Thinking about LA, and what led to the riots I think of this girl I knew for a short while when I lived in Davis. I hung out with her a few times via a mutual friend but never participated in her political activism. Her name is Miley Hampton, she is a 23 year old black woman and when I knew her she was currently dealing with being charged with lynching. Not lynching in the way we have been talking about it most recently but a more modern term used by reporters. She was being charged for pulling cops off a man that she was protesting with and was arrested herself. She was released after 24 hours and had to go to court; if you want to know more you can read about it in the link. The point being is in the video (in the article) you can see about four cops taking down one man who actually happens to be white. It’s very contrasting from the video of King. The police in this video mierly focus on pinning the protester down while in Rodney King they are beating him even after he is down. It poses an interesting question of would they have been rougher with the protester if he was black?
Personally I think the police would have thrown a solid punch if the protester was African American. We have seen it time and time again, video after video of police beating and shooting POC at traffic stops, peaceful protests, etc. I think it’s hard not to see a potential repeat of the LA riots today. Maybe not in Los Angeles, but there is a lot of tension in Sacramento right now with a recent police shooting of a African American father. It’s a difficult climate right now and everything we are reading feels like it parallels so many things in the news. Time can only tell but I wouldn't be surprised if history repeats itself.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/pageburner/blogs/post?oid=16399399
-Samantha Hanko
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