On March 3, 1991, Rodney King, an African American construction worker, was beaten violently by LA police officers after fleeing arrest. He suffered skull fractures, bruises, etc. The incident was filmed by a nearby civilian on his balcony, and the graphic video took the media by storm. A little over a year later, the officers involved were acquitted by a majority white jury.
The aftermath of the court decision inflamed African American and some Latinx communities. The riots which lasted six days symbolized the building anger of the black community from generations of racial violence and police brutality. Rioters targeted non-black individuals and beat them near death. Reginald Denny, a white truck driver, was dragged out of his semi-truck and beaten by a mob of black rioters. One rioter threw a brick at Denny that struck him in the skull, fracturing it in 91 places. A local black resident rushed to Denny’s help and drove Denny to a local hospital.
Riots resulted in 63 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damage to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses. Rioters ransacked stores owned by people of all nationalities, but Korean immigrant store owners suffered fully one-half of the $850 million of damage, with 2,300 Korean stores destroyed. Some of this interethnic tension resulted from the shooting of teen Latasha Harlins by Soon Ja Du after they got into a fight at Du’s convenience store where Du thought Harlins was stealing. The LAPD did little to protect Koreatown.
This event is one of the most devastating events in LA history and highlights the intersections of violence across and between different races.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871
This is a really tragic event in American history, but you captured it really well. It was interesting to read how this riot in particular drew away from the pattern of significant racial tensions existing mostly between blacks and whites throughout history. What is even more heartbreaking is how little has changed since this riot, as seen in violent protests took place in Baltimore, Maryland in 2015 following the death of Freddie Gray, a man who was attacked and killed while in police custody. However, specifically in Los Angeles, reforms were made to end the life-term policy for the police in order for excessively violent or aggressive officers to be terminated more easily and hopefully end the city's history of violent police behavior. Today the LAPD is mostly non-white, crime rates have decreased, and there is a larger sense of community between civilians and local law enforcement, especially compared to the 1990s.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.citylab.com/equity/2015/05/lapds-police-reforms-and-the-legacy-of-rodney-king/392000/
This blog was extremely informative. I agree with the point you mad early on: a lot of historically significant cases of racism against Asian-Americans are not taught in our USHAP curriculum, even though Asian Americans make up a significant portion of our populations. I also agree that this event really highlights interethnic tension that even exists today. First of all, racism towards Asians is very prevalent today because of the Coronavirus. I remember watching a video of a black person beating up an old asian man in San Francisco and thinking how damaging this is not only for the old man, but it also promotes Black-Asian animosity. This is one of many incidents of division between Black and Asian communities in the United States. However, I think it is important for both groups to realizing that sacrificing another race only brings down minorities as a whole. I believe unity among minorities is necessary to fight issues like white supremacy.
ReplyDeletehttps://theoutline.com/post/1351/black-asian-conflict-beauty-supply?zd=1&zi=4g6r2kcj