Khamis Berneker
Professor Tran
English 100
22 May 2018
Causes and Results of The L.A. Rodney King Riots
“Taxi Driver Beaten By LAPD Officers!” was the title plastered all over newspapers and headlines across the country. On March 3rd, 1991 an African American taxi driver by the name of Rodney King was placed under arrest and beaten to a pulp by four LAPD officers after a high speed chase. After this took place the four officers were put on trial for charges of excessive force and assault with a deadly weapon. The conclusion of an obvious case of police brutality? Three officers – acquitted of both charges, while the remaining officer’s verdict couldn’t be decided by the jury, over a year later. The overwhelming opinions and beliefs in Rodney King’s innocence lead to a march, a protest, and a way for victims to express their disgust for police brutality – the LA Riots.
One of the core cause to the LA riots, as well as many cases of police brutality today is racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is defined as the discrimination against individuals on the basis of their race. This issue has been relevant throughout history, and has trickled into today. This is the sole reason for the beating of Rodney King. Rodney King was the victim of police brutality that would set off a wave of public disquiet towards racial discrimination. The issue as a whole made many people mad, especially people of color. This brought up the anger of racial and economic inequality in the city, and a nation wide conversation about racial and economic disparity. There are many examples of racial discrimination throughout history, but one that many people know about is the Rodney King beating. “When the police stopped Rodney King, he was ordered to exit the vehicle… “ this is when the officers of the LAPD kicked him and beat him with batons for a reported 15 minutes. The video showed a group of other officers watching and commentating while the beating was taking place.” (Hughey 711) The video was aired on national television. This is significant because it created the national uproar of obvious racism. All four officers were accused in the videotaped beating of African American motorist Rodney Glen King…. Koon shot King with a 50,000-volt Taser. Such high voltage was considered to be enough to put a person down, and it was because of the failure of the Taser that King was believed to be under the influence of PCP … official test results were negative for PCP” (Hughey, 711). These four men brutally beat him, and put his body into a state that could only be explained by drugs. “King rose from the first Taser charge and was hit with a second Taser which brought him to the ground. King again rose and charged toward Officer Laurence Powell, at which point Powell struck him with his police baton. The other three police officers (Koon, Briseno, and Wind) then kicked King and struck him 56 times with nightsticks. In addition to those officers, 24 other law enforcement officers watched the beating. Some of them assisted in holding King down by placing their feet on his back while he was beaten.” (Hughey 711). The racial discrimination committed and the assumption that this man was guilty, because he was black is the only explanation for these police officers to tase, assault, and beat this man. Yet, the video and white privilege lead to the acquittal of these four officers over a year later. Only hours after the verdict, the streets were flooded with many angered people who were ready to show their opinions, beliefs, and express their disgust.
A the heavy influence on the LA Riots was response to the prior underlying racism of those in power positions, it was known as gangster rap. In earlier years the group known by the name of N.W.A. (which stood for “N****s With Attitude”) made a multitude of songs that showed their reality as young African American men. Along with these songs, a specific song “F*** The Police” was created. This song talks about how the police are bias towards young men of color, and how the police are scared of the people who come from the neighborhoods which these young men come from. They specifically mention that the police have no respect for these young men, or anyone who looks like them. “In the late 1980s, Los Angeles-based rappers were becoming more and more visible in the mainstream. N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton had blown the hinges off of an already-strong West Coast rap scene. Now, the cultural sway that New York had traditionally held in an iron grip was starting to loosen, and more eyes were turning to places like Compton and Watts, as movies like Boyz N the Hood also began to give voice to the oppressive environment wherein the black community had been targeted by a police department that operated like an occupying military force. Additionally, hostilities between black residents and many Korean shop owners was reaching a boiling point. Stories like the 1991 killing of Latasha Harlins, a 16-year-old girl who'd been shot in the head by a Korean cashier who believed she was stealing a bottle of juice, hadn't made the national headlines. West Coast rappers like Ice Cube and 2Pac would give voice to the anger both before and after the April '92 riots in L.A. The perspective of these rappers was rage-filled and frustrated, and rap fans everywhere were exposed to a cultural powder keg that they'd largely missed seeing on the nightly news” (Daily Beast, 2017). These songs and artists were voicing opinions and realities that they lived in during that time. This type of music was one of the things that fueled these riots, and was a spark that started the fire of these riots. They gave the average person the courage to stand up to officers. Another artist by the name of 2Pac had songs that fueled the riots. One song in particular is “Brenda’s Got A Baby”. This song mentions that blacks get pregnant at very young and that the only way they can make money is by selling drugs. It created a stigma that women of color were only able to take care of their kids with the sale of drugs or their bodies. It also “In 1992, hip-hop's role as a voice for its community was becoming more and more of a hot-button topic for everyone from activists to politicians. The rise of gangsta rap led to condemnation of its misogyny and violent subject matter-and in the wake of N.W.A.'s "Fuck the Police," there was rising concern about rap lyrics. '92 was both the year of Ice-T's "Cop Killer" and the year that Tupac Shakur first began to emerge as a significant voice in hip-hop. 2Pac had dropped his debut album in November of 1991, and as the new year dawned, his single "Brenda's Got A Baby" was garnering attention-as was his intense performance in Ernest R. Dickerson's urban drama Juice , which had been released that January. With his star on the rise, 2Pac was beginning to make a name for himself as both an artist and a firebrand. In late 1991, just after the release of 2Pac's debut album, he was involved in a violent confrontation with the Oakland police department” (Daily Beast, 2017). Not only was music fueling the riots in Los Angeles, but also the violent behaviors of police officers were starting to show. These behaviors are what eventually lead to the beating of Rodney King in 1992. These behaviors are more often known as police brutality. Which is another reason that the riots came to be.
