Rodney King Riots
April 29th, 1992 at the intersection of Florence and Normandie, Reginald Denny a white truck driver was pulled from his truck cab and beaten senseless as a news helicopter above captured the attack on videotape. Governor Pete Wilson immediately called a state of emergency and ordered the National Guard to take the streets of Los Angeles, in an attempt to salvage what they could of the city. Prior to the beginning of the Rodney King Riots, also known as the 1992 South Central Riots, was decades of racial tension paired with the notorious maltreatment of the Los Angeles Police Department. The actual beating of Rodney King by four Los Angeles Policemen is considered the main catalyst of the riots, but truly the riots have a
…show more content…
It was March 16, 1991, when Latasha Harlins was gunned down in a Korean grocery store. The storeowner’s sister accused Latasha of stealing and as Latasha turned around to leave the store she was shot in the back of the head. At the same time the Rodney King video was being shown, the video of the Latasha Harlins murder was shown on television drastically exacerbating the hatred towards Koreans during the riots. After warnings broadcasted over Korean radio stations in Los Angeles that the Los Angeles Police Department had left Koreatown and its residents to fend for themselves an influx of Korean-Americans rushed to Koreatown. As the riots started, they united and save what they could of Korean owned stores, restaurants and other businesses in both Koreatown and South Central from the mass looting and burning of angry mobs. At the California Market in Koreatown remained the most heavily guarded forces, over twenty armed men fighting off groups of mobs and looters. As a result of the riots 2,300 stores that were burned belonged to Korean Americans, amounting to 45 percent of all damages caused by the riots. In addition to the physical damages faced, over 730 Koreans were treated after the riots ended for post-traumatic suffering with symptoms that included muscle pains, sense of inactivity, and even insomnia. The …show more content…
Latinos accounted for one third of those who were killed, one third of those who were arrested, and almost one half of the shops that were looted and burned belonged to persons of the Latino ethnicity. Based on the 1990 US census, South Central Los Angeles, which was the area most heavily attacked during the riots had a population that was 45 percent Latino and 48 percent Black. The large percentages did not unite the community yet divided South Central into two dominant cultures, that of the Latinos and Blacks. Since Rodney King was an African American, the news predominantly focused on the black community in South Central. Yet, even though the two communities were viewed as totally separate entities, different spaces and places, during the riots they eventually grew to unite over common sentiment such as mistreatment from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Los Angeles Sheriffs Department (LASD), and huge unemployment rates in downtown Los Angeles. From the years of 1984-89 citizen complaints about police brutality rose 33 percent. In addition, according to the Los Angeles Times, from 1986 to 1990 around 1,400 officers were all investigated for claims regarding excessive force, yet only one percent was prosecuted. When a nationwide recession hit Los Angeles, it caused already major unemployment rates to spike to almost 45 percent for black males in South Central Los
The activating occasion of the Los Angeles riots occurred one spring evening when Rodney King was driving, neglectfully and inebriated, on the Foothill Freeway. At the point when two officers timed King speeding, and started to seek after him, a fast auto pursue followed. Rodney King was on parole, and was concerned a speeding ticket, joined with his blood liquor level, would cost him his opportunity. When King was at long last cornered, numerous squad cars were included. After one officer let go two tasers into King, King professedly opposed capture and four cops started utilizing their rod to beat King into accommodation. The battle that took after included a severe beating, more than 50 hits from the cudgel, kicks from the
The Los Angeles riots kicked off on the twenty-ninth day of April 1992 following the acquitting of four officers who had beaten and injured a motorist in the previous year. In the year 1991, California Highway Patrol officers detected Rodney King speeding as he drove in Los Angeles. King then led the officers on a high speed chase for the fear that the court would revoke his probation for a robbery offense he had committed (Gray, 2014). He was caught and ordered out of his car surrounded by several L.A.P.D cars and this led to a struggle between him and the police officers with some of them thinking that he was resisting arrest. One sergeant, Stacey Koon, used a Taser gun to fire at him before they beat him with their buttons mercilessly. He was struck with police batons more than fifty times and suffered eleven fractures besides other injuries. George Holiday, who was a nearby resident, videotaped the ordeal and delivered it to a local television station the following day (CNN Library, 2014). The tape sparked tension between the black Americans and the whites. The blacks saw the beating as racial discrimination against their community. However, no violence was recorded from the blacks du...
The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots.
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
It all begun one year before (March 3, 1991) when Rodney King and two friends were detected to be speeding in the 210 freeway in Los Angeles. He was driving under the influence of alcohol. King, scared because he was already in probation, went on a high speed chase. Eventually King was surrounded by police cars and had no ch...
On the night of August 11, 1965 the Watts community of Los Angeles County went up in flames. A riot broke out and lasted until the seventeenth of August. After residents witnessed a Los Angeles police officer using excessive force while arresting an African American male. Along with this male, the police officers also arrested his brother and mother. Twenty-seven years later in 1992 a riot known as both the Rodney King riots and the LA riots broke out. Both share the similar circumstances as to why the riots started. Before each riot there was some kind of tension between police officers and the African American people of Los Angeles. In both cases African Americans were still dealing with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. Add these three problems with policemen having a heavy hand and a riot will happen. Many of the primary sources I will you in this analysis for the Watts and the LA riots can be found in newspaper articles written at the time of these events. First-hand accounts from people living during the riots are also used.
