Los Angeles, 1992
Like the Watts Uprising less than 30 years before, many attribute the beginning of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising to an arrest. On March 3, 1992, LAPD officers Stacey Koon, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno were caught on camera beating Rodney King, an African American. The video can be seen here: WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT. For many, the video represented the abuse that African Americans faced from police officers and other authority figures on a regular basis. However, unlike the case in Watts, the violence did not begin immediately after the arrest and beating of Rodney King. The outrage did not manifest into violence until after the officers' trial. At the end of the trial, Americans were sure that the video was enough to guarantee a guilty verdict. However, the not guilty shocked several across the nation. The acquittal of the officers marked the tipping point of racial tensions in Los Angeles.
Just as is the case in Watts, the single event of the acquittal of the officers is not the only factor in the outbreak of violence in 1992. Between 1965 and 1992, Los Angeles experienced another shift in the racial demographics. In addition to an increased number of African Americans, the number of both Latinos and Asian Americans increased greatly during the period between the Watts Uprising and the 1992 Uprising. While an increase in the diversity of the city can facilitate greater race relations among groups, the increase can also heighten racial tensions. In addition to the increasing population, unemployment rates in Los Angeles also continued to grow after 1965. On a larger level, the ignition of the uprising reflected frustration with the current state of racial relations and treatment of people of color all across the United States. Thus, finally on April 29, 1992, many African Americans and other people of color saw the acquittal of the LAPD officers as another injustice that they could not take.
News reports such as this one played an integral role in the way that the public viewed the events of 1992. Unlike the Watts Uprising in which the mainstream media served as a means to report about the events after they happened, the news coverage of the L.A. Uprising actually influenced the events of uprising. Live coverage allowed for people to see events as they happened and respond immediately.