Remember the L.A. Riots?

By | December 18, 2018

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Fires During LA Riots (Photo by Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

A pivotal event in the 1990s was the L.A. Riots. For three days in the early nineties, police and National Guard troops worked to stop the rioting, looting, assaults, and arson that were spreading through the city. The riots were the end result of a series of events that tore open old wounds regarding racial targeting and police brutality. Let’s look at the timeline of events leading up to the Los Angeles Riots of 1992.

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(cnn.com)

March 3, 1991 - The Rodney King Beating

More than a year before the riots broke out was the event that started it all. On March 3, 1991, the California Highway Patrol pulled over a speeding motorist, Rodney King. King, who had been drinking earlier, admitted later that he did try to dodge the police, but he eventually pulled his car over in front of an apartment building. The California Highway Patrol was joined by the Los Angeles police at this time. A resident of the apartment building, George Holliday, woke to the noise and commotion going on outside. He grabbed his camcorder and recorded a video of the four police officers brutally kicking and beating King, even after he had fallen to the ground. The video was graphic and disturbing. Holliday took it to a local television station and it was aired all over the country.