Julio Claudian Period
Though sparked by the Rodney King verdict, there were many other causes of the riots that erupted on the streets of Los Angeles on April 29, 1992. The Los Angeles riots in 1992 were devastating. The obvious issue portrayed through the media was black versus white. If you did not live in Los Angeles or California chances are you did not hear full coverage of the story, you heard a simple cut and dry portrayal of the events in South Central. If you heard one thing about the riots, it was that there was a man named Rodney King and he was a black male beaten with excessive force by four white Los Angeles police officers on Los Angeles concrete. The media portrayed the riots as black rage on the streets due to the not guilty verdict of the four Los Angeles policemen that were facing excessive force charges. The not guilty verdict may have been the initial cause, but the riots were not about Rodney King, they were about greater issues. Some of these issues were black versus white, blacks and Hispanics versus the police, blacks versus Koreans, and poor versus rich. The riots were do to all the underlying festering rage that had been building up in the residents of Los Angeles and the disbelief that police even when caught on tape,
Smith, Anna Deavere Twilight Anchor Books Doubleday; New York, New York The city of Los Angeles is not a unified city. Los Angeles consists of too many large sub cities or communities to speak with one voice. There are many sub cities in LA such as the Westside, Hollywood, the Valley, Downtown, and of course, South Central. To make things more difficult, many of these sub cities themselves are not unified. Due to their size, all of these communities are subject to their own problems, and it goes without saying that the problems of South Central are not the same as the ones in Hollywood. This is due to drastic demographic differences of each of the communities. South Central is made up of high percentages of minority citizens. While South Central LA has a high population of blacks, Hispanics and Asians, it has a low percentage of whites. South Central is a shining example of a community divided. In Maxine Waters words, (inner city) LA is full of too much hopelessness and despair. LA writer and critic Mike Davis supported Waters' statement by saying the divisions stem from inner city kids "being so susceptible to despair." The city is at war with its kids. "LA needs to put out the resources to at least reestablish a connection with the kids" (Smith). Too many children grow up to become gang members rather than professionals. Another problem that causes division in LA is that the city's minorities are engaged in racial warfare. Blacks and whites, and blacks and Koreans have drawn the largest battle lines. Divisions with whites rise out of the fact that Blacks in LA do not like the image that they are given through the media. Paula Weinstein sympathized with this emotion when she described a recent "media fest" in which they made white people scared of the African American community. Reginald Denny described problems between races in terms of the overall attitude of people in LA as "give me what I need and shove off." His hope is that "people just wake up" and "stop seeing color, and see people as people." Tensions between Koreans and blacks had been building for years before the King verdict until they finally exploded. There were countless acts of violence committed between Koreans and blacks that ranged not only from looting and burning of Korean stores but to gun battles and shootings. Walter Park, a well known Korean shop owner was shot "almost execution style" by a black man who came up to his car at a red light, broke his window, and shot him in the head just for being Korean (Smith). In response to the idea that blacks burned down their own neighborhoods, Paul Parker, chairperson for the Free the LA Four Plus defense committee stated, "No we didn't, we burned down these Koreans in this neighborhood" (Smith). About ninety-eight percent of the stores burned down were Korean. He also added, "You know, we got rid of all these little Korean liquor stores over here. We put them in check." This tension between blacks and Koreans comes from a couple of reasons, the first of which was summed up by Katie Miller. She states that Korean proprietors in South Central do not get to know the people who come into their stores. They do not respect the people coming into their store giving them their money. Instead the owners treat people like, "give me your money and get out of my face" (Miller). Another one of the other chief complaints by many blacks of Koreans in South Central is that "Korean-Americans do not patronize black businesses" (Choi). Economic differences among citizens of Los Angeles were perhaps the largest contributing factor to the riots. South Central LA as a higher overall poverty rate than does its surrounding communities. This was evidenced by the 1990 census which found that "30% of the people in South Central live below the poverty line" (Mydans). A commission similar to the one headed by John A. McCone was formed to study the causes of the '92 riots. It was called the Webster Comm
Some common words found in the essay are:
South Central, Los Angeles, McCone Commission, Rodney King, Latinos Asians, Mike Davis, Mercedes Westwood, Rudy Salas, Police Abuse, Los Angeles', los angeles, south central, rodney king, mccone commission, angeles police, los angeles police, king verdict, watts riots, los angeles riots, '92 riots, excessive force, times november, rodney king verdict, los angeles times, 1992 home edition,
Approximate Word count = 3045
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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