How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD (1998)

How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD (1998)




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Rodney Glen King III (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an American construction worker who became nationally known after being beaten by Los Angeles police officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. A local witness, George Holliday, videotaped much of it from his balcony. The footage shows five officers surrounding King, several of them striking him repeatedly, while other officers stood by. Part of the footage was aired around the world, inflaming outrage in cities where racial tension was high, and raising public concern about police treatment of minorities.

Four officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force. Three were acquitted of all charges. The jury acquitted the fourth of assault with a deadly weapon, but failed to reach a verdict on the use of excessive force. The jury deadlocked at 8–4 in favor of acquittal at the state level. The acquittals are generally considered to have triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots, in which 53 people were killed and over 2,000 were injured, ending only when the military was called in.

The acquittals also led to the federal government's obtaining grand jury indictments for violations of King's civil rights. The trial of the four in a federal district court ended on April 16, 1993, with two of the officers being found guilty and subsequently imprisoned. The other two were acquitted again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King

The 1992 Los Angeles Riots, also known as the Rodney King Riots, the South Central Riots, the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Disturbance, 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest, and the Los Angeles Uprising[1] were a series of riots, lootings, arsons and civil disturbance that occurred in Los Angeles County, California in 1992, following the acquittal of police officers on trial regarding a videotaped and widely-covered police brutality incident. They were the largest riots seen in the United States since the 1960s and the worst in terms of death toll after the New York City draft riots in 1863.

The riot was first started in South Central Los Angeles and then eventually spread out into other areas over a six-day period within the Los Angeles metropolitan area in California beginning in April 1992. The riots started on April 29 after a trial jury acquitted four Los Angeles Police Department officers of assault and use of excessive force. The mostly white officers were videotaped beating an African-American man named Rodney King following a high-speed police pursuit. Thousands of people throughout the metropolitan area in Los Angeles rioted over six days following the announcement of the verdict.[2]

Widespread looting, assault, arson and murder occurred during the riots, and estimates of property damages topped one billion dollars. The rioting ended after soldiers from the California Army National Guard, the 7th Infantry Division, and marines from 1st Marine Division were called in to stop the rioting after the local police could not handle the situation. In total, 53 people were killed during the riots and over 2,000 people were injured.[3][4]

After the riots subsided significant actions were undertaken in the Los Angeles Police Department including the retrial of the police officers involved, increasing minority officers in the police department, analyzing excessive force, resignation of the police chief, loss of support for the Mayor of Los Angeles, and analyzing the general political and economic atmosphere that contributed to the riots.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots