Creative Commons
An image from the Los Angeles uprisings following the police beating of Rodney King.
The only thing unusual about the March 3, 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles Police Department officers was that it was captured on video by a plumber named George Holliday. Police brutality against Black and brown people was, and continues to be, a regular occurrence.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, when the LAPD was led by Chief Daryl Gates, countless individuals were beaten by rogue Los Angeles police officers. Gates liked to portray himself as a tough-as-nails, no-holds-barred cop, someone willing to use force against the so-called bad guys.
The riots also served as a wake-up call to the broader Latinx community.
During that time, some LAPD officers who were fighting against these bad guys became bad guys themselves, engaging in unethical and illegal activities under the protection of a badge. In many parts of Los Angeles, police were seen as an occupying force.
The four police officers who savagely beat Rodney King on a traffic stop were acquitted on April 29, 1992, setting off one of the most destructive riots in U.S. history. People throughout the working class areas of Los Angeles, especially South Central L.A., were outraged. The rioting lasted three days, leaving sixty-three people dead and more than 2,300 injured. The rioting caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage and led to more than 12,000 arrests, mostly of people of color.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (now known as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE) deported at least 1000 people, and some Latino leaders decried the LAPD’s targeting of immigrants and its apparent violation of a longstanding city ordinance, Special Order 40, which was adopted in 1979 to prevent LAPD officers from questioning people solely to determine their immigration status.
In the aftermath of the riots, Gates was forced to resign. The Christopher Commission, created in 1991 after King’s beating, came up with many proposals for police reform. Its mission was to conduct “a full and fair examination of the structure and operation of the LAPD”—including its recruitment and training practices, internal disciplinary system, and citizen complaint system.
The riots also served as a wake-up call to the broader Latinx community. It ignited concern from Central American immigrants who had quietly endured abuse by police for years. Street vendors, day laborers, and young people began gathering at community meetings, sharing their stories of harassment and abuse.
The fear of the LAPD was particularly pronounced among teens, who were frequently profiled as gang members, even if they were just walking home from school with their friends. Elected officials began hearing concerns raised in Latinx neighborhoods about police misconduct. It spread to questions not only about the LAPD but criticism of how the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department treated Latinos as well.
Yet, three decades later, we still have a long way to go to address the injustices of the past. The root causes that led to the riots persist to this day in areas such as South L.A., Koreatown, Pico-Union/Westlake, and other high-poverty communities that continue to be neglected. Now, in addition to liquor stores, cheap motels, and fast food joints, these communities are being flooded with cannabis dispensaries and dialysis businesses.
The business leaders of Los Angeles have not done enough to bridge the wealth gap. Selfishness and greed continues to permeate all sectors of our society. The question going forward: how will future elected officials create real jobs and opportunities in poor, neglected areas that have not improved much since 1992?
We need to hold the current mayoral candidates’ accountable in regard to what they propose to do to help revitalize South L.A. We need to know, for example, which individuals and businesses illegally obtained millions of dollars from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Most poor and working class business owners in South L.A. could not qualify for this assistance, while many of the new PPP multimillionaires closed up shop, using the money to buy extravagant homes and fancy cars.
We must provide our young people with real knowledge and life skills and train them to take leadership positions within their communities. We must also teach them ethics when it comes to business dealings, so they know that profiteering at the expense of others is immoral.
Otherwise, the same vicious cycle of poverty and corruption will continue, and the city’s poor areas will remain neglected, dangerous, and with no real hope. As the old saying goes, “the more things change, the more they remain the same,” and unfortunately the poorest areas of Los Angeles continue to lack jobs and real opportunities. We continue to hear the same old promises that never lead to new jobs and new opportunities.
Let us hope that we will not have to wait another thirty years for real transformative change to take place in Los Angeles, and throughout the United States.