What happened at the LA Riots in 1992, wasn't a new rising topic. In fact, police brutality and racism has been happening since as early as the Watts Riot in 1965.
Watts Riot was classified as one of the largest urban rebellion of the Civil Rights era. Consisting of million dollars of property damage and over 10,000 National Guards troops were mobilized in South Los Angeles. Thousands were injured and around 4,000 people were arrested in the time span from the initial start of the riot from August 11th to August 17th before the order was restored. All this happened was because of a single man named Marquette Frye, a young African American motorist, was pulled over and arrested by Lee W. Minikus, a white California Highway Patrolman, for suspicion of driving while intoxicated. "Suspicion" with no actual proof.
This eventually led to onlookers gathering around Frye's arrest and because of the strain of the police and the crowd, a physically exchange started to happen. This event led to large African American neighborhoods, shops, and other to help and restore the rightful order from the government. Which is to improve the social and economic conditions of African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood. But in the end even with thousands injured and some killed after following the riot, the city leaders and state officials failed to implement measures to improve even with reported findings from the gubernatorial commission.
How has this issue developed a foundation for the 1992 LA Riot? This clearly show how back in 1965, police assumptions and arrest on colored races were still happening and yes; it became even worse as years have passed. Back then it was mainly targeted to only blacks but as time have passed; many more colored race were also targeted like in the LA Riot it was blacks, Mexicans, and Asians but especially the Koreans. Many of these protest and riots started from a simple stereotypical judgement coming from a white police officer.
I believe that the LA Riot and Watt Riot happened because of certain similar reasons. One was where both of the arrested males were both african american. Both were arrested in suspicion of intoxication on the road inside their car while getting pulled over. One thing different about both the cases is that Rodney King was beaten heavily before getting arrested and his situation was caught on tape, ending up showcasing in his court trial. Frye however was immediately pulled over and was arrested while onlookers gathered around to inspect what was happening. Never-less, colored races were treated unfairly and many stereotypical judgements were always placed as labels for them. White polices arrested both the black males without any sort of proof and "assumed" they were guilty on spot which in the end leads to furious riots trying to win back their justice. These events eventually goes into a cycle of loopholes where many colored races will continue to get accused and arguments happen in order to clarify their innocence which leads to brutal and violent riots.
http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome
-Qian Mei Guo
This eventually led to onlookers gathering around Frye's arrest and because of the strain of the police and the crowd, a physically exchange started to happen. This event led to large African American neighborhoods, shops, and other to help and restore the rightful order from the government. Which is to improve the social and economic conditions of African Americans living in the Watts neighborhood. But in the end even with thousands injured and some killed after following the riot, the city leaders and state officials failed to implement measures to improve even with reported findings from the gubernatorial commission.
How has this issue developed a foundation for the 1992 LA Riot? This clearly show how back in 1965, police assumptions and arrest on colored races were still happening and yes; it became even worse as years have passed. Back then it was mainly targeted to only blacks but as time have passed; many more colored race were also targeted like in the LA Riot it was blacks, Mexicans, and Asians but especially the Koreans. Many of these protest and riots started from a simple stereotypical judgement coming from a white police officer.
I believe that the LA Riot and Watt Riot happened because of certain similar reasons. One was where both of the arrested males were both african american. Both were arrested in suspicion of intoxication on the road inside their car while getting pulled over. One thing different about both the cases is that Rodney King was beaten heavily before getting arrested and his situation was caught on tape, ending up showcasing in his court trial. Frye however was immediately pulled over and was arrested while onlookers gathered around to inspect what was happening. Never-less, colored races were treated unfairly and many stereotypical judgements were always placed as labels for them. White polices arrested both the black males without any sort of proof and "assumed" they were guilty on spot which in the end leads to furious riots trying to win back their justice. These events eventually goes into a cycle of loopholes where many colored races will continue to get accused and arguments happen in order to clarify their innocence which leads to brutal and violent riots.
http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome
-Qian Mei Guo
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