“54 deaths, more than 2,000 injured, 3,600 fires, 1,100 buildings destroyed, 4,500 businesses looted, more than 12,000 arrests and around $1 billion in total damage to the city”. These were the consequences of one of the most devastating riots in American history - the Los Angeles Riots of 1992. These riots were fueled by decades of rage from L.A.’s African-American community, but the main catalyst was the unfair acquittal of four white police officers who had beat an African-American man nearly to death.
Around midnight on March 3rd, 1991, Los Angeles police officers caught motorist Rodney King wildly drunk driving; his blood alcohol level was two times the legal limit. 15 officers chased King for 7.8 miles until finally catching him. Then,
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was enraged. It was not just because of the clearly unjust verdict that they decided to release all of their anger in riots; the fury was fueled by decades of racism and police brutality as well as daily struggles of ghetto life: poverty, family issues, gangs, and drugs, among numerous others. Over the years, all of these issues accumulated on the community’s psyche. As a result, they were already on edge during King’s beating. After the verdict, they began a series of riots which lasted five days. Shortly after the verdict had been released, the first riot began in the intersection between Florence and Normandie avenues. Company and supermarket buildings were looted and set on fire. Hardly any light-skinned people could pass through the mob of 100 African Americans without being attacked. Only around 12 people in the mob were throwing rocks and shouting racial slurs - everyone else was cheering them on or simply watching. Eventually, the mob grew to around 200 people, all fueled by revenge and free alcohol looted from a nearby alcohol store. Then, a white man named Reginald Denny drove through the intersection. A small group of African-American men pulled him out of his truck and began beating him nearly to death. After the attack, one man threw his arms up and did a dance of celebration. Denny hence became a symbol of vengeance for the beating of Rodney King. By the first night of the rioting, over 150 shops were in flames, ten people …show more content…
riots will always be remembered not only by the residents who lived in the city during the time but also all victims of racism. King’s beating shocked the nation with the violence of police brutality and the riots proved that it leads to dire consequences. Nevertheless, people today can learn that being prejudiced against one another will ultimately result in destruction to both sides.For instance, in 2013, the movement “Black Lives Matter” began as a fight for equality and ending police brutality. It helped inspire the fight against prejudices, especially after George Zimmerman’s trial in 2012 when he was found not guilty of killing 17 year old Trayvon Martin. This outraged many people, especially African Americans, causing multiple protests around the country. Activist Alicia Garza expressed her anger via Facebook using the hashtag BlackLivesMatter. Many activists also followed the hashtag, but it didn’t receive much attention until 2014 - when there were multiple incidents between police officers and African Americans. One of many is the Ferguson Unrest, which was ignited by the shooting of an unarmed teenager named Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. A white police officer shot Brown to death but was given a highly controversial verdict of “not guilty” by a grand jury. Furious citizens began rioting and protesting for weeks in the area. In attempts to calm the violence, officers used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters who, in turn, threw bottles
The Rodney King Riot happened in Los Angeles in the year of 1992. Rodney King was an African American male who was arrested on charges because of speeding, drunk driving, and refusing to stop his vehicle. Four police officers who have claimed to have witnessed King’s actions such as being high on drugs and was trying to attack them explains why they did what they did. A resident nearby by the name of George Holliday captured about 12 minutes of the attack on film. King was tasered, brutally beaten with side-handled batons, then forced to the ground to lie still which was where he was handcuffed.
The Tulsa Race Riot was the destruction of Black Wall Street in 1921, which was caused by an allegation of a white woman accusing a black man of rape. It lasted from May 31st to June 1st. The Tulsa Race Riot caused plenty of damage from “dozens of deaths [and] hundreds of injuries” to the destruction of Black Wall Street leading to unemployment of the black community (Hoberock n. pag.). An estimated property loss was over $2.3 million. This was an important event in our Nation’s history because “it teaches how far hatred [and violence] can go” (Hoberock n. pag.).
These people marched threw the city. After their final stage of the event, the people became violent and damaged at least five police vehicles. On April 27 they helps a service for Freddie Gray. On April 28, Baltimore television showed the the firefighters putting out fires. Mostly African-American citizens, cleaned up after the the rioting.
