Media and Racism are the Cause of LA Riots in 1992: Rodney King
May 4, 1992. On the first day after the riots, order and peace were restored throughout L.A. County, but 63 people were killed, 2,383 people were injured, with more than 12,000 arrests. cost and Store have been robbed, family, been killed. According to Lopez(victim of the riots), 'I was stuck there and ooh, I remember their faces. They threw gasoline into my pickup and I tried to run, but I couldn't get away. Oh, man! Bop! Bop! Bop! Bop! One of these guys picked up a big piece of metal and threw it at my face. After that, I only saw very bright lights.” The L.A Riots were caused by racism and media
The story begins on the evening of March 2, 1991, four police officers – Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano – tried to arrest a strong young African- American called Rodney King. two years before in Monterey Park, King robbed a Korean store, and he threatened the store owner with an iron bar. He was caught and spent two years in prison. On March 2, King and two of his friends Briends Allen and Freddie Helms were watching baseball games and drinking until early morning. King was driving at a high speed and was intoxicated trying to run away from the police. Because of his previous robbery conviction, he could not take a charge of driving under the influence. However, officers cornered his car, and officers order the three to come out of the vehicle and to lie face down on the ground. King remained in the car while Allen and Helms were lying on the ground. King waved to the helicopter and grabbed his butt to the officer, then tried to fight back. Officers tasered and beat him. At the same time, George Holliday wakens by a siren sound and uses a camcorder in the nearby apartment to capture this incident. The tape was 12 minutes long original, however, while during the trial tape was present entirely, only parts of the tape were released to the public including the part which the king was beaten by four officers. the footage had been widely spread by the media and quickly raise the hatred of racism.
The day verdicts were announced acquitted of the four polices is April 29. And it is the day riots began. At 3:15 pm verdicts were announced acquitted of policies. 30 minutes later around 300 people gathered at Los Angeles County Courthouse protesting the verdicts. People gather to rob and smash to stores, and the situation is out of control. Emboldened by the retreat of officers at 71st and Normandie, many black people start breaking in stores. At 6:43 pm, truck driver Larry Tarvin was pulled from the truck, and beaten to the unconscious. Fidel Lopez. a construction worker was pulled from his GMC truck and robbed of 2000 dollars. Rioter trying to slice his ear off. He almost died. April 30th the second day of riots. Mayor Bradley signed an order for a dusk-to-dawn curfew at 12:15 am. President George H. W. Bush announces to stop the anarchy. A popular comedian and actor Bill Cosby ask people to stop the rioting and watch the final episode of his The Cosby show. The riot is out of control. Korean Americans start protecting themselves. At the third day of the riot. May 1st. Rodney king gave a news conference saying “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?” On the fourth day and fifth days. Over 3000 soldiers enter the city. The riots were ended in two days.
In 1992. The black population in the United States numbered 31.4 million, Which is 13 percent of the Nation’s total population. However, Many of Africa-American are in the property. And African-American's salary is only 70% of white people’s salary. Nevertheless, black people are less likely to get a job in century cities, because of jobs, black committee moving out of the urban. But the condition in the suburbs is not friendly. Within the desperately poor, drugs become an income. As a result, according to the research, black people’s crime rate raised. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups initiated national campaigns of terror, drive-by shootings of African Americans, and the firebombing of black churches and residential areas. Americans blame those on black people. As a result, racism triggers the riots in 1992.
LA riots erupted intensely between African-Americans and Korean-Americans, the hatred began a year ago in 1991, a fifteen African-American teen, Latasha Harlins, who was trying to steal, then, shot by a Korean store owner. This event leads to the strong hostility between African-Americans and Korean-Americans during the riots, many Korean stores have been robbed and smashed, the Korean town area was anarchistic, Korean-American committee organizes Korean males to defend their stores.
Marshall McLuhan says “All media —or technologies— work us over completely. They are so pervasive —permeating throughout— in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences, that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, or unaltered. The medium is the message.” Act an important role in the whole event. The type taken by George Holliday was original 12 minutes long, including king insulting police officers, and fighting back. However, because of the media, most of the type was been cut off, leaving a 12-second fragment. It shows how King was beaten by officers. , The media changes people, and their influence is numb, subliminal, unconscious, and unconscious Crowed was angry by seeing this. People only see the injustice part and ignored the truth. Newspapers and news companies are intended to show a fragment of the whole event in order to boost audience ratings. For example, “L. A LAWLESS” is the title of Daily News on March 6, 1991. People are blind to the truth. Finally, it leads to a riot in 1992.
All in all, media and racism are the cause of the LA Riots in 1992. Many media companies changed after the riots. And racism changed, The 2001 decree set strict guidelines for staffing in gang prevention units, required those units to work more closely with the community regularly, and made supervisors more directly accountable for arrests and search warrant execution. Responsibility for the legitimacy of arrests now rested much more with the supervisors As Rodney King says “the first two hours after the verdict but to go on to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shut on the ground. It’s just not right it’s not right because those people will never go home to their families again.” The riots are merciless, but we should have hope, like in 1 Peter 5:10 “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
