African-American Riots Essay

Following the aftermath of the riots, many looked where to place the blame for the most devastating racial unrest in the country. The then republican President, George H.W. Bush, suggested that the riots were due to the social welfare programs created by Democrats in the 1960’s. But, Bill Clinton, then Democratic Presidential Nominee hopeful, refuted the White Houses’ claims and said that the riots were a results of 12 years of denial and neglect by the Bush and Reagan administrations that led to festering social problems and racial tensions in communities across America (Pear,

On the afternoon, as the acquittal of the four accused in the Rodney King Beating cops became known, anger and frustration of African Americans in South Central and other areas of Los Angeles erupted. There were thrown stones and attacked nonblack pedestrians and drivers. Shops were looted, stuck vehicles and buildings on fire, used firearms. The local police looked the violence erupted not grown and withdrew - parts of the police leadership were not in the city. A choking the revolt in the bud did not take place. This circumstance was later often regarded as a crucial failure in terms of the further course of the riots.

Even though the L.A. Riots affected black americans, it also affected korean immigrants and americans. Some of the riots took place in Koreatown and Richard Rhee, a man that was involved in the riots, was interviewed about what has the riots done to the korean community. Richard Rhee knew and saw other korean stores being vandalized during the L.A. riots. Rhee had guns ready for the onslaught of rioters and many koreans had shotguns. Koreans made their stores into fortresses against the rioters and they knew the police cannot help them. The attacks on Koreatown would continue for the whole riot ordel. There were many of evenings were korean americans had to defend their stores from rioters. Protecting their shops and their families from the dangers of the rioters. During and after the riots, the korean community and the black community would have a racial tensions for a few decades. But recently, the tensions have been dropped after a few decade years.

The events that happened in Ferguson split the country up racially, specifically when focusing on police. Interviews with African American residents and Nonblack residents showed that the community

This paper will cover the events that took place within the first five days in south central Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict .

In response to the verdict handed out on April 29th in regard to the Rodney King trial, Los Angeles burst into flames. Seeing the city erupt into utter chaos was a very eye opening experience for many people who were not aware of the injustice and cruelty that was occurring right under their noses, every day. Los Angeles’ violent response to the acquittal of the officers who beat Rodney King was a learning experience for all people because it altered many people’s perception of the system. This change in perception was only possible because the residents of Los Angeles were finally willing take stronger action and speak up for something that was unfair; in this case, they spoke out in the form of riots. Through the tragic events prior to and

(Rodney King) Although Rodney King later admitted to attempting to outrun the police flagging him down, blame cannot be laid on him for this because of the lack of trust already in place from the systematic abuse of the african american population, especially in the los angeles area. “After four days of grand jury testimony, the Los Angeles district attorney charged officers Koon, Powell, Briseno and Wind with use of excessive force on March 14, 1991” (Rodney King). However, in a blatant show of discrimination and favoritism, all four officers charged with excessive force were acquitted of all charges at a state level. It was this event, where even the jury was excessively biased towards the Obviously guilty LAPD officers since there was video evidence, which spiked the 1992 los angeles riots. (1992 Los Angeles) These riots where the minority peoples who could relate to the discrimination and illegitimacy of the ruling against the LAPD officers and the excessively brutal treatment of rodney king, as they are exposed to these daily. These riots united the minority against the majority, uniting and rising up against the greater evil, surpassing all petty grudges they may or may not have held against each other. This is why people disobey authority. Authority is only ever disobeyed, when the people the authority HAVE

The cause of the Los angles riots in the 1992 was just not because of the beating of rondley king or the results of what happen to the police offices but I believed this was breaking point for the los angles comminty the police community relates was already broking but the incent with trondely king it has been destroy according to the authored the initial surprise about the 1992 Los Angeles riots reflects a failure to realize that the treatment of blacks and the living conditions of poor blacks had changed less than we had thought. Meanwhile, the potential for violence was heightened by a social and economic transformation that was occurring in and around the innercity black neighborhoods.” (Baldassare

Although the conversation about the Los Angeles Riots were intense over twenty years ago, the topic still burns with relevancy today. My uncle, Antonio Franco Carbajal III, Born in East Los Angeles at County General Hospital on June 14, 1963 was raised mostly on Heidleman Rd in the neighborhood adjacent to Cal State LA. That is where his grandmothers lived and where he purchased his first home with his young wife and young daughter. He says “ I love my city, I am LA, it’s the best city.” He say’s he remembers the day of the riots, he went to his backyard and saw about ten fires blazing in the south central area of LA. He could see helicopters and hear sirens all night long. He says there was a sense of tension that was “So thick you could cut it with a knife.” He says he was always looking over his shoulder and in his rear view mirror while he drove his wife to work, which was located in an area very close to where the riots were happening. For safety precautions he decided a revolver was his gun of choice to carry, as he now changed his morning routine to escort his wife to work, this went on for a few weeks even after the riots due to the uncertainty of the situation.

