The Events Leading to the Riots
On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was driving with two friends when the police attempted to pull him over for speeding. He was on probation at the time for a robbery charge and feared probation would be revoked if he was caught, so he led the California Highway Patrol on a high-speed chase, going at speeds of up to 115 miles per hour. Once King was captured, the LAPD believed he was resisting arrest and attempted to subdue him with a taser, which did not work. The beating that followed was videotaped and soon broadcast around the world repeatedly as proof of racial profiling and police brutality, as reported by Time. The video was shown repeatedly and yes, excessively on the news. The incident was a battle cry against police brutality, and people around the country were outraged at the excessive use of force by police. Rodney King was beaten, with batons, even after appearing to be subdued.
On March 30, 1991, Al Sharpton led "200 chanting demonstrators [and] lugged a wooden cross to police headquarters in a Good Friday protest of the notorious videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney G. King. Marchers chanted for the ouster of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates as they walked a few blocks from City Hall to Parker Center, where Sharpton left the cross on the ground."
The Good Friday march was to make a "powerful statement", according to Madelyn Chapman, spokesperson for Al Sharpton. She said, "blacks and Latinos in this country are being crucified".
This case is reminiscent of the Trayvon Martin case, which has also been excessively reported. It makes one wonder how people will react if George Zimmerman is found innocent. Hopefully, lessons have been learned from the LA riots.
The Los Angeles Riots and the Unsolved Murders
Once the police involved were acquitted in the case, the riots in Los Angeles began; they lasted five days and left nearly 1,600 buildings destroyed or damaged and injured more than 2,300 people. The final cost of the riot was estimated at more than a billion dollars.
The Fox article tells the stories of each of the 22 murder victims, which include a man who stopped to help people involved in a head-on collision (he was gunned down on the road), a man who pleaded with looters not to burn down the store next to his home (he was shot in the eye), a man who stopped to use a payphone was shot in the chest, a man who was shot as he drove to check on his business (while he was dying, people robbed him and looted his car), a man who, despite the riots, continued to make grocery deliveries from his family store (he was shot four times, after being called a racial slur), a 15-year-old boy was shot in the head as he walked down the street, and others.
Rodney King pleaded, "Can't we all get along"? The nation watched the riots unfold with horrifying scenes of people smashing windows, looting stores, and random beatings, such as the horrifying beating of Reginald Denny, who was dragged out of his car and attacked. Reginald Denny still has nerve damage and hearing loss from the attack. In an interview 10 years later, Denny said that "black folks saved my life."
The thugs who used the opportunity to shut down LA were opportunists, who handled their rage by destroying countless lives and creating havoc. They injured thousands and deliberately murdered innocent people; many of those murders remain unsolved today.
There is no excuse for their behavior, as destruction is NEVER the answer. As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
A new documentary will be airing on VH1 on May 1st regarding the Los Angeles Riots. Watch the preview (Warning: Graphic Language):
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Comments: 19
There have already been at least a couple of dozen incidents of beatings, killings etc, from both extremist sides, over the killing of Mr. Martin.
There are skin-head neo-nazis, and Black Panther thugs galore (along with sympathizers of both groups), instigating, and perpetrating violence across the nation.
There have been reports of 2 to 8 incidents daily.
No matter how the verdict comes out, I fear there will be more – ten fold.
We do have a lot of problems in this country... and in all groups, all professions there are good and bad. It's not all the people of any group or profession... and it's sad.
We are all of one race - the human race and the sooner people realize this the better off we will be. We all bleed, we all hurt, despite our differences, we are all the same ... we are born, we live and one day we die to this earth.
Wrongs have been done to many a person... If we live in the past, we will miss our future... Revenge and hatred eats at a person just like a cancer does... I often wondered what kind of preacher are people like Sharpton, Jones , or any other preacher that hisses out racial hatred towards another race... seems like its ok for them to spit out venom but if the KKK or the skinheads did this, its wrong.. So why, is it right for the left to get away with this? They have to answer to the same supreme being as the white race or the Jewish race... I am wondering what excuse they are going to try to come up with when they stand in front of their maker? Are they going to call God a racist too?
I fear that we have learned nothing (as a nation) from history.
The groups that want violence, so that Marital Law may be declared, will fuel this to those that do not remember, do not know, and do not comprehend.
Justice should be swift, but they can take all the time they want with the Martin trial. The only thing worse than that circus will be the denouement.