UNIVERZITET U BEOGRADU
FAKULTET BEZBEDNOSTI
Naziv rada
: Nemiri u Los Anđeles-u,1992.godine
Predmet
: Krizni menadžment
Profesor:Želimir Kešetović Student:
Asistent:Božidar Radulović
BEOGRAD 2010
THE LOS ANGELES RIOTS, 1992
Chronology of Events, April 29–May 3, 1992
1
Day 1: Wednesday, April 29:
3:10 p.m.:
A California Superior court acquits four white police officers charged in
the beating of African-American motorist Rodney King. In little more than an hour,
looting and rioting break out in South Central Los Angeles.
4:20 p.m.:
Several African-American males steal malt liquor from a liquor store and
attack the store owner’s son. The burglars flee before the police arrive.
5:27 p.m.:
Police arrest one man for breaking car windows with a baseball bat and
release others suspected of throwing bottles at motorists.
5:34-5:48 p.m.:
Police make the first arrest of looters. An angry crowd protests.
PoliceLieutenant Mike Moulin orders police officers out of the area.
New York Times
photo-journalist Bart Bartholemew is attacked.
5:50 p.m.:
A crowd chases fleeing police to Florence and Normandie avenues. They
hurl rocks, a metal-covered phone book, and a stand-up, Marlboro sign at the car of
motorist Francisco Aragon.
5:55 p.m.:
A passing motorist, Manuel Vaca, his wife, and his brother are pulled
from their car, beaten and robbed.
6:03 p.m.:
The looting of Tom’s Liquor, a local business, begins.
6:15 p.m.:
While waiting for a bus, Salvador Arzate is beaten and robbed.
6:30 p.m.:
An off-duty fireman rescues a badly beaten motorist.
6:43 p.m.:
A trucker, Larry Tarvin, is assaulted while his truck is looted.
6:46 p.m.:
Reginald Denny, a white trucker, is pulled from his vehicle, robbed, and
badly beaten A television crew records the incident. He is rescued by a group of African
Americans.
7:16 p.m.:
Gregory Alan-Williams, an African-American, saves a bloodied Takao
Hirata after another would-be rescuer is beaten.
7:35 p.m.:
A building and a car are reported to be on fire.
7:42 p.m.:
Bennie Newton, an African-American minister, saves Fidel Lopez after
he is beaten, robbed, and spray-painted.
8:30 p.m.:
Police return in force to Florence and Normandie avenues.
9:00 p.m.:
Mayor Tom Bradley declares a local state of emergency. California
Governor Pete Wilson orders the National Guard to report for duty to assist the police.
Day 2: Thursday, April 30:
A dusk-to-dawn curfew is imposed. Rioting and looting escalate. Seven people are
reported killed. Public schools are closed. Bus service in the South Central district is
halted. Disturbances break out in San Francisco, Seattle, and Las Vegas. President
George Bush announces a Department of Justice investigation into the trial verdict.
1
Based on chronologies in Tony Atwater and Niranjala D. Weerakkody, “A Portrait of Urban Conflict: The
L.A. Times Coverage of the
Los Angeles Riots
,” a paper submitted to the Media Management and Economics Division,
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, August 1994, and
David Whitman, “The Untold Story of the L.A. Riots,”
U.S. News & World Report
, 114, no. 21 (May 31, 1993), 34-48
2
Sijetlu i Las Vegasu. Predsednik Džordž Buš najavljuje istragu Ministarstva Pravde
u rešenju o sudskom procesu.
Day 3: Friday, May 1:
Rioting and looting continue. President Bush holds an emergency White House
meeting with civil rights leaders. He also addresses the nation in a special televised
speech and promises to restore order in Los Angeles. He then orders 1,500 Marines and
3,000 Army infantry troops into South Central Los Angeles. Troops are given the
authority to shoot back if fired upon. National Guard troops ring shopping centers while
residents and merchants clean up debris; they also keep order around post offices in
South Central Los Angeles. Rodney King appeals for calm.Violence breaks out in other
U. S. cities, including Seattle. Twenty-eight fatalities are reported as a result of the
rioting.
Day 4: Saturday, May 2:
Rioting ceases, and the cleanup of the South Central district begins. The President
of the Korean American Retail Grocers Association announces damages totaling $700
million to 600 Koreanowned establishments in South Central Los Angeles and 200 in
Koreatown.
Day 5: Sunday, May 3:
Eleven hundred Marines and 600 Army troops join 6,500 National Guard troops in
the largest show of armed force in the city. Mayor Bradley appoints Peter V. Uberroth to
head the Commission to Rebuild Los Angeles, which is to oversee the restoration of riot
shattered areas. President Bush meets with top domestic advisors to begin planning a
response to the riots.
The Media and the Los Angeles Riots
The Rodney King Affair
Although long-term problems of racism and poverty had plagued South Central Los
Angeles and had poisoned relations between the African-American population and the
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the event that precipitated the 1992 rioting
occurred more than a year before the first rioters appeared on the streets. On March 3,
1991, four Los Angeles police officers stopped a African-American motorist, Rodney
King, and his companions after a car chase at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.
The officers ordered King, who was allegedly drunk, to get out of his car. King complied
reluctantly, but then resisted the officers' attempt to handcuff him and scuffled with them.
