Home > 1992 civil unrest in Los Angeles

These acts, most commonly characterized as simply riots, though characterized as race riots or even an uprising, rebellion, or insurrection by some, lasted about four days. The scenes from the riots were some of the worst seen in contemporary America and shocked viewers across the world as the city went up in flames. Mainly young black and Latino males caused millions of dollars worth of damage to homes and businesses, and open gun battles were televised as Korean shopkeepers took to using firearms to protect their businesses from crowds of looters. A white truck driver, Reginald Denny, was dragged from his vehicle and severely beaten by an angry mob as the news helicopters hovered above, with the police nowhere to be seen (several assailants were later arrested and sent to prison).

Estimates of the number of lives lost during the unrest vary between 50 and 60, and estimates of the material damage done vary between about $800 million and $1 billion. Approximately 600 fires were set, and about 10,000 people were arrested. In addition to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), about 10,000 soldiers from the California National Guard and thousands of soldiers from the United States Army and Marines were deployed to suppress the crowds. Smaller, concomitant riots occurred in other United States cities,especially Las Vegas but also including San Francisco, New York, SeattleSeattle is the largest city in the U. state of Washington, and in the U. Pacific Northwest, with a total estimated population of 569,101 as of 2003. It is situated between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 108 miles (180 km) south of the Canadian bor, Chicago, PhoenixThis article is about the Arizonan city. For the mythical creature see Phoenix, and for other uses see Phoenix (disambiguation). Phoenix is the capital, largest city, and largest metropolitan area of the state of Arizona, United States. As of the 2000 cen and even MadisonMadison is the capital of Wisconsin, a state of the United States of America. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 208,054. It is the county seat of Dane County. The city completely surrounds the smaller Town of Madison. The University of Wiscons, WisconsinOne of the periods of glaciation was also termed the Wisconsin glaciation. Wisconsin is the 23rd largest state of the United States, (54,314 square miles) and 18th greatest population (5,453,896 as of 2002). The state's name is an English version of a Fre and Berlin.

Of those arrested, about 42% were African-American, 44% LatinoA Latino is a person of Latin American heritage, or of the Latin American culture. The feminine form of the word is "Latina". Latino" is a shortened form of the Spanish word for a Latin American individual, "latinoamericano. In Italy, the term is sometime, 9% White, and 2% other. These numbers are proportionate to the number of residents in the areas of Los Angeles where the events occurred, although they are not proportional to the racial make-up of Los Angeles as a whole. Stores owned by Korean and other Asian immigrants were widely targeted, although stores owned by whites and blacks were also targeted.

In addition to the immediate trigger of the Rodney King verdict, there were many other factors cited as reasons for the unrest, including: the extremely high unemployment among residents of the South Central neighborhood, which had been hit very hard by the nation-wide recession; a long-standing perception that the LAPD engaged in racial profiling and used excessive force; and specific anger over the light sentence given to a Korean shop-owner for the shooting of Latasha Harlins, a young African-American. Additionally, in the time between the public revelation of King's beating and the trial verdict, the two largest LA street gangs, the Crips and the Bloods, agreed to a truce with each other, and began working together to make political demands of the police and the LA political establishment, leading to the establishment of the Christopher Commission.