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
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.
While the media might not directly contribute to discrimination, the media is undoubtedly a significant aspect of modern day society that influences how people think about racial issues (Royce, 2009, p. 1, 17). Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Whites are attempting to keep blacks and other minority families locked into an impoverished political and economic position by using various tactics to isolate them, such as mass incarceration that stems from the War on Drugs. The New Jim Crow helps us in seeing how history is repeating itself and how to legalized discrimination among the blacks and Hispanics by implementing the mass incarceration.
Media bias is displayed repeatedly in news coverage of black tragedies and in the persecution of black bodies. From protest following the non indictments of cop killing unarmed black men to the uninformed persecution of the BlackLivesMatter movement, mainstream media is constantly standing in opposition to anything that threatens the status quo. My five articles assessed said media bias, and if that bias whether negative or positive affected the African-American community.
Race in the media is a very sensitive issue now a days. When it comes to minorities we can still see that the media portrays us in a bad light. The image of blacks in the American media has changed over the past two decades with the civil rights movement, changes in attitudes towards minority groups, and increased sensitivity on the part of those who and project these images. An examination of the image of Blacks in the articles and advertisements to show attitudes subtly represented, and these attitudes can be linked to historical and social realities of the time.
We are fools to think racism is something of the past. Racism is very much alive in this century as it was in the last century. The Rodney King trial and verdict will forever be identified as a moment in recent history that outraged the diverse residents of Los Angeles County and the rest of America. Not only did it expose the police brutality African Americans endure, but it showed the discrimination of a jury mostly made of white people. My family lived in Los Angeles during the late 80’s and into the 90’s, and they still remember how dangerous walking in the streets was during those years. The police did not only discriminate African Americans, they also victimized Mexican Americans. The Rodney King trial and verdict of 1992 generated riots across Los Angeles after four police officers accused of beating King were acquitted. The verdict revealed the unjust racial treatment towards African Americans and it became a symbol of police brutality and injustice that is still seen today.
The L.A. Riots is one of the massive riots in american history. The riots were caused by the injustice beating of Rodney King by four officers. To put it in perspective, the riots happened because of racism by jury and officers. I watched a sundance film trailer about the L.A. Riots and how koreans were affected by the riots. After watching the trailer, I decided to do research and I learned about the deep details of how the riots happened. The L.A. Riots changed my morals on how people can be proved guilty or innocent so easily, plus my perspectives on racism against minorities of the United States. My perspective is that police have been harassing more people of color more during the
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
The 1991 Rodney King beating was one of the most significant events of the late twentieth century when considering the tension between African Americans and white police officers in the last two centuries. It seemed that the beating and the effect that it had on the world as a whole embodied society's feelings concerning the idea of discrimination. The fact that Rodney King was African American and that white police officers used unnecessary force when trying to apprehend him made it possible for people to understand that even though the social order had experienced important progress in recent years, the race matter continued to be divisive.
2014: Two years after the death of Trayvon Martin, the world was introduced to Michael Brown, a Ferguson, Missouri Black native who had just become the next victim of a fatal officer involved shooting. In the early morning of August 9, 2014, the 18 year old man was said to be involved in a strong arm robbery of a convenience store. Officer Darren Wilson received the alert from the police dispatch and quickly surveyed the neighborhood until finding a walker who fit the victim’s description. The officer confronted the man, which was indeed Michael Brown, and continued to use aggressive tactics when questioning him. It is still unclear as to what transpired from the time the officer arrived to the ending result, but video from a bystander shows
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
Riots break out over in south-central Los Angeles California on April 29, 1992 in protest of the unjust actions of police brutality against Rodney King by Laurence Powell, Theodore Briseno, and Timothy Wind on March 3, 1991, unbenounced to the perpetrators, a civilian was filming the act unfold using a personal with a personal video camera. The video was released to the press, causing outrage and sparking debates around the issues of police brutality. King was released without charges, and on March 15, the three officers who brutally beat King, and Stacey Koon, their commanding officer were brought to court and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force, as well as Powell and Koon for filing false reports. However
During 1992 in South Central Los Angeles, a riot started after the news of four white Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King was published on TV. It became daily news. The riot caused many crimes to occur; participants of the riot burned down business stores, destroyed properties, and some activities involved guns that have led to many deaths. Many South Central residents were unsatisfied with police brutality and the way their community were being treated. Although the riot only lasted for about a week, about 52 people were killed (Kivisto and Rundblad 82). The whole neighborhood were ruined and destroyed. Ever since that riot, there were over 1 million property loss (Kivisto and Rundblad 82), and over 700 businesses were burned down (Bergesen and Herman para. 1). Many people lost their jobs because their workplace were destroyed.
Not seeing whole incident has always been an issue in the United States taking it back to 1991 the Rodney King case. King was in a high speed chase with the police he was pulled out of his car and was brutally beat by four police officers. This altercation was caught on film by a bystander and was taken to trial (Rodney King Biography). Even though they had provided undeniable evidence of the officers using excessive force and a deadly weapon the officers were acquitted. This triggered a deadly riot in 1992 that caused more than 50 people dead, more than 2,000 injured and about 9,500 arrest (Rodney King Biography). Kelly Thomas in fullerton, california, a homeless man that was brutally beat to death. Police officers also did it intentionally