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Analysis Of The 1992 Los Angeles Riot

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Analysis Of The 1992 Los Angeles Riot
The focus here will be the 1992 Los Angeles riot that occurred shortly after the verdict of innocent was announced for the killing of Rodney King. This allowed four police officers who were involved to walk free in Los Angeles of 1992 causing an uproar in communities and neighborhoods across the city. I will analyze the 77th division police officers who responded in large numbers to a call in South Central neighborhood where they heard that another officer got shot. This was one hour after the King verdict when tensions were high and people were hostile. By using the Collective Action view regarding riots, I will attempt to provide an explanation for the causality of the 1992 Los Angeles riot by using an the Crowd Control model. Then I will …show more content…
By understanding the political aspects of the time of this riot, we can figure out the underlying reasons for the cause. To begin, the first arrest that occurred during this riot was of a 16 year old young black male. They arrested him in a manner that was forceful by dragging and pushing his head down on the squad car. This use of force, caused agitation amongst the crowd. Another arrest shortly follows at the same neighborhood, but this time the crowd gets involved in the middle of the arrest. The brother of the second person arrested jumps in to stop the officers, but gets shoved away. It might seem as though the officers were outnumbered which caused them to use force amongst the crowd however, this was not the …show more content…
They came from entering this neighborhood with an already confrontational attitude in response to the King verdict. By having this attitude the officers entered the area unorganized making them vulnerable because they disregarded to evaluate the exits and entrances within this neighborhoods. Neglecting to do so, they allowed the crowd to come towards them in every direction thus, leading officers to utilize force. Even though, they did attempt to form a perimeter around the arresting officers, it was extremely difficult to keep the crowd away without force. Here the officers approach from the beginning was imprecise that it even prevented them from isolating the violence. In fact, the violent crowd moved towards them forcing the officers to regroup and leave the
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