The Los Angeles Riots Of The Rodney King

Since before the birth of the nation, men, women and children have stood boldly against oppression. As the United States developed, racial tensions waxed and waned under the vacillating struggles between the empowered and disempowered members of society. This centuries-old dynamic of interaction between West Africans and European caucasians, creates the principle unconscious understanding of social racial stressors today. During the 1960’s, thousands of the alienated gathered in violent and nonviolent protest across the United States in an effort to end segregation and brutality against African Americans (Stein, 2014). The turmoil continued into the 1990’s and reached a ferocious breaking point in Los Angeles in 1992 following the Rodney King

The violent response that was evoked from the community called attention to the issue at hand, however it simultaneously stripped the integrity from what could have been a peaceful, but still effective, example of civil disobedience. Only thirty-minutes after the declaration of the King ruling, a disgruntled crowd of several hundred people had already assembled outside of the courthouse, and it only got worse from there (Pamer, 2012). In a mere six days of rioting, seven-thousand fires had been set in addition to the looting that was occurring (Pamer, 2012). The exact nature of the fires and looting is best exemplified by the actual Los Angeles Police Department audio used in Sublime’s song April 29, 1992 (Miami). Where a business located at “1934 East Anaheim” has “ all the windows...busted out, and it 's like a free for all here” (Nowell, 1996). By the time the smoke had cleared, the “estimated value of property damage [was] 1 billion dollars” and approximately sixteen-thousand “riot related crimes” has been reported (Pamer, 2012). However businesses and other structures alike were not alone in the fiery path of destruction, people were under attack as well, and when all was said and done, the death count was determined to be in between fifty-one and fifty-three people (Pamer, 2012)(Reading the L.A. riot, 1992). While this

riots, it was merely a catalyst to the social issues that had already manifested themselves in the community. The tensions in the community has been on the brink of erupting for quite some time. Or as Sublime would put it, “ 'Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here.It 's getting harder, and harder, and harder each and every year” (Nowell, 1996). While some people were blaming whites, some were blaming blacks, and others had chosen to direct their anger towards the police, the Bush Administration pointed their finger at one person in particular, former president and implementer of the Great Society program:Lyndon B. Johnson (Reading the L.A. riot, 1992). Before the verdict had even been reached on the King trial, U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr “ told a nationwide television audience” that “"What we are seeing in the inner city [is] essentially the grim harvest of the Great Society," (Reading the L.A. riot, 1992). Barr’s opinion was not unique, Charles Murray, Losing Ground author, maintained the same belief, and expressed that, “The inner city 's "social dynamics" have taken on a life of their own” due to the fact that, “The proportion of babies born to single black women has continued to rise, and unemployment of young black males remains well above the levels of the 1960s.” (Reading the L.A. riot, 1992). While statistically, conditions may have appeared to improve, for example