"There's a difference between frustration with the law and direct assaults upon our legal system."
- George Bush Snr., May 3rd, 1992.
The first rocks started to fly as the four LAPD officers who beat
Rodney King and the jury who acquitted them were leaving the courtroom
in suburban Simi Valley. Subsequent to the acquittal, on the afternoon
of April 29th 1992, thousands of people began pouring into the streets
of Los Angeles. In a few hours rioting spread across the LA metropolitan
area. Conditions rapidly approached the level of civil war. The police
withdrew from the main areas of fighting, ceding the streets to the
insurgent poor. Systematic burnings of capitalist enterprises commenced.
More than 5,500 buildings burned. People shot at cops on the street and
at media and police helicopters. Seventeen government buildings were
destroyed.
The Los Angeles Times was attacked and looted. A vast canopy of smoke
from the buildings covered the LA Basin. Flights out of LA airport were
cancelled and incoming flights had to be diverted due to the smoke and
sniper fire.
The rioting was the single most violent episode of social unrest in
the US in the twentieth century, far outstripping the urban revolts of
the 1960s both in sheer destructiveness and in the fact that the riots
were a multiracial revolt of the poor. In the initial phase of the LA
riots, the police were rapidly overwhelmed and retreated, and the
military did not appear until the rioting had abated.
set Los Angeles aflame following the acquittal of four police officers
who were filmed beating black motorist Rodney King