On the morning of March 3rd, 1991 an African-American man led police on a high-speed chase through the city of Los Angeles. Approximately eight miles later police swarmed around the car and confronted the driver, who went by the name Rodney King. During the confrontation, officers tortured King until the point he was forced to seek medical care. A case was opened and the police officers were acquitted. This angered many people, specifically Blacks and led to the historical “L.A. Riots’’ , where they felt race had something to do with the case.
Today there are many controversial subjects discussed throughout the media. One of the most discussed is race and the Black Lives Matter movement. Recently, I came across an article titled “The Truth of ‘Black Lives Matter’”, written by The Editorial Board. The article was published on September 3, 2015, to the New York Times. In the article, The Editorial Board writes about what they believe African Americans are facing as challenges in society today, including the all-too-common police killings of unarmed African-Americans across the country. The Editorial Board is right that some African Americans have been treated unfairly, but all ethnicities have been. Life is a precious thing that comprises all ethnicities. This brings us to ask; why
While the L.A. riots were far larger, and the effects are still being felt, I still feel that the Watts riots had more of an impact. I had known about the riots previously, as I had been interested and looked into it on my own, but I had not looked into the economic at the time. Seeing that there were not any real economic effects from the riot, and in-fact some things may have gotten even worse, changes how I think of riots reported on in the media. Although there has been little in empirical studies done on the impact of the Watts riots, which is odd due to their importance in recent American history, especially now, it is clear that the riots started a trend of misguided racial tension that continues to this day, one that has prolonged the suffering and disenfranchisement of Blacks in the United States. While I do not believe another riot is the answer, researching this riot has shown me that while the riots can be considered important, the reality is that their effects on society are quite minimal, and only the political discussion of the riots is what has lasted to today. The failure of any real reform since then of the treatment of Blacks in general, let alone in the criminal justice world, shows to me a real lack of justice in the United
Eventually, the four suspects, all African American Muslims, were apprehended. Even so, the San Francisco Bay Area was negatively affected and it was deemed a dangerous region. The memory of the murders still lingers in the background of San Francisco culture to this day. There has been a sour relationship between the African Americans and police since that time, and today many whites in San Francisco may still hold a racist attitude towards African Americans because of everything that happened. One area hit by this drift was Bayview-Hunters Point since it possesses the highest percentage of African Americans of any district in the city. According to Lamberson (2015), the murders created cleavages down racial and political lines. They were a redevelopment of the old rivalries between people of color and whites stemming from the well-known instances of turmoil such as slavery in the old South, Jim Crow laws, and the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The implication of supposed involvement of a Muslim cult in the shootings was a future radicalization of other racial groups and stands out as an indication of political violence that has evolved to less visible but potentially more deadly threats hidden in today’s society (Lamberson,
An analysis of the first 5,000 arrests from all over the city revealed that 52 percent were poor Latinos, 10 percent whites and only 38 percent blacks. They also know that the nation's first multiracial riot was as much about empty bellies and broken hearts as it was about police batons and Rodney King (Urban).
The civil rights movement in the 1950s-1960s was a struggle for social justice for African Americans to gain equal rights. One activist who became the most recognizable spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr, a christian man dedicated to the ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. Although the Civil war had officially abolished slavery, blacks were still treated as less than human for many years after. Martin Luther King Jr has positively impacted the world with his peaceful protest approach to gaining social justice; but with the increase of hate crimes being committed, I believe individuals today need to pick up where King left
Rodney king became a national sensation. He was featured on several news broadcast. People all over America were disgusted by what they saw. The video showed no evidence of King resisting. In fact witnesses reported hearing him say ,” Please stop, please stop.”However the police officers there saw him as a threat. Over a year after the beating the charges towards the LAPD officers were dropped The trial was held in a majority white neighborhood.This upset all of America but Los Angeles had the biggest response. “Los Angeles was rocked by widespread rioting, looting and acts of arson after four white cops were acquitted of nearly all assault charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, the black motorist...”(Polner).Many were surprised and upset when the officers involved in the beating were not charged despite their incriminating evidence. However nearly two years after the assault two of the officers were charged while the other two were acquitted once again of any charges. King was given 3.8 million dollars for his injuries from the
Today I will be discussing about an African American activist a minister a civil rights leader whom has made many contributions to the African American culture Rev. Al Sharpton. Who was born Alfred Charles Sharpton, Jr. Al Sharpton was born in Brooklyn, NY to his father Alfred Sharpton Sr. and his mother Ada Richards when his family moved he was then raised in Queens, NY. In 1954 He soon began to start developing a speaking style as a child he then started preached his first sermon at the age of four called, “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled” at Washington Temple Church of God with an audience of over 800 people. Soon after that he then toured with gospel singer Mahalia Jackson who took interested in his unique speaking skills. At the age of 7 Al Sharpton first heard of the struggles with racial issues through the stories that his grandfather would tell him of how he was beaten by white men for simply standing in there way and not walking on the other side of the street.
The important little factors that led up to becoming huge and having great effects on Chicago race riots. For blacks and whites both the riot was just a built up increase of hostility that has been going on for quite some time. One thing that can be said about Chicago incidents seem to be the more ruthless and aggressive when compared to others. It may have been because of the black’s resist not to lie down and fight back. Most of the time it causes even more anger when compared to a nonviolent approach. In addition, the Chicago riots and the incidents that led up to it were huge in status. A young black man named Eugene Williams swam past an unseen line of segregation at a popular public beach on Lake Michigan, Chicago. He was stoned by several