The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: 20 years later

[stevieboy247 42]

As many of you know, today marks the 20th Anniversary of one of the worst riots in U.S. history, the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. 54 people were killed and thousands more were injured. I've seen some news reports on the internet that featured interviews from Rodney King as well as the victims of course, some of them pretty young.

 

You can post your thoughts and discuss the coverage here.

[10Viewer 319]

That was kind of a turning point for TV news. There was definitely some very solid reporting. But, I think a lot of the coverage brought out the worst in people and the media itself. Television news has always been about getting reactions and emotion and the LA riots were kind of a tipping point, in a sense, that may have set the media on a course that took it away from professionalism and 'story-telling' toward more live, sensational, emotional coverage.

[Guest Former Member 207]

I lived near and grew up just a couple of miles away from the epicenter of where the rioting took place (Florence and Normandie Avenues in South Los Angeles), so as a 12 year-old 6th grader at the time, I saw much of what happened first-hand.

 

I had just got home from school the afternoon of the verdict reading that involved the four officers that beat Rodney King. About three hours later was when the Reginald Denny beating took place at Florence and Normandie, and the rest, sadly, is history. Our immediate neighborhood didn't suffer as much, as far as looting and burned buildings, in comparison to the rest of the surrounding neighborhoods, and the schools in the area (some of which, including my elementary school, suffered some damage) where closed for at least a week and a half--April 29th that year was a Wednesday, so the schools re-opened the second Monday in May.

 

Some of the businesses that were vandalized and destroyed were able to recover and restart, but I can say that the majority didn't return by our their own means (as an example, two small local grocery chains merged later that summer, due in part to the riots, and then in turn, were bought out by Ralphs [which now part of the Kroger brands of chains] a year or two later). In several areas, vacant lots that were occupied pre-'92 riots took YEARS re-occupied, and there are a few still vacant twenty years later. Much good that has come out of it, at least, is that there were businesses who would ordinarily avoid the inner cities started to re-invest into the communities of South L.A., led by Magic Johnson and former NFL player Keyshawn Johnson (no relation).

[rah6448 21]

Check this out as a neat angle on anniversary coverage: NBC 4 started up a Twitter account that, starting yesterday, posts things on an as-they-happened basis. Essentially, they're live-tweeting the LA Riots as if Twitter existed in 1992. It's a very unique way of covering the events exactly 20 years ago.

 

This is the page for it on NBCLA.com:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Real-Time-LA-Riots-Twitter-Account-148526355.html

 

Here's the link to the Twitter page itself:

http://twitter.com/@RealTimeLARiots