Rodney King was an African American who was victim to a beating of Police officers from Los Angeles. The whole beating was filmed by a witness that was nearby. The clip they found on his camera showed the Los Angeles police officers beating the African American with their batons repeatedly.
Rodney King was driving down a freeway with two passengers when they began a high speed chase down the freeway with cops close behind them. They were at speeds around 110 to 115 mph down freeways and the middles of residential neighborhoods. The officers then tackled king and used a taser on him then continued beating him with clubs. He kept trying to get up and would not listen to the cops when they told him to put his hands behind his back and to stop resisting them.
A part of this was played on the news around the world. The caused tons of people to be upset. There was a lot of anger about police brutality and other inequalities between white people and black people. King was beat up in a black community as well and these cops were white.
These four officers that took part in this brutal beating were tried in a state court but were declared innocent. Because of this many riots broke out. They were called the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.
Los Angeles Riots, also called the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest were riots that went on for the six days after the police officers that beat king were declared innocent. During this time property damages went up to around 1 billion dollars. 53 people were killed and thousands more were injured.
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