Other than racial discrimination and musical influence, police brutality is another very strong cause of the Los Angeles riots. The definition of “police brutality” is the use of excessive and/or unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. There are many examples of police brutality, but the one that always seems to come to mind when discussing this topic is the Rodney King beating. Although this is one of the most famous examples, these unfortunate events started happening long before Rodney King. “Historically, police brutality and discrimination against minorities has often caused riots in the United States. In 1919, law enforcement authorities in Chicago failed to apprehend a few white youths on charges of beating up a black male. Subsequently, the city witnessed widespread rioting by many men from the African American community” (Cooke, 2004). Long before the life of Rodney King police brutality was taking place in our country, and in our communities. Situations like this were documented as early as 1919. So what about the undocumented events that could’ve taken place that could have been much worse than this? There are other cities besides Los Angeles that have seen events like these. “Plainclothes officers from the New York City Police Department shot street vendor Amadou Diallo just outside his Bronx apartment building after they mistook his wallet for a gun. These officers, too, were acquitted at trial. At the time of the police shooting, the overwhelming police presence in some minority-heavy communities was a revelation to the general public. CCR's lawsuit sought data on the numbers and types of stops. For years, production of this data was delayed even after the city council passed a data collection law. But in 2006, outrage once again bubbled up when Sean Bell was killed by undercover cops in the wee morning hours of his wedding day, and the New York Civil Liberties Union compelled the city to release the data” (Flatow, 2016). These are two different examples of police brutality that happened outside of Los Angeles. Proving that police brutality was and still is relevant in cities all over the country. This is also proves to be a cause of the riots due to there being more than one example, and many more examples in Los Angeles alone. Now that we’ve looked at three very important causes, let’s look at some effects that took place in result of these riots.
One effect that was a major to the city of Los Angeles was the damages, both economic and emotional. Immediately after the riots had come to an end data was taken for damages, injuries, and even deaths. The results were dumbfounding. “Thousands of people in Los Angeles, mainly young African American and Latino men, joined in the riot, involving mass law-breaking, including looting, arson, and murder. In all, there were 50 to 60 deaths, over 10,000 arrests (that were 88 percent male and 80 percent between the ages of 18 and 34), more than 2,300 injuries, more than 1,000 buildings lost to fires, and an estimated $1 billion in damages” (Hughey 707). These are what were the immediate effects of the riots. Deaths, injuries, and a billion dollars worth of damages. These are some of the effects that resulted from these horrible riots. Not only was there physical damages due to these riots, but there was also emotional damages.
Another effect the riots had on today’s society is the music industry. Before the riots, only gangster rap artists would speak on the issues of police brutality, and racial discrimination. But now artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Joey Bada$$ talk about these issues like they are still relevant in today’s society. “Today, hip-hop still reflects the community's anger. Rappers like Brooklyn's Joey Bada$$ and Compton's Kendrick Lamar have all given voice to the tensions stretching across American culture at the dawn of the Trump era. Twenty-five years after Rodney King, Stacy Coon and Reginald Denny were names regularly flashing across our news screens, there's still police beating and killing black citizens. Rodney King never was an anomaly, and just as the outrage of 1992 echoed the outrage of 1968, when black people take to social media or the streets in 2017, it's born of a frustration that's as old as America itself. We've been singing songs about our bloodshed for generations. America still sings along, but we still don't believe it ever hears us” (Daily Beast, 2017). This shows that even today we sing about the same issues if not more, and America sings along to these songs. These songs are the result of the riots and the continuation of these “crimes against blacks”, police brutality, and racial discrimination. Although America sings along with these artists, nothing has changed. There is still things like police brutality and racial discrimination.
Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, and Sean Bell are only a few victims of those brutalized by police brutality. From an LA Riot in 1991, to those victimized today, social media is consistently cluttered with videos of assault of persons of color by officers in power. If we cannot solve the underlying racism and corruption of police, and fast, we will be looking at another LA Riot, but this time, POC and their advocates will not stand on the sidelines quietly. We will kick, yell, and scream until something like this can never happen again.