LA Riot 1992

Gnanou Paul-Emilien Gnanou-Hiller 1

Hiller Maxime

Professor Brad Slater

English

17 May 2018

In 1992, in Los Angeles, angry people came in the streets destroying shops, fighting against each other, insulting the cops… This event is calling The L.A riots, and has change people in Los Angeles and in USA forever…What was the start point of this event? Why the people of Los Angeles did they rebelled against the L.A government and turn the city in anarchy? Why was there some racial tension? And against who? The L.A riot lasted during 6 days, from the april 29th to the 4th of may, the start point and the main point of violence was in South Central(a region in Los Angeles,inhabitant mostly belong to the Low class society,this region is divided into different communities : Korean, Latinos, Black, White...), but the violence and the anger began to spread all around Los Angeles. It was six day of Chaos for the inhabitants of Los Angeles. During this riots angry people began to burn buildings, shops, cars. Plunder et steal merchandises of stores … Throw rocks and projectiles on the car which had the misfortune to pass here ...

This Riot is due to a special event which happened in 1991 the 3rd of march, Rodney a African American was a taxi driver and was driving back to home when he was call out by few officer of the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department). The officer tazed him and beat him many times, Rodney King suffered of many broken bones and injuries… A trial took place one year later against the 4 polices officers who had beaten King: Sergeant Stacey Koon, officer Powell, Officer Wind and officer Briseno. “A grand jury refuses to indict 17 officers who stood by at the King beating and did nothing” (“Los Angeles riots fast facts”) The Trial was very long (around 4 months) but unfortunately the 4 officers were acquitted… The result of the trial were given by many TV channel and radios stations on the 29th of April. That’s the start point of the L.A riot, while the news was spreading all around Los Angeles, Black people and Latinos became to go out on the streets for protest against this injustice… “The LAPD was about 68 % in 1992” (Morris) However, the Rodney King trial was not the only reason that made people angry especially the black one, another event happened on the 16th of march 1991, indeed Latasha Harlins an African American girl of 15 years old was on a Korean store which belong to Soon Ja Du, the owner of the store call out Latasha because he was suspicious that she had stolen something, but Latasha hited the Korean, after that Soon Ja Du take his gun and shoot her on the back… This event make Black peoples and black community very angry …

Rodney King became a reluctant symbol because the act was taken on a video tape by an unexpected citizen. After that, the relation between different populations changed in particular between black and the LAPD (Los Angeles police department). “King's famous utterance became a shorthand for peace after fires and fighting erupted in Los Angeles in 1992. In Los Angeles, a multicultural community, the riots transformed our conversations about race beyond just black and white to include Latinos, and Asian-Americans” (Stewart). After the trial, different kind of violence started : robbery, beating, break-in… “during the 1992 riots, Reginald Denny, a white truck driver, was pulled from his truck and severely beaten by the rioters. Seven black men were arrested in connection with the beating.” (Reich 471). Los Angeles became an apocalyptic place and

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