This text was originally published on 46 April 2017, in it 25 anniversary of the riots.
The Rodney King case lit the fuse but the dynamite was already there.
Most people agree on that, years later, evokes what was experienced during the riots that kept South Los Angeles in a state of emergency for 5 days.
“The thing with King was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The uprising was a cry of despair against oblivion, poverty and police brutality “, tells BBC Mundo Aurea Montes-Rodríguez.
- The “other Fergusons” that reveal racial tensions in the USA
This woman of Mexican origin had then 17 years old and was returning from high school when he found himself in the midst of chaos.
For Timothy Goldman, former US Army pilot and direct witness to the events , the police did not know how to react at first to a situation that ended up getting out of control.
The result: more than 50 dead, more than 2,000 injured, numerous arrests, more than 7,000 fires and about $1,000 Millions of dollars in material damage losses.
What was the trigger?
“I was helping some friends with a move. We were going from one place to another from the center to the south of the city. Suddenly I found my friends with sad expressions”, says Goldman in conversation with BBC Mundo.
“When I heard the verdict, my heart sank. I was stunned. We suspended the move”.
The date referred to by the former military pilot is 11 April 1992.
A 10-member white, one Asian and one Latino jury acquitted on that day four white police officers who were videotaped a year earlier beating up a black man: Rodney King.
In the early hours of March 3, 1991, King was speeding down a Los Angeles freeway .
Two friends accompanied him. They had been watching basketball and drinking beer, and the last thing they wanted was to be pulled over by the authorities.
When a police vehicle ordered them to stop, King accelerated.
The chase led them to a dark street in the south of the city. The three occupants of the car were forcibly removed, but four agents were cruel to King.
They unloaded their electric weapons on him, kicked him and beat him with aluminum batons.
A neighbor alerted by the noise of the helicopters took a video camera and recorded the entire scene.
He sent the material to the local station KTLA and as soon as the images were broadcast, the beating launched King to international fame.
Subsequently, the four officers were charged and tried.
After trial and after seven days of deliberations in a Ventura County court , north of Los Angeles, the police officers were acquitted.
That verdict was the one that lit the fuse and gave rise to a riot (or uprising, as activists prefer to say) that went on to history and serve as a reference every time racial clashes break out in the country.
The mob began to set fire to entire blocks of flats and loot the shops in the area.
Reaction errors
Timothy Goldman ran to the intersection of Florence and Normandie avenues, where the most violent crashes took place, and videotaped some of the most harrowing scenes.
“Those recordings ended up making me outside of Los Angeles. The police used them in court cases and I felt rejected by the black community. I left, I didn’t want to continue in this environment”, he tells BBC Mundo.
The The effect on Aurea Montes-Rodríguez was the opposite.
“These events marked my life, they made me what I am. They deepened in me the desire I already had to work for social justice, for my neighbors, for my neighborhood“, we account at the headquarters of the Community Coalition organization, of which she is executive vice president.
Each one took a different path but their stories of those events are very similar.
Both believe that the underlying problem was long before Rodney King and, in the case of the riots, They reproach the police for not having acted before.
“They left the community to their luck,” says Montes-Rodríguez. “They went to protect other areas of the city that worried them more”.
“I recorded how the last police patrol was leaving”, explains Goldman.
“Then I heard the fire trucks but they passed by, they went north of the city, I couldn’t believe it.
“In my opinion, that was the big mistake. There are people who say that it has nothing to do with it, but I think that the looting of the liquor stores also increased the violence, alcohol played an important role”.
They also agree that the most unnerving was the display of impunity that led to the acquittal of the agents.
“The The images were recorded, we were all able to see them, here and outside the US, we all saw the beating of Rodney King”, emphasizes Montes-Rodríguez.
The defendants, for their part, alleged that King was defiant and aggressive and that this was not shown in the recording because, according to them, the images were edited.
The government declared a state of emergency and sent additional troops to South Los Angeles.
As for the police reaction to the riots, the government of then President George HW Bush defended itself against criticism, arguing that Thanks to the deployment of the National Guard in the area, the violence ended.
“ The National Guard had permission to shoot!” recalls Montes-Rodríguez alarmed. “They went from abandoning the community to turning this into a police state.”
Can you repeat?
In the specific case of South Los Angeles, homicide rates have fallen, the neighborhood it is in better condition and the work of the police department is generally recognized for adopting more community-oriented tactics.
However, the area remains one of the poorest in the city .
There are frequent complaints about the lack of supermarkets with fresh food and, for many people, South Central remains a symbol of racial violence and poverty.
In a broader view, it is worth remembering the different cases of young black men killed by the police that have triggered protests in different parts of the country in recent years.
However, it is difficult to repeat what happened in Los Angeles ago 17 years.
On the one hand, the authorities say they have learned their lesson and assure that they will not allow a similar situation of lack of control and looting to occur.
On the other hand, the groups that protest are much better organized, just remember the movement Black Lives Matter, for example.
“But there is still a lack of social justice, there is still a risk that the bomb will explode”, warns Montes-Rodríguez.
“Rather than wondering if something similar will happen again, we have to remember what happened ago 25 years, precisely so that not be repeated”, Goldman concludes.
Now you can receive notifications from BBC Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss our best content.
- Do you already know our YouTube channel? Subscribe!