After the riots started, people saw it as a chance to do whatever they wanted to do and could care less who or what the hurt. ¨ At 6:45, the news recorded from helicopter, showed rioters pulling Reginald Denny a white truck driver, from his vehicle and beat him.¨ (Los angeles riots of 1992) the 4 men who beat him had little regard for his life as they continually beat him till four people emerged from the crowd to rescue him. When the people saw the carnage of the riots on tv people called on rodney king to tell them to stop. ¨Can we all get along¨ Rodney King pleaded on television on the 3rd day of the riots.¨ after the plead half of the rioters stopped and the rest could've cared less because they didn't see it as his riot they saw it as a free pass to do whatever they wanted, but they would be arrested soon. The people were outraged and did not care what laws they broke or who got

Since its not so humble beginnings in the early 1600s, the country in which we live has had a plethora of incidents regarding the mistreatment of black people and people of color. From slavery, to lynchings, to assassinations, and so forth, the pain and suffering of African-Americans has been very much apart of the “rich” history of the United States of America. Even so, with each new generation, we as a people have continued to face abuse and exploitation. At this point in our ongoing narrative, the premise of our grief has shifted to shed a light on the prominence of brutality in American police force practices.

Many riots have sprung up in the past year in the US, mainly in the Great Lake States or in the Eastern Seaboard. Charleston, North Carolina, Detroit Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois, as well as many other states in neighboring regions, are heavily populated with Blacks and Whites, who make up what seems to be 99% of the city’s population. As a result, whenever a violent clash arises between whites and blacks (most often between civilian and law enforcement), lots people react with protests and rioting, often endangering the fellow citizens around them.

Racism will not go away, and as long as people are being racist there will be conflict between ethnicities. This past year there has been a lot of problems involving cops and black men. And what has been in the news a lot is the 2015 Baltimore protests. Riots breaking out because of Freddie Gray, a young african american man who died due to a spinal cord injury while in custody of police after being violently dragged screaming into one of their transport vans. Not many were happy with what happened. Wanting justice, the society took it into their own hands. “Streets in Baltimore looked like a war zone early Tuesday after a night of riots, fires and heartbreak.” (CNN). This was the start to a very controversial situation between cops and african americans. For the rest of the year, every little thing a cop did went viral knowing what happened is not right and justice needs to be served. But, during these protest the community came together and started what would be a trending tag, “Black lives matter” as it seems people would just pass over issues because of one's skin color. “This is a skewed portrayal of the protests; it is what the media chose to portray — the media that consumers bewilderingly seem to want. The real revolution is thousands of people across America standing in solidarity against police brutality. The real revolution is youth activists using their voices and their fearlessness to fight for the future of their generation. The real revolution is people of different races walking through the streets of inner city Baltimore, arms locked, chanting ’All night, all day, we will fight for Freddie

When the streets of Los Angeles exploded on April 29, 1992, Korean Americans found themselves in a crisis of identity. Known to them as Sa-i-gu, or 4-2-9, the five-day uprising bluntly revealed their cultural separation and its shortcomings. As Los Angeles fell apart, local Korean business owners found themselves confronting their prejudice, which had undermined their relationship with black customers. Following the exposure of these two issues during and after the riots, a mental shift in the Korean American community became evident through its response to the event. By exemplifying the involvement of Korean merchants in interethnic disputes, the Los Angeles riots prompted the integration of Korean Americans into America’s multicultural society.

The thing that sparked the Watts Riots was when a police officer attacks a black male and his mother for drinking and driving. In a New York Times article it states, “When another officer began hitting Mr. Frye and his mother, who had rushed to the scene, onlookers started throwing stones and bottles”. This shows that there was fault in Mr. Frye for drinking and drinking but he should have been fine or arrested instead of being abused and assaulted. The conflicts with the police has been going on for many years and this event sparked the protests into a full out riot. The U.S History in Context states that,