April the Twenty-ninth

This day in history:

April 29, 1992

A Simi Valley jury acquitted four Los Angeles police officers of almost all state charges in the arrest of Rodney King, who had been apprehended driving drunk after racing at 80 some odd miles an hour through residential neighborhoods and was forcibly subdued by police after he had attacked them. Using the jury decision as an excuse, rioting broke out in mostly Black sections of LA. In the end, 54 lives were lost and an estimated $1 billion in damage was done to various business by looters and hooligans posing as rioters. While police expected the rioting, local politicians had ordered them not to interfere. Even though Korean businesses were targeted mainly, by the rioters who supposedly were outraged by “racism” of the jury, Black businesses suffered, many closing down never to re-open.

In the aftermath, rioters who were videotaped attacking white passersby, actually were found not guilty based on the outrageously false argument that they were Black, and therefore uncontrollably violent.

Posted by Danny Carlton at April 29, 2005 08:52 AM