Understanding the Riots: Los Angeles Before and After the Rodney King Case

by Los Angeles Times

The causes and the aftermath of the 1992 riots.

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1992

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the Watts riots of August 1965 as background to the Rodney King verdict riots in LA of 1992, the perspective on and events of these uprisings of people are dealt with evenhandedly, even sympathetically, without justifying the actions of any group--citizens, police, firefighters, government, media. The concentration is on the April 1992 riots and their impact on various communities, including the Korean community which also lived in the hardest hit areas of Los Angeles. One is reminded and shown that a few hours after the verdict, there was the retaliatory beating of truck driver Reginald O. Denny, simply because he was white and in the wrong place, and it was caught on film just as the King beating was.

The despair of the African American community in the wake of the King verdict is poignantly echoed in the plea from Rodney King himself two days into the 3-day riot, as he watched the killing and looting and burning of the city core in horror: "We've got to quit. We've got to quit. I can understand the first upset in the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this, and to see a security guard shot on the ground, it's just not right. It's just not right because those people will never go home to their families again. And I mean, please, we can get along here. We all can get along. We've just got to, just got to. We're all stuck here for a while...Let's try to work it out. Let's try to work it out."

This softcover book is an important addition to the documentation of U.S. racial history and where we find ourselves today, in all its complexity, in whatever ways we understand our national racial relations.