The officers wrestled King to the ground and began to beat and kick him, ultimately
striking him 56 times with a baton. Unbeknownst to the officers, a local resident captured
part of the encounter, the beating episode, on videotape. The tape was passed to a local
4
television station, which ran it in a newscast. Within hours, the tape was being shown on
all major television networks.
3.dan , Petak-1.maj :
Neredi i pljačke se nastavljaju. Predsednik Buš saziva hitan sastanak u Beloj
Kući sa vođama narodnih prava. On se takođe obraća naciji u specijalnom
televizijskom govoru i obećava da će obnoviti mir u Los Anđeles-u. On zatim
upućuje 1500 Marinaca i 3000 pešadijskih trupa u južnocentralni Los Anđeles.
Trupama se daje dopuštenje da uzvrate vatru bude li pucano na njih. Nacionalna
Garda opkoljava trgovačke centre dok stanovnici i trgovci raščišćavaju krš; oni
takođe održavaju red oko pošta u južnocentralnom Los Anđeles-u. Rodni King
apeluje na smirenje. Nasilje izbija i u drugim američkim gradovima, uključujući
Sietl. Dvadeset osam nezgoda je prijavljeno kao posledice nemira.
4. dan , Subota-2.maj :
Nemiri prestaju i raščišćavanje južnocentralnog distrikta počinje. Predsednik
Korejsko-Americkog udruženja maloprodajnih trgovaca objavljuje štetu u iznosu
od 700 miliona dolara načinjenih nad 600 Korejskih firmi u južnocentralnom Los
Anđeles-u i nad 200 u Korejskoj Četvrti.
5.dan , Nedelja –3.maj :
Jedanaest stotina Marinaca i šesto pripadnika vojske se pridružuje trupama
Nacionalne Garde, kojih je 6500, u najvećem prikazu oružanih snaga u
gradu.Gradonačelnik Bredli imenuje Pitera V.Uberota da predvodi Komisiju za
obnovu Los Anđelesa, koja nadgleda obnavljanje područja razrušenih od strane
pobunjenika. Predsednik Buš se susreće sa najboljim domaćim savetnicima kako bi
počeli planirati kako uzvratiti pobunjenicima.
5
minority jurors, one of whom was Hispanic and the other Asian-American.
3
As the trial
neared its conclusion in late April, South Central residents were prepared to accept only a
guilty verdict. Any other decision was likely to lead to an explosion.
Television as the Instigator of the Riots
Television was the most critical medium of communication in the rioting in Los
Angeles. As
Newsweek
columnist Jonathan Alter put it, "A fire needs oxygen. From the
very beginning, the oxygen that has given life to the Rodney King story is television."
4
Television was instrumental in fomenting the rioting, and it played a significant role in
determining how the rioting unfolded.
In mid-afternoon on April 29, the jury found the four police officers not guilty on
charges of the use of excessive force in the arrest of Rodney King. It was the broadcast
media, primarily television, that informed viewers of the outcome of the trial. The verdict
fell like a thunderclap in Los Angeles and across the nation. The months during which the
tape of the beating of Rodney King had been aired again and again had convinced most
viewers that the officers were guilty; how could anyone argue with the images captured
on the videotape or possibly conclude that the officers were innocent? Indeed, the King
tape offers an instance of the media, in effect, serving as prosecutor as well as jury even
before the officers' trial began.
Kaseta je izazvala momentalnu medijsku i javnu senzaciju. Kadrovi policajaca
koji tuku i šutiraju Kinga su emitovani ponovo i ponovo nedeljama i mesecima koji
su sledili posle incidenta i stvarajući neizbrisiv utisak o policijskoj brutalnosti u
glavama miliona gledalaca koji su to videli, uključujući Afro-Američke stanovnike
iz unutrasnjosti Los Anđeles-a. Pored toga sto su bili razljućeni ovim sto su videli
kao indiskrimišući rasizam dela Los Anđeles-ke policije (LAPD-a) , što se videlo i na
primeru premlaćivanja Kinga , Afro-Američki stanovnici južnocentralnog Los
Anđeles-a su osećali da su i njih i njihovo okruženje zvaničnici vlade i mediji bili
zanemarili već decenijama. Kao dokaz tome oni su citirali izveštaje o gradskim
dešavanjima u Los Anđeles Tajmsu, gde je svim zajednicama posvećena pažnja
osim onoj iz unutrašnjosti. Incident sa Kingom je pogodio Afro-Amerikance kao još
jedan primer gradske administracije koja ih je rutinski zlostavljala i ignorisala.
Većina Amerikanaca koja je videla Kingov snimak osećala je da su četiri
policajca kriva za prekomernu upotrebu sile, ako ne i za teže zločine. Stanovnici
južnocentralnog Los Angeles-a su se svakako ovako osećali. Kada su ova četiri
policajca uhapšena spremana za suđenje, Afro-Amerikanci su očekivali da će biti
okrivljeni za premlaćivanje Kinga i kažnjeni. Odluka Vrhovnog Sudije Stenlija
Wizberga da preseli suđenje u državu Ventura, oblast nastanjenu skoro isključivo
belcima i neproporcionalno velikim brojem policijskih službenika je razočarala
Afro-Amerikance. Perspektive za okrivljujuću presudu teško da su se poboljšale sa
izborom porote sa samo dva člana predstavnika manjina od kojih je jedan bio
3
Keesing’s Record of World Events
(Cambridge, England: Longman, 1992), 38856.
4
“TV and the 'Firebell',”
Newsweek
, 11 May 1992, 43.
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