The 1992 Los Angeles Riots Essay

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

They were also arrested. (Auerbach 1688) That's all it took for this riot to come into play, a few people unhappy about the way the police handled the situation. The next thing you know its a few thousand unhappy people.

When Rodney King was beaten by Los Angeles police, it changed racial relations forever, but how does this tie into the trial of the famous football play and actor, Mr. Orenthal James Simpson. Unbeknownst to many, these two seemingly unrelated cases have much more in common than what meets the eye. To understand the two cases, the reader must first examine the background of each case separately, then compare and contrast the cases. In order to truly realize how the two cases compare, the reader must first learn the background of each case.

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.

Throughout my years living in Oakland I have seen violence and distress within my community. What most people hear about Oakland is never really anything positive; it’s mostly always negative. Oakland is known to have a history of gang violence, drug abuse, high school dropouts, teenage pregnancies, and social injustice. Within my research I find myself asking this question, ‘Why is there so much violence in Oakland? And what is the major contributor of this hardship that my community faces? Throughout my research I have learned that social injustice is a major contributor to Oakland violence, followed by the News media shown on television that also helps Oakland have a bad reputation. Most of the violence created in Oakland also comes from

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

It is interesting to note there was a stark contrast between day and night activities in the city of Kent. During the day, guardsmen casually patrolled and went about business as usual. In fact, there were even reports that throughout the daytime hours students would have long, peaceful conversations with the guardsmen. However, at night, the violence would break out while mass protests were held, forcing the students and guardsmen to quickly retreat to opposite sides. Once again, on the evening of May 3, non-lethal force was used and people were arrested as the guardsmen again struggled to take control of the violence erupting in the city of Kent Ohio.

A Great deal of things happen in the La riot in the year 1992.on the other had what stood out the most was how the world was focused on all the wrong things that accrued from the riot.most if not all of the stories were exposed to the public were just about all the criminals that generate the violence. What about the people who were badly injured from the accidents they were sadly involved in. seem that no one cared until a man named Steve Lopez, who came up with an great idea to have Fidel Lopez story heard. But i’m most certain that there were so many more stories that could have been told,it seem that no one cared about them but cared more about the people who made the stories, and that just isn't fair to anybody. It took just about 20 years

News reporters also took this time to voice their predictions as to how the community would respond based on the announcement of the grand jury’s decision. Some reporters anticipated peaceful protesting regardless of the jury’s decision, while others expected a chaotic riot to take place if a jury decision was announced that protesters did not

Many people believe the cause of the 1992 Los Angeles riots/civil disturbance was due to the acquittal of four LAPD officers who had been charged with the use of excessive force in the videotaped arrest and beating of Rodney King, following a high-speed police chase. Many believed the verdict was unjust, that in fact excessive force was used in the arrest. As a result, many feel this injustice caused the riots. When people take the time to do a more in-depth review/research of the subject, they will find that although this verdict may have triggered the rioting, there were actually multiple issues that contributed to the rioting.

After the disturbing video of King and the 4 police officers was shown to the public by news stations across the country, some were shocked, others were just not surprised at all. The ones who weren't shocked were the minorities living in parts of L.A especially the black community south Los Angeles. According to Bernard Parks, An African-American Los Angeles police officer who was present during the acquittal and the riots stated in an interview , “This particular piece of video validated in thousand of people minds that this has been going on for a long time. It validated that this is how the police treats the community, particularly the black community” (Morris, “LA riots : How 1992 changed the police”) . Not only did the infamous video

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 outbreak violence continues to up rise as they witness the incident. Officers were then called for back-up by the Los Angeles Police Department reinforcement, a scuffle had broken out between the blacks and whites officer and Frye, Rena and Ronald were all taken into custody.

Every crime has a correlation with a theory in criminology. These theories explain why crime happens and some even go to the extent to come up with a solution to prevent or stop crime. This paper will explore how certain theories of criminology connect with the riots that happened in Ferguson, Missouri. Facts from different articles will be used to back up the theory. The theories will explain why rioters committed the crimes did. The paper will take the actions of the protestors and explain why they did what they did.

During the riot, the first fire started at a shoe store on 12th. Officers were starting to line up with shields standing next to each other to block the rioting from spreading any further. There were authorities having a meeting to try and stop the riot. They were trying to make peace patrols but the police officers were blocking them from entering the area of the riot. The police officers were still trying to take control of the situation but their officers were being injured and the rioters started to outnumber them by a lot. As the police officers were giving up the firefighters were putting out fires. There were new fires starting as fast as they were being put out.