The beating led to criminal charges against four white police officers. The trial was moved out of Los Angeles. Their lawyers argued that the officers might not receive a fair trial there.
On April twenty-ninth, nineteen ninety-two, a mostly white jury in a community north of the city returned its findings. The jury found the officers not guilty of assaulting Rodney King.
Anger at the jury's verdict soon led to rioting that began in the largely poor black neighborhoods of south-central Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES TV ANCHOR: “Don’t go near this area -- South Central Los Angeles at Florence and Normandy, because there is still no police presence there, and a lot of people trying to get through that intersection have been assaulted with rocks and bottles and sticks.”
More than fifty people died in days of violence before police and troops brought the unrest under control. Many more were injured and hundreds of buildings were destroyed by fire. It was some of the worst rioting in American history and received worldwide attention.
The following year, a federal jury found two of the officers who had beaten Rodney King guilty of violating his civil rights. They were sent to prison.
(MUSIC)
Another case in Los Angeles that received international attention also involved a racial element.
O.J. Simpson, a black former football star and motion picture actor, was charged with murdering his white former wife and a male friend of hers. They were stabbed to death in nineteen ninety-four.
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