Rodney King Riots In The Rodney King

Excessive force being used by officers has been an ongoing issue since law enforcement was created. During the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, it has been made aware that minorities were a target for the law enforcement of that time. The 1967 murder cases of “Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner against the sheriffs of Neshoba and Lauderdale County” at that time was huge seeing as everyone involved in the case got off without any charges (Wynter). After years have gone by and the 41st anniversary of their deaths has happened, someone was convicted. All this time, no one would speak up against the police of these counties in fear of being brutally murdered just like the three men that was in their care. The injustice of it did not make sense

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

Throughout police history in the United States and around the world there have been numerous incidents of reported police brutality and other forms of corruption including taking bribes, theft, sexual deviance, and many more. In our present time corruption has decreased significantly from what it once was decades ago but still exists. One of the most publicized cases of police brutality, if not the most, was the beating of Rodney King. Most people have heard about the case and seen the video of the brutal beating that took place in Los Angeles on the night of March 2, 1991. The video shown to the public contained officers appearing to beat Mr. King while he is on the ground while

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.

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.

In the 1990s, police brutality hit its peak. One in particular, the L.A. riots, caught many American's attention. One of the more well known, was Rodney King. King was brutally beaten by a group of police officers after attempting to pull him over for speeding at 110 mph. The police claimed that King resisted his arrest after being pulled over and that he was on some sort of drugs, although neither of these claims proved to be true. The police that surrounded him continued to beat Rodney for 15 minutes which left him with severe damage including skull fractures, broken bones and teeth, and brain damage. This was the first police brutality occurrence to be filmed in Los Angeles and then eventually brought to the media. Following the leaking of this footage, the four police officers were put on trial for using excessive force. This situation forever pointed out what was wrong with police officers and

Race and Rage: The Beating of Rodney King was a documentary about just that, the beating of Rodney King and the Chicago Riots that were a result. In 1991 Rodney King was chased by cops for several miles before finally pulling over in a parking lot. He was then beaten almost to death by police and the entire incident was recorded by a resident in a nearby apartment. Chicago riots begin in 1992 due to the police brutality incident. The damage to the city was immeasurable and finally King came on and said he just wanted it to all be over. I feel this was a very brave and mature thing for him to do. The amount of force taken by the police on him that night is ridiculous and unnecessary. I do believe indicting the two police most involved in the beating was fair and the right thing to do. The riots however were too out of hand and ridiculous.

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

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.

The beginnings of the riots came on March 3, 1991, when Rodney King was stopped and brutally assaulted by police. King was stopped after a high speed chase police after police caught him intoxicated and was subsequently forced out of the car (History.com). From there, police began to unlawfully assault Rodney King, leaving him with a fractured skull, along with a broken cheekbone (History.com). A witness, George Holliday, filmed the officers beating Rodney King; a day after the tape was airing on CNN for the rest of the country to witness (Los Angeles Daily News). Four officers were later arrested and put to trial a year later, however all of them were not pleaded guilty. The verdict angered a massive amount of African

The riots began after Rodney King was in a high speed chase under the influence. He got pulled over and the cops gave him “56 blows and kicks and a number of shocks from a stun gun…,” ("Rodney King Riots Erupt in Los Angeles."). “King brought charges of brutality against four of the policemen. The officers, who claimed they acted in self-defense, were tried before a predominantly white jury in a white middle-class suburb of Los

The social reactions of riots was protested against racial discrimination, and called for a fair criminal justice system to be established. After the acquittal of the police officers by the California state court, a second trial was reopened by the federal government which turned the criminal case to be one of civil rights. The civil rights of Rodney King were violated. The district Attorney’s office in Los Angeles also indicted criminal charges of assault using a deadly weapon against the four police officers (Yin, 2004).

April 29th, 1992. A jury in Ventura County acquitted four white Los Angeles Police Department officers of brutally beating Rodney G. King, an unarmed African-American motorist. The riots that followed over the next five days left more than 50 people dead, more than 2,000 injured, and nearly 12,000 arrested (Los Angeles Riots Fast Facts). My father, James Webster, was a witness to these riots.

On March 3, 1991in Los Angeles, California went down in history as a landmark time that changed the conditions on law enforcement and the use of excessive force. Who would have thought that a basic routine traffic stop would change policing and racial relationship not only in Los Angeles, but in the United States? Rodney King on the night of March 3rd, 1991 was stopped and removed from his car after an alleged speed chase by the Los Angeles Police Department. He was pulled from his car and brutally beaten by the striking of police batons, Tasers were used several times, and he was also kicked by officers who were present during the altercation. This case did receive a lot of attention due to the fact that a citizen at the time was able to videotape eighty-one seconds as this activity was in the process. The footage from the videotape showed Rodney King enduring unpleasant contact from the officers at least fifty-six times. The individual that was videotaping the incident saw that it was necessary to hand it over to one of the local news broadcast. Once it was aired on the local news it sparked an outrage in Los Angeles and across the country. On the fifteenth day of March, 1991 four Los Angeles police officers were indicted

On April 29, 1992 an African American man named Rodney King was on trial for getting beat up by 4 cops, 3 Caucasian and 1 Hispanic. 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.