sitting around awhile, and I decided to go to a spot where my dad used to take us fishing called Hansen Dam in California.” (Martin 3) King then said he saw the patrol car behind him and for no apparent reason at all did not pull over on the side of the road, as people are supposed to do with cops. He finally pulled over and got out, and the cops tasered him with 50,000 volts. Three officers then started to beat the crap out of King, hitting him in the head, neck, kidneys, and legs, over 50 times. The beating was recorded by a passerby, and sent out to every major news outlet in the country. However, this is only part of the context surrounding the case of the Rodney King beating.

The Los Angeles riots in 1992 did not stem from the beating of Rodney King but stemmed from a much larger problem. Individuals were frustrated with being placed in a social hierarchy based on the color of their skin. The beating of Rodney King was the "cherry on top" for the bottled up frustration people felt. In the United States, there is a social hierarchy, and the judicial system works differently depending on where the individual is placed within the hierarchy. The riots were a non-constructive way to fight for equal rights within the judicial system, but many individuals were fed up with society telling them where they should be placed. A social hierarchy has existed since the beginning of time. The inner workings of the overabundance

Although the violence that day was severe and did not particularly benefit LA financially nor socially, this day marked a change from the culture of hate and stereotypes to eventually understand and quell the tensions in backgrounds. There is a necessity to contemplate on explosive events like the LA Riots in order to not repeat the same mistakes. Otherwise, how could the United States of America be associated with “unison” when the government and citizens raise hell over colors of the skin? There are still hate crimes brewing in this country of freedom and a tone of animosity on the political stage that is even present in every day news channels. The LA Riot of 1992 is only a single event. However, the outcomes brought mixed reviews. On one hand, the Riot revitalizes the minority communities to stand up against oppression.

Later, on April 29, 1992, riots began to break out in the city of Los Angeles and other areas around the country. During the Rodney King riots, citizens began to experience deindividuation and feelings of anonymity, making them do things that would normally go against a

Rodney King is a African American who was a symbol of racial tension in the United State of America. In 1991 After his beating in LA by the LA Police officers was taped and shown around the world. The officers Laurence Powell, Theodore Briseno, Timothy Wind and Stacey were the four police officers, they were charged with assault and use of deadly weapon. The trial was planned in be held in LA but because it was such a Public case they decided it was best to move it to a different location, Simi valley was the new location. The jury consisted of twelve people, 10 white, one Spanish and one asian person. Many people weren’t happy that they didn’t have African american people on the jury.

On April 29, 1992, the 12-person jury, which only had ten whites and no African Americans, issued the four policemen: not guilty on all counts, except for one assault charge against Powell that ended in a hung jury. After the hearing, African Americans living in Los Angeles started to go wild. People were breaking down stores, setting cars on fire, gangs were coming together as one and started to attack policemen. Rioting and violence continued during the next 24 hours, and Korean people who owned stores in African American neighborhoods defended their businesses with rifles. On May 1, President George Bush sent military troops and riot-trained federal officers to Los Angeles and by the end of the next day the city was under control. The three days of anarchy killed fifty-five people, injured almost 2,000, led to 7,000 arrests, and caused nearly $1 billion in property damage, including 4,000 buildings almost burned to the ground. "There were people in Beverly Hills who were nervous; people in the big pink hotel on Sunset that were nervous," recalls entertainer Arsenio Hall, "because the riot wasn't confining itself just to the ghetto" Arsenio Hall (1992). The whole world took notice that day that in some parts of the United States, Africans weren’t treated as equal as people

The Los Angeles riots of 1992, the worst civil disturbance in America, brought to light the deepening racial and class divisions that were growing in the U.S. The division of between the rich and the poor, the immigrants and natives, and majority and minority produced an atmosphere of fear, distrust, and hopelessness. Due to the struggle to gain power by racial and ethnic groups, the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots was clouded with racial and ethnical conflicts. However, the riots did increase racial awareness for Korean Americans between the different ethnicities. Dialogue was opened between people, whom prior to the riot, did not interact with each other. Even so, African American, Latino, White, and Asian American victims shared their anger and resentment towards the government for not providing adequate compensation and aid for their losses.

People throughout Los Angeles were outraged. Riots and Looting began soon after the verdict was announced. My father was at a friend’s apartment in Long Beach when it started. When he heard about the riots from the tv he decided he would wait for things to calm down then go home. He said “There were a lot of angry people in Long Beach. And gangs were pretty big there. The Crips were big in Long Beach. I figured I should just wait until things calmed down a little bit.” At some point he opened the window to see what things were like and if he could make the drive back to Huntington Beach. He said “I could hear tires screeching and and people yelling from down below. It was a tall building so I could see the fires all around. Just buildings lit on fire.” He stayed until there until about 3 am. He recounted the next morning at the halfway house where he had a job helping the tenants. “One of the tenants was getting ready to go to work. He was a security guard in somewhere in LA. I told him ‘don’t go to work today. It’s complete madness out there. Just stay home for the day.’ But he decided to go anyway. Luckily he was okay.” The riots lasted until May 4, 1992 with 63 killed and over 2000 injured. News of the riots rang out throughout the nation attesting to the frustration of the black community. It was ugly and gruesome and shined a spotlight on racial injustice in

In court, all four officers were free of charges. This caused many protests in the country and all around the world. Quickly these peaceful protests turned into violent rampage these were the L.A riots.

However, what set people off were that the officers continued to beat King while he was on the ground and posing no threat. Described in an article by US News, "Afterward, as King lay hogtied on the ground, the bloodied, angry victim alternately laughed and cursed into the chilly night air" (The Untold story of the LA Riots). King was brutalized in his arrest by the people that were supposed to be protecting the community and because of the actions that were taken by the jury in the King trial, a billion dollars of damage was done to the city of Los Angeles.

I recently watched the movie Freedom Writers which is a story about a high school teacher in Los Angeles who helped troubled teens use literature as an outlet to express themselves and provided them a safe haven from the violent environments they were raised from. From this movie, I learned that there were racial tensions between Blacks, Hispanics, and Koreans in L.A. during the 90’s. This made me wonder why there were tensions among those minorities which got me interested in learning about the L.A. riots. The L.A. riots began on April 29, 1992 after an African American man named Rodney King was put on trial for getting beaten up by four cops, 3 Caucasian and 1 Hispanic ("Rodney King Riots Erupt in Los Angeles.") This sparked riots among Los Angeles lasting for 6 days from April 29 – May 4. Although the LA riots were acts of crime from the rioters against the police, the outcomes of the riots were due to police brutality and racial tensions between minorities.

The Los Angeles Riots were the second Riots to happen after the Watts Riots. The L.A Riots took place on April 9, 1992. The riots broke out in less than a day and lasted five days and killed more than 50 people and left more than 2,000 injured. On April 30,1992, writers Richard A. Serrano and Tracy Wilkinson wrote an article in the Los Angeles Times newspaper saying “ hours after the verdicts were announced, angry demonstrators torched, buildings, looted stores and assaulted passerby as a civic leader pleaded for calm.”(Serrano and Wilkinson 1) The riots started after the verdict was given, people were filled with anger after the police were all acquitted of all charges.