James Mincey 1982

In 1992 riots erupted in L.A. due to civil unrest and tension between the public and the LAPD which was sparked by the beating of Rodney king which was caught on video. Prior to this there had been many more moments which had caused tensions to rise and the public to scrutinize the LAPD. One such incident is the death of James Mincey in 1982; ten years prior to the LA riots.

Mincey's death occurred on April 5th 1982 when Mincey, a black motorist, was maced and choked to death in his mother's drive way after failing to comply at a traffic stop. The LAPD claimed Mincey was on PCP, however a toxicology test denied this claim causing public outrage. Tensions were pushed even further when Daryl Gates, the police chief at the time and who was also the chief at the time of Rodney King's beating, made a statement saying "We may be finding that in some blacks when it is applied (chokehold), the veins or arteries do not open as fast as they do on normal people." Gate's statement suggesting that black people were possibly more likely to die from a chokehold than "normal people" enraged the public. 

Mincey's death as well as many other events that led to the scrutiny of the LAPD and public outrage paved the path to the L.A. riots. In the aftermath of Mincey's death as well as others from carotid  chokehold, the practice and use of the chokehold was banned by the LAPD in 1993. Many cities around the country,however do not have this ban and deaths are still occurring today and continues to be a problem especially for African Americans whom consists of the majority in chokehold deaths. 

Links and sources

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-09-29/local/me-40159_1_police-officer

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-unrest-that-led-to-the-l-a-riots-twenty-five-years-on

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/04/why-the-police-chokehold-is-so-racially-charged/?utm_term=.774cddca0d26

-Kennebon Boonsong