92' L.A. Riots
LA was held hostage; not by any foreign terrorists, not by a splinter cell organization, or even by some fundamentalist group. But by its own citizens, the people who live their lives and settle themselves in LA: storeowners, office workers, construction workers, gang members, people who were on welfare, and even middle class whites were involved in the Siege of LA. It affected everyone, it didn 't discriminate, and it didn 't care what race you were or what your financial status was. All of that was a moot point. LA has always been a diverse and distinct city: sun, fun, entertainment, glitz, glamour, celebrities but also one of smog, gloom, poverty, ghettos, gangs, and violence. But regardless LA has been looked upon many as the city to restart and begin afresh. The 90s had just barely started a new decade with some new trends and some old. A war had already been waged in the Middle East. Then the second major event in the decade 's young existence was about to begin. LA was a highly volatile place due to the circumstances of how many people lived. The economy was in a slump, and people were turning to less than favorable ways to make a living. LAPD was not liked by many due to the fact that many people saw their tactics and methods as questionable at best. Also because of what 's happened in the past with law enforcement such as Watts during the 60s as well as Kent State shooting. So when you add this together you get one very explosive and deadly combination and to make matters even worse it 's not like LAPD or any other agency had made attempts to mend past errors and mistakes. So what you get when all of these elements were mixed together was the worst riot in U.S. history. March 3, 1991 Rodney King was pulled over for reckless driving and while being arrested was beaten by police in order to put him in custody. It was said at the time that he was under a pain-numbing drug such as PCP. He was shocked twice by 50,000 volt tasers which is enough power
Bibliography: Clark Staten, "Emergency Report". Unknown. Pages 1-7 5/Jun/2005. http://www.emergency.com/la-riots.htm Lou Cannon, "Los Angeles and the worst riots of modern times". Unknown. Pages 1-5, 5/Jun/2005. http://www.worldfreeinternet.net/news/nws75.htm Jessica N. Jones, "The Los Angeles Riots". Unknown. Pages 1-3, 5/Jun/2005. http://www.louisville.edu/~jnjone02/riots.html Unknown. "Rodney King" Wikipedia. Pages 1-4, 5/Jun/2005, 3/Jun/2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King Stan Chambers. "Rodney King and the Los Angeles Riots" Unknown. Pages 1-6. 17/Feb/2005, 5/Jun/2005, http://www.citivu.com/ktla/sc-ch1.html James Vanhise. "The Poor Are Coming To Your Town". Unknown. Pages 1-4, 5/Jun/2005. http://www.fragmentsweb.org/stuff/rodking.html