Today in Labor History March 3, 1991: An amateur video caught LAPD beating Rodney King. Four officers were tried for excessive force. Despite the video footage of police brutally beating a defenseless King, the jury acquitted all the cops involved. Within hours of the acquittals, riots erupted in cities across the U.S. The biggest was the Los Angeles riots, which lasted six days and killed 64 people (including 2 Asians, 28 African Americans, 19 Latinos and 15 whites), and injured 2,383. The National Guard, Army and Marines came in and ultimately quashed the riots. The riots in L.A. also included an anti-Asian pogrom. 2,300 Korean businesses were looted or burned and hundreds of Koreans suffered from PTSD. 64 people died in the riots,
In San Francisco, African American youth chased cops down the street with bats. And protesters shattered the facade of Bank of America with a concrete bus bench. I also remember having to duck behind a car to avoid being shot by a frightened shop owner. The violent police assault on King was one of the first to go viral in the digital age. It ushered in a new era of citizens documenting police brutality.