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The Rodney King Riots


By Kyle

Casualties

Cost in Damages

The cause

Who was involved


The Cause


A beaten Rodney King.
This is a beaten Rodney King.

The cause included four Los Angeles police officers and a man (Rodney King).
The four police officers:


It all started with a police chase.

The four police officers signaled Rodney King to pull over. But instead, he sped up.
One of the estimates said that King drove at 100 miles per hour for 7.8 miles.

When the police officers stopped they delivered 56 baton blows and 6 kicks to King.
Making 11 skull fractures, brain damage, and kidney damage.

Then the four police officers filed a false report, not stating that Rodney King had taken the damage.
But unknown to the police officers, a man named George Holliday was standing on a balcony videotaping the whole thing.

The next day, March 4th 1991, Holliday gave his 81 second video tape to Los Angeles TV channel 5.
On that same day it started airing world-wide.

On March 15th 1991, The police officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force.
All the officers pleaded not guilty.

Almost a year passed between incident and the start of the trial. Testimony began March 5th, 1992.
On April 29th, the jury acquitted the four defendants(let them go).

So, basically, four white police officers were let go from beating a black man. That causes trouble.

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Who was involved?


Some military personell guard the rubble of a mini-mall.
Some military personell guard the rubble of a mini-mall. I do not know why.

Since so many people and cities were involved, it's hard to name them all.
But the main people were Rodney King (who you already know about), the four police officers(who you already know about), the military, and a lot of Los Angelos.

The military was a little late in the scence. They came a little after most of the buildings were burnt and some people died.

Los Angelos was also involved. They were the ones rioting!
Most people took advantage of the situation to get free stuff.
They even stoped in front of news cameras to say hi to their parents.

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Casualties


Some people in the riots tearing off a car door.
Some people in the riots tearing off a car door.


In all the 6 days of rioting there were 54 deaths, 10,000 arrests, 2,300 injuries, and more than 1,000 buildings lost to fire.
One of the most bloody riots. Even the firemen had snipers shooting at them when they were trying to put out fires. They had to get LA Police bodygaurds to protect them from the snipers.

Most of the deaths had nothing to do with Rodney King.

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Cost in Damages



A building set on fire during the Rodney King Riots.

There was an estimated $700 million in property damage.
This includes houses, stores, personal belonging, and stuff stolen from stores.

Over 1,000 buildings were destroyed in the Rodney King Riots.
Ranging from houses to mini-malls.

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Works Cited



Here's one.

Here's the final one.