In February 2012 a racial war began. This war was fueled by the bias in the coverage from news broadcasters. This war brought grief, destruction, and unbalance in society. The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman created unrest in the nation mainly because of the coverage by different popular news broadcasters. This tragedy stretched far beyond a shooting, but became a racial matter.
Another example of teetering racial hate is the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. In an article written by CNN, the author says, “March 3, 1991 - Rodney King is beaten by LAPD officers after King leads police on a high-speed chase through Los Angeles County.” (CNN). In other words, Rodney King unintentionally begins one of the most memorable riots in history. This is important because over the next five days fifty people will go on to die with more the two thousand injured.
what they thought was the solution was to start breaking things and protesting in violence like a child would. The riot nearly had three dozen juveniles arrested and more than 200 adults were taken into custody after people set fires to cars and businesses, with lots of looted stores. Nearly 150 cars were burned with a cost of nine million dollars total to the city of Baltimore. This has not been the only tragedy that was created by race. The 2015 Ferguson riots are another example.
There was anger that the law was not effective and they perceived that no justice was served. These theories were evident in Baltimore on the day of the
Rioters began violence at the famous corner of Florence and Normandie where they threw beer cans at surrounding cars and attacked any passing people. Around the same time, protesters gathered and rallied around news stations like KTLA. Daryl Gates, the chief of the LAPD, originally claimed the police had the issue under control, but it progressed into the declaration of an official "State of Emergency." Two thousand National Guard troops are deployed to popular spots to prevent violence. Later that day, Gates announced that there were four thousand more National Guard members requested and intended to be deployed the next day.
Rodney King Riots Protest Movement Paper On April 29, 1992, A week of non stop urban violence and mayhem erupted in the streets and cities of Los Angeles, the riots were commenced by the unjust trial that let the four white police officers set free of any charges. All four officers were captured on videotape beating on a black motorist named, Rodney King after a traffic stop gone wild. The Rodney King riots impacted society greatly by presenting the nations people with an understanding of how racism was still present in america. A reminder that "justice for all" was still a long way off being set in stone and to followed by most people.
The riots began after the death of Eugene Williams. Eugene Williams was a young black male who drowned due to swimming at an all white beach and rocks being thrown
We learned that over the last 40 years the police department of the City of Miami and Miami- Dade County have experienced their share of civil disturbances. To illustrate, there have four cases of race riots between both police departments which led to innovation to be involved in their pursuits to better their responses. These were the race riots in 1968, the Liberty City Riot, 1980, the McDuffie Riot, 1982 Luis Alvarez Riots, and 1989 Loranzo Riots within the Liberty City over town areas. However, the article stated that these riots were resulted by either police shooting of young black men, or thanks to the federal government the deporting of a young Cuban boy. Thus, it was not until the civil arrest of the 1980’s McDuffie Riot which seemed
Para 1.) “After police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. The fatal gunshots, fired by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, on 9 August 2014, were followed by bursts of anger, in the form of protests and riots. Hundreds and then thousands, of local residents, had flooded the streets. The killing of Michael Brown created a new generation of black activists, with thousands taking to the streets, and a hashtag used more than 27m times.
The Rodney King riots impacted many people in the United States in many ways, and Matheson and Baade explain one large impact that they
It’s time to #TakeAKnee “We never get rid of hate by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy, by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature hate destroys and tears down.” Dr. Martin Luther King stated that the purpose of non-violent protest was not to get revenge but to change the heart of the enemy. Over the past couple of years America has begun to acknowledge police brutality as a serious problem. While state-sanctioned violence towards individuals of varying races of color is not new, the documentation through dash-cams and civilian cellphone footage has brought the brutality to light.
Circumstances like the death of Michael Brown, who was shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., on Aug. 9, 2014, which resulted in nationwide protests against what civil rights advocates say is law enforcement 's tendency to be overly aggressive when dealing with black men (Susman 2016). Cases like these sparked the debate of racism’s reality and formed movements like Black Lives Matter which evolved from a social media hashtag into a national protest police brutality (Susman 2016). The upsurge of racism recently has cased much concern, with the return of groups like the KKK (white supremacists) and the stereotyping of by policemen on minority groups. Additionally, some psychiatrists have advocated making racism a psychiatric disorder, whereas others have maintained that doing so is inappropriate because it would "medicalize" a social problem (Bell 2004).