Remembering the 1992 Los Angeles riots

Apr 30, 2012

Remembering the 1992 Los Angeles riots

Stokely Baksh 1 Comment Nation, Retrospective Florence, L.A. riots, Los Angeles, Normandie, Rodney King

This week, Los Angeles and the rest of the nation reflects on the 1992 L.A. riots. Twenty years ago, Los Angeles erupted after a jury acquitted four police officers in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. City-wide riots lasted for six days as Los Angeles exploded with racially charged violence, looting, and fire. Sixty-three deaths were linked to the riots, according to the Los Angeles Times, while some 2,000 were said to have been injured. Here’s a look at the city of Los Angeles, then and now.

Note: This gallery includes photos of a graphic nature.

: April 29, 1992: A rioter breaks a glass door of the Criminal Courts building, downtown Los Angeles after a jury acquitted four police officers accused of beating black motorist Rodney King in 1991. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 29, 1992: Rioters destroy an iron gate from a store in downtown Los Angeles hours after citywide rioting and looting broke out. (Wade Byars//AFP/Getty Images)

: April 29, 1992: Cornelius Pettus, owner of Payless market, throws a bucket of water on the flames at neighboring business Ace Glass during the first night of the Los Angeles Riots in Los Angeles. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: April 29, 1992: Flames roar from a Thrifty Drug store in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles. (Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30 1992: A California Highway patrolman directs traffic around a shopping center engulfed in flames in Los Angeles. (Carlos Schiebeck/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: Looters carrying goods from a shopping center in Los Angeles. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: A car lies overturned in a street of Los Angeles as a merchant sweeps up in front of his shop. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: National Guardsmen watch a business go up in flames in South Los Angeles. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: Firemen spraying a building going up in flames in South Los Angeles. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: Armed volunteers take position behind cabbage boxes as they guard a California market from approaching looters during the second day of the Los Angeles Riots in Koreatown. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: April 30, 1992: A fire department crew sprays water on a burning mini-mall in south Los Angeles after a night of rioting. (Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: Los Angeles police officers in riot gear stand guard at a burned out grocery store near downtown Los Angeles. (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)

: April 30, 1992: A store owner and a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer look at the damage caused by looters in Los Angeles. (Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images)

: May 1, 1992: National Guardsmen patrol a destroyed area in central Los Angeles. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: May 1, 1992: Police officers investigate a body found in a vehicle outside Ralph’s supermarket during the third day of the Los Angeles Riots on Third Street and Vermont in Los Angeles. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: May 1, 1992: An armed volunteer takes a cigarette break while guarding a Korean-American owned business during the third day of the Los Angeles Riots in Koreatown. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: May 1, 1992: People with their belongings line a sidewalk across from a burned out apartment in Los Angeles. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: May 1, 1992: Merchants and volunteers cleaning up in front of a market that was burned and looted during riots in South Los Angeles. (Hal Garb/AFP/Getty Images)

: May 1, 1992: Onlookers watch as an electronics shop on Olympic Boulevard burns during the third day of the Los Angeles Riots in Koreatown. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: May 1, 1992: Residents fight fire with a water hose from an apartment building during the third night of the Los Angeles Riots in Koreatown. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: May 2, 1992: People march calling for peace during the Los Angeles Riots in Koreatown. (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times/Files/Reuters)

: 2012: A street sign marks the intersection of Florence and Normandy Avenues in South Los Angeles. The intersection was the scene of the beating of truck driver Reginald Denny on April 29, 1992 during the early stages of the Los Angeles riots. It’s been 20 years since the Rodney King verdict that sparked the riots. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 5, 2012: Tom’s Liquor owner James Oh greets a customer at the store in South Los Angeles, California. The store is at the intersection of Florence and Normandy Avenues. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: April 5, 2012: James Jennings, 14, holds his face in his hands as he and classmates watch a video of the riots during an educational discussion with eighth graders about riots in Los Angeles and race relations at St. John Chrysostom Catholic Church in Inglewood, California. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: April 5, 2012: Todd Sellers stands at the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues, where he watched the riots 20 years ago in South Los Angeles, California. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

: April 27, 2012: A family walks across the intersection of Florence and Normandy Avenues in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 28, 2012: Volunteers from LA Works and South Los Angeles nonprofits clean a vacant lot that was the site of a grocery store destroyed during the Los Angeles riots of 1992 on Vermont Avenue. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 28, 2012: A family walks past a mural near Vermont Avenue in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: The Rev. Al Sharpton, a community organizer and a daily politics show host on MSNBC, is applauded as he delivers Sunday service sermon at First AME Church in Los Angeles, California. Sharpton called for non-violence in fighting injustice. (Hyungwon Kang/Reuters)

: April 29, 2012: People hold a rally at the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: Members of the Black Riders, a new generation of the Black Panther Party, participate in a rally at the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: Jose Elias holds up a banner featuring various national flags during a rally marking the 20th anniversary of the LA riots at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. (Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters)

: April 29, 2012: People embrace at the intersection of Florence and Normandie. (Jonathan Alcorn/Reuters)

: April 29, 2012: Los Angeles Police Department officers from the 77th Street division speak with Tina Kelley (C) after a dispute with her neighbor in South Los Angeles. The 77th Street division patrols the same neighborhood that truck driver Reginald Denny was nearly beaten to death. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: A makeshift memorial is set up on a sidewalk where a traffic accident killed three women two months ago in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: Pastor Alton Lee of New Greater Peace Missionary Baptist Church in South Los Angeles speaks from the pulpit. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: A man rides a bike past a store front full of graffiti in South Los Angeles on April 29, 2012 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: A group of baseball players play a game in the Jackie Tatum Harvard recreation center in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

: April 29, 2012: A little girl is escorted back home by her mother after a church service in South Los Angeles. (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

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