The L.A. Riots and Beyond: The Why???

On April 29, 1992 the four officers who were accused of beating motorist Rodney King were found not guilty in the charges brought against them for the bloody beating that was caught on camera. For the rest of that day as well as the next couple of days that followed a period of rioting that became known as the L.A. Riots would unfold. 63 people were killed, over 2000 more were injured and over a billion dollars in damages were caused. In the 32 years since those three fateful days in 1992 we have seen countless more riots in the same vain happening for the exact same reason. Many people still don’t understand why, but the answer has always been very clear.

“Not guilty, the filthy, devils tried to kill me

When the news get to the hood the niggas will be

Hotter than cayenne pepper, cuss, bust

Kickin up dust is a must

I can't trust, a cracker in a blue uniform

Stick a nigga like a unicorn

Born, wicked, Laurence, Powell, foul

Cut his fuckin throat and I smile.” - Ice Cube (We had to tear this mutha fucka up).

Over just even the past decade we have seen a worsened continuation of what Rodney King endured when he was beaten on that fateful day back in 1991. It all comes down to the injustices inflicted upon the African American community and the ripple effects that follow. So many Black men and women harassed, beaten imprisoned and killed in such unjustly repetition. The story goes to trial and law enforcement officers as well as civilians that are responsible for the injustices get to walk away free. Whether it be Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, or Breonna Taylor. The list goes on and on.

We know how the pattern goes: the injustice occurs, the perpetrator walks free, the riots break out and the rest of America wonders why the Black community exudes so much destructive frustration. Of course many critics see the riots and you know what the talking points are: “oh those are just thugs and hoodlums or gang members that just wanna run wild and do whatever they want.” Well I can tell you this much: these are variables that play into the problem, but they are only just smaller parts of a greater common factor.

The truth is we as the Black community have been facing these injustices since the beginning of our time on this side of the planet and when you go back to events like the beating of Rodney King we thought that if everyone saw our pain on camera then things would change and that we would actually get justice, boy were we naive. We couldn’t have been more wrong. There was no justice, just us. The cries of misery fell on death ears or atleast the right ears that should have seen them and heard them didn’t care to hear them anyway and the people who shed these tears decided to make the ignorami pay attention whether they wanted to or not.

“Sitting in my living room, calm and collected

Feeling that gotta-get-mine perspective

'Cause what I just heard broke me in half

And half the niggas I know, plus the niggas on the Row is bailing

Laugh now, but cry much later

You see, when niggas get together, they get mad 'cause they can't fade us

Like my niggas from South Central, Los Angeles

They found that they couldn't handle us

Bloods, Crips on the same squad

With the Ese's helpin', nigga, it's time to rob and mob” - Dr. Dre (The Day the Niggaz Took Over).

When the L.A. Riots began on April 29, 1992 what took place? Angry Black residents of the inner city flooded the streets and snatched all the white motorist who rode through their neighborhoods out of their cars and beat them savagely in the same manner that Rodney King was beaten. It definitely wasn’t right, but it was also a direct reflection of what caused the ensuing chaos. Soon enough it wasn’t just the Black residents taking part in the chaotic venting session. They were later joined by many Latino and White participants as well. The riots became a full fledged free for all. During the riots a lot of looting took place and many of the businesses that were targeted and burned down were that of the Korean business owners who were engaged in constant tension with the Black residents that had finally boiled over during the course of the last year.

The destruction and violence as immoral as it is represents a wrathful venting of anger. The looting is sense of getting what I can being that what should be afforded to me isn’t being given to me as an American. When the rioters burn down the buildings in their neighborhoods everyone on the outside looking in sees it as “oh they’re just burning down their own neighborhoods”, but the truth is these places aren’t really out neighborhoods and these places don’t really belong to us. These are the places that have been given to us as an allowance. Clearly we aren’t worthy of having anything as basic as justice and every time the system of American power does us dirty they are telling us “you’re not Americans, you’re still just niggers and obviously you are not worthy of justice and equality.

As Black Americans we’ve seen and felt this behind the scenes historically forever. Not everyone else can see what we see and feel what we feel though many will try to relate, they will never truly quite understand and that’s why the legacy of riots that followed those fateful days in April of 1992 will continue.

“A riot is the language of the unheard” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Even when you look at the riots that took place in January of 2021 over the election results of the time, many of the rioters in that situation were once people who were critical of the riots that took place not even a full year before when it was George Floyd and Ahmad Arbery’s unjust deaths that were the cause of the riots and yet the rioters in Washington exuded the same behavior when they felt an injustice was done to them. The sad part about the unjust killings of those men is if the riots hadn’t occurred they would’ve never saw any real measures of justice. So yes, the riots are bad and destructive, but unfortunately it is those destructive storms that many see as part of a revolution are the only times we seem to get any real change: after the destruction takes place.

It’s a shame that things have to be such a way, but even in the case of the LA Riots no real attempts at justice or real changes were implemented until after the destruction ran its course. We are now 32 years after April 29th 1992 and we’re still fighting the war on injustice and the battle is still uphill as usual. Until the world decides to change and instill a real sense of justice to the world of events that inspire these riots, the legacy of April 29th 1992 will never die.

“April 29th was power to the people and we might just see a sequel…make it rough…” - Ice Cube (Wicked).