The 1992 Los Angeles Riots

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Introduction
This paper will cover the events that took place within the first five days in south central Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict .
History
In 1992 the city of Los Angeles was one of our nation’s largest cities. It had an estimated population of over 9 million.1 The city had been in a deteriorating state for several years. There also had been tension growing between the citizens and the police for nearly the last 30 years. This had a lot to do with riots that occurred in Los Angeles back in the 1960’s.2
In 1965 riots in L.A. occurred after a routine stop by the police involving drunk driving. This stop occurred very close the driver’s residence where massive crowd began to build. When it was all said and done the driver and his passenger were arrested along with the driver’s mother and one other person. These arrests and confrontation with the police caused riots that would last for six days. These riots and drawn a heavy presence by the National Guard and resulted in 34 people killed, over 1,000 injured, 4000 arrested and hundreds of buildings were burned.3
These riots set the tone for tension and what would ensue. In March of 1991 a man by the name of Rodney King involved in a car chase with police. The man had a prior criminal record and had been out of jail for a while on parole.
When he was stopped and out of the car he lunged at the police and was resisting arrest. After the police subdued him they continued to beat him well beyond the point of compliance. The stop occurred outside of an apartment complex where he was beaten and arrested. Unknown to police everything that occurred after the stop was being recorded on a video camera by a resident in the apartments. This video was sold t...

... middle of paper ...

...the military to stop with law enforcement would be issued the next day .
Lessons Learned
In these riots, it was discovered the response time could have been slightly improved. It was also found that coordination between the police and the Guard would be a little smoother with better training amongst the two services. The five day totals would be 51 killed, 2,383 injured, 11,113 structure fires and 10,904 arrests.9 The total property damage would be in excess of $900 million.10 These totals would far surpass the totals in the 1965 riots.

Works Cited

1. Delk, James, Fires & Furies, California: ETC Publications, 1995.

2. Los Angeles Almanac, “Los Angeles Almanac”, www.laalmanac.com, April 1, 1990, http://www.laalmanac.com/population/po24b.htm.

3. Scheips, Paul, The Role of Federal Military Forces, Washington, D. C.: Center of Military History, 2005.

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