Los Angeles Riots – Speculating About Causes

May 14, 2012 innate(p) of Neglect The Los Angeles Riots It was the city that failedIt was guard management, past and present, that has failed. This has to be taken into account to reflect a tho and fair sentenceThere simply has to be some allowance for the official negligence of the city which allowed this to take plate and which will take place again (qtd. in Cannon 3) On April 29, 1992, the sidereal day the verdict in the Rodney female monarch trial was read, I was seventeen eld old. Standing in the nutriment room, I watched the news with my parents as they waited for the verdict.When the four non guilty verdicts were announced, I asked my parents why the natural law were bring not guilty if they were caught on tape, that didnt face fair. My mom answered, No one ever give tongue to life is fair. This was news to me however the battalion of Los Angeles had knowing this lesson the hard way. The tribe of L. A. and the justice system charter had a long and rocky rel ationship. There do been three major riots in L. A. since 1942, and coincidentally or not, each has a direct correlation with racial bias of the judicial system.While there is good crusade to question whether block mentality took over and created the riots themselves, the part that created the perfect atmosphere for violence cannot be discounted. The Zoot adapt Riots of 1942 manifold the predominately Mexican jejuneness of central L. A. and the predominately ovalbumin servicemen that had been stationed there. Tension between the two had been building, partly repayable to the servicemens rowdy behavior and perceived default to the Mexican community, and partly due to the Mexican youths territorialism and pride.Due to the current war m state of the country however, the media and some citizens gave favor to the servicemen, and portrayed the Mexican Zoot Suitors as coteriesters and troublemakers. When Jose Diaz was notice murdered, the media and law of nature were quick to label it a gang killing. The subsequent arrests and trial were such a hoax of justice that all of the convictions were later over turn. However, the resentment the Mexican youth had for organism treated so below the belt simmered, and created the tinderbox that ignited the Zoot Suit Riots. In 1965 the L. A. P. D. ulled over Marquette Frye, a young black man suspected of drunk driving. Frye was new to L. A. , and did not realize the seriousness of the police in L. A. He attempted to joke with the officers, and macrocosm close to his home, Fryes mother arrived on the mise en scene and began to scold Frye for getting into trouble. At this time a campaign had be catalyst to form, and look on as the police used their batons to subdue Frye, his mother, and his cousin with excessive force. The crowd began throwing things at the police, and the rumblings of what became the worst riot in Los Angeless history began.Unlike the previous riots, The Los Angeles Riot of 1992 started abruptl y. Still, there was a general distrust between the L. A. P. D and the people of Los Angeles, and many complaints of police brutality were ignored. In blemish of 1991 a fifteen year old missy named Latasha Harlins walked into a Korean-owned store to buy some juice. She had her bills in her hand, but put the juice into her tamp down forwards she paid. The store owner, presently Ja Du, perceived Latasha to be stealing, and grabbed her arm. Latasha struck Soon Ja Du and knocked her down.She threw the juice on the counter, and turned to leave the store. Soon Ja Du pulled out a gun and shot Latasha in the back of the head as she was leaving, and instantly killed her. The community went into an uproar, and racial tension was stronger than ever. Soon Ja Du went to trial and was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, and her recommended sentence was sixteen years. When she went before the judge for sentencing however, the judge assigned her five years probation, 400 hours community servi ce, and a $500 fine.During this similar time period, a black man named Rodney King was pulled over after leading the police on a high speed chase, and brutally vanquish by five white police officers. The police were unknowingly being videotaped, and the tape was released to the public. The trial of the officers involved was followed by the entire country, and the conviction of the officers seemed a sure as shooting thing. When a white jury returned four not guilty verdicts to an already tense city, it had the effect of stage setting a match to a fuse. The verdicts were announced at 315pm 45 minutes later a flash mob formed at the ware of Florence and Normandie.The group of people, angry and betrayed, began throwing bricks, shouting, and breaking windows. When the police arrived, they did not call for back-up to control the situation immediately, and instead retreated. The police formed barricades around the city, effectively protecting the upmarket neighborhoods surrounding th e city, as well as lodging anyone who might have wanted to escape. Around this time the line between righteous anger and mob mentality may have become blurred. In the full scale riot that ensued, building were despoiled and burned down, pedestrians were brutalized, and some were killed.One of the most remembered events of the riots was the live send out of Reginald Denny being dragged from the cab of his truck, knocked down, and being beaten with a fire extinguisher, hammer, and brick. In retrospect many people determineed this a hate crime, because Denny was white. However, some people consider this merely a crime of opportunity, with Denny simply being in the molest place at the wrong time. Duncan, Hugh Dalziel. Introduction. Permanence and Change An Anatomy of Purpose. By Kenneth Burke. 1935. tertiary ed. Berkeley U of California P, 1984. xiii-xliv. Print.