...“Twilight 1992” by Anna Deavere Smith tells the story about the mayhem that ensued in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict. According to Wikipedia, the riots and violence broke out in L.A. for three continuously because, out of the four officers, who were involved in allegedly beating Rodney King, only one of them was found guilty of using excessive force and the others were cleared of all charges. This had a great impact on the citizens of L.A. “Twilight 1992” is a series of monologue which is based on the interview Smith conducted with different individuals who were involved in the L.A. riot. Among them, Rudy Salas, Stanley K. Sheinbaum and Jason Sandford intrigue me the most. In “Twilight” Rudy Salas, Sr. the Mexican sculptor and painter seem almost consumed with hatred towards white police officers. Because of his Mexican heredity he says he was called inferior in school by the “nice white teachers” (2). No wonder he called them “the enemy”. Even so he doesn’t exactly hate them. But rather he says he has “an insane hatred for white policemen” (Smith 3). That is because of the fact that he was beaten and turned deaf by four cops when he was a teenager. He was kicked in the head and his eardrums were fractured. Here Salas contradicts himself by saying “I don’t like to hate, the way my uncle Abraham told me that to hate is to waste energy and you mess with the man upstairs” (Smith 3). But then again he can’t deny how he feels towards white policemen. Rudy Salas, Sr...
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...such as racial discrimination, gang violence and unpredictable outbursts of brutality and from saying that there will always be the cold hard fact that there are some authority figures abusing their power. Cases of police brutality can be traced back to centuries ago, unfortunately when one usually thinks about the given topic, the biggest incident that comes to mind is the Rodney King trial. Since I will be touching on one of the most controversial cases in police brutality it is safe to say that police brutality is still “one of the most serious human violations in the United States. For years the negative use of force used by police officers and local authority has been of a main concern and a large issue throughout our nation” ("LA riots,"). Everything begins when, police officers abuse the use of force that has been given to them, meaning that it has become a growing concern about the abuse of police officers using unnecessary force. And as people have become more educated and aware of what’s taken place, more people have united. People have filed many complaints against police officers using excessive use of force during an arrest and in many cases we have seen how the police have used excessive and unnecessary force over a civilian, and with witnessing this abusive treatment the media has played a key role in demonstrating the abuse of force used by the police. This has created anger and fear in many individuals and also gives off a bad...
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...On April 29, 1992, following the acquittal of the four police officers charged with the brutal beating of Rodney King and weeks after a Korean American shopkeeper received five years’ probation in the shooting death of a Black teen, Los Angeles exploded into one of the most destructive episodes of civil unrest in American history. Korean businesses were the primary target of looters in the 1992 Los Angeles riots, as Los Angeles holds the nation's largest Korean American community of 145,000. For Korean Americans, the riot fundamentally altered their course of life in America. The riots had a profound economic, psychological and ideological impact that it is often referred to as a "turning point," and "defining moment" for a century’s history of Korean immigration to the United States. When the smoke cleared, Korean Americans were among those suffering the heaviest losses: Korean merchants suffered five shop owners killed, 2,100 Korean American-owned stores had been burned or damaged, amounting to about $400 million in losses, nearly half the city’s total. Not just landscape was essentially erased, personal identity also vanished for many Koreans. According to a study conducted about a year after the riots, almost 40% of Korean-Americans said they were thinking of leaving Los Angeles. The Korean American Inter- Agency Council(KAIAC) conducted a study and found that 15% of college-age youth had dropped out of school because of the riots. The council also found, of the 2,100...
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...history. On March 3, 1991 following a high speed chase through a rough area of Los Angeles California five Los Angeles Police Officers brutally beat King in the middle of a roadway offering no mercy as he lay in the fetal position soaking up each hit that was delivered from the varies officers. From a nearby balcony a witness caught the beating of King. Whether or not Mr. King resisted the officers following the chase- the violence that followed was most certainly unwarranted. Many officers also stood near where the brutality was taking place, but offered no assisted to King- this footage was aired on national television. The outrage of the public was enough to begin a second riot all of its own. With tension between the Los Angeles Police Departments and African Americas already high in the area, this situation offered no mercy from either party. In 1992 Los Angeles police officers- Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Stacey Koon where all charged by Los Angeles County with criminal offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon (Rodney King, 2012). The officers was set to take place in Los Angeles county, but it was argued by the defense attorneys that a fair trial would not be possible because the amount of publicity that surrounded the case. From Los Angeles the case was moved to nearby Simi Valley, approximately 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles, a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. The officers were acquitted of all charges soon after the move to Simi...
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...Environmental Scan Paper MGT/498 June 18, 2015 Environmental Scan Paper The purpose of an environmental scan is to examine the internal and external environment of a company, in an effort to identify needs, plan improvement tasks and monitor the changes. This process is essential when the company is planning to conduct a reorganization in an effort to improve productivity and reduce costs. If the environmental scan is conducted properly, it will help to align the organization with the desired objectives of the company. On a positive note, the environmental scan can point out competitive advantages and strategies currently in place. The scan is a pretty well-rounded in that it can also assist in the creation of business strategies, which will continue benefit the organization and keep it at a competitive level. The final area that the environmental scan benefits the organization is in the monitor and control region. The process reviews the methods in which the company measures the effectiveness of the strategies in place. Internal and External Environments Completing the environment scan aids in identifying the organization’s in-house needs, assets, and values. The scan will also provide insight into the external environment (the industry) that the company operates within. Ultimately, the scan will help the company form a vision while also identifying their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) (Barnat, 2014). A SWOT analysis uses internal and external...
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...Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, a book written by Anna Deavere Smith, is based on the 1992 Los Angeles riots. This book is a collaboration of the experiences of the members of the Los Angeles community during the LA Riots. Smith interviewed a few hundred local LA residences for her book during the time of the riots. She succeeded in keeping a wide perspective by interviewing people from all ethnic backgrounds, including Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Koreans. She also interviewed police officers and gang members. Combined with historical research, Twilight provides a meaningful and accurate exploration of the lurking causes of the Los Angeles riots. The event that sparked the Los Angeles riots was the police beating of Rodney King. Rodney King was driving recklessly while...
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...March 3rd, 1991 marked the excessive beating of an African American motorist from the Los Angeles Police Department after leading police forces on a highway speed chase"1. Consequently, this led to the Rodney King trial in which, "an all-white jury acquitted four police officers of all assault charges on April 29, 1992"2. This led to the significant violence of the 1992 Los Angeles riots which erupted as a result to the trials which, lasted six days. Notedly on "May 1, 1992, the third day of the riots Rodney King made his appearance where he attempted to calm down the rioters by stating Can't we all get along"3 a famous quote to this date. The riots evidently raised notoriety towards the lower class socioeconomic conditions and allowed for...
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...Although divisions between certain races contributed to a socio-economic gap, Korean businesses essentially gained an economic monopoly in Central Los Angeles. When commenting on the unproportional amount of Korean-American owned stores, Abelmann referenced David Holley of the Los Angeles Times to explain the quick integration of Korean businesses in 1974; Holley described that weekly, a “Korean bookstore, and barber shop [opened]… and a Korean-owned bank building went up nearby.” As more Korean-owned business appeared before 1992, Holley emphasized that the lack of diversity within the area formulated no local business competition; therefore, due to the Korean business competition, many minorities opened business outside the downtown area. This in turn allowed Korean owners to monopolize the tourist industry prevalent to the area without the concern of interracial competition. Moreover, Abelmann emphasized that...
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...Societies in this century and the previous ones have been victims to unlawful, racial discriminated unrests. Unrests which have been known to be quite damaging not only to the victims of the act but rather the community as well. Regardless of the government’s ability to control and manage any offensive events in the community, cases still seem to arise in the community. It’s evident for a need communication and an understanding of crisis management, peaceful resolutions to the crisis in order to obtain a community fracas and hostile free. As a professional in the at Egan criminal justice organization, in a crime ridden community. The case study addresses the flawed emergency response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. This study, however experienced challenges that come with gathering and interpretation of information from the sites of study. The study suffered from financial constraints. The expenses for the study eventually were significantly lower than the estimated budget. This was from factors such as insufficient resources from local station. The institution had a misalignment...
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...This is where the minority group is fighting for justice to be made. There has been situations where victims have been left unconscious, permanently disable, sent to the hospital or in some cases death. In the year of 1991, Rodney King was pulled over after a high speed chase pursuit in Los Angeles, CA. Rodney King was taken out of his car by the L.A.P.D he was slammed to the ground. Where four L.A.P.D officers took turns beating up Rodney King with the baton, kicking him and just very bitterly brutalizing him that had nothing in defense (bio). For these situations I desperately argue that the police men took advantage of Rodney King, even though Mr. King had set off a high speed pursuit, the policemen shouldn’t have had taken so long to arrest Rodney King. And in these cases it is when the abuse of power is current and where the questions who do we trust, and what is justice come upon. The four L.A.P.D officers were first charged with criminal offenses, including assault with a deadly weapon, but there was injustice when the case was move from Los Angeles to Simi Valley. It was moved from Los Angeles because the defense attorneys successfully had persuade the jury that the trial wasn’t going to be fair due to all of the publicity the trail would receive (bio). Sadly the tail was moved to a white suburb and in the jury there was only but one...
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...Phase 4 The period from 1992 to 2000 is one of the most interesting in American History. I will discuss Rodney King and Wal-Mart on that Period of the events listed and discuss the impact that these events had on America. Born on April 2 1965, Rodney King was a significant person in a that period. Although he did not have the character of Rev. Martin Luther King events in his course of life lead a spotlight on police brutality of minorities and still lingering racial tension among the United States Borders. The was not just against Whites vs. Black but it also shed light on African American and Asian American tensions as well. King was a African American Parolee who had been trouble with Alcohol and substance use and abuse for much of his life. He was convicted of violent assault and robbery of a Korean Store before the incident that changed the course of American history. While trying to avoid arrest for DUI and parole violation Rodney King led police officers on a high speed chase for several miles before being stopped on March 3, 1991. This led to the unlawful beating of King by four uniformed officers. George Holliday's videotaped the incidents. Two days later Holliday contacted the police about his videotape of the incident. He then went to the television news with his videotape, which broadcast it in its entirety. The footage became an instant media sensation. It caused many "cop watch" organizations to arise. The officers were charged with criminal...
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...Rodney King Riots in L.A. My topic is over Rodney King and the riots that transpired because of the verdict that was handed down in his case. He was a 34 year old African American man and is very well known by millions of people in our American history. On March 3, 1991 he was on a high speed police chase going speeds estimated at 115 miles per hour and that is what started the whole sequence of events. He was essentially pulled from his car after being apprehended, beaten by four white police officers as another sixteen policemen on the scene watched. Rodney King was on a high speed chase with police and one of them was named Stacey Koon. When they finally got King pulled over he got out of his car aggressively. Police thought he could be...
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...Willie Hurst A: Plan of Investigation To what extent did the trail and riots for Rodney King bring exposure to Police brutality and racial tensions in the United States? On March 3, 1991 Rodney King was involved in a high-speed chase from the police department. Kings car was spotted due to reckless driving along with the high speeds he was traveling along the highway at. After being forced to pull over, King was beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department. King was taken to Pacifica Hospital where he maintained facial fractures along with a broken ankle and many bruises and lacerations along his body. During the beating a local witness filmed the incident and sent the footage to the local news. The tape shows four policemen surrounding...
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...most pressing civil rights issues in the United States. It demonstrates that racism is still very real and that people continue to be treated based on the color of their skin. It was one of "the most visible uses of force by police in this country’s history" and put the issue of police brutality on the national agenda (Mydans 1). The King beating set off a chain of events that enflamed racial, ethnic, and social tensions in Los Angeles. It caused six days of riots and rebellion, calls for structural reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. It also caused the resignations of the mayor of Los Angeles, the chief of police, and the Los Angeles County district attorney. This event shows how one officers actions can effect how police officers and police mangers are see by the public. This Civil liability is something that all police mangers will have to deal with at some point in their career weather it be a real case or someone putting a false case in. On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was driving a car in Los Angeles, California, with a passenger, Bryant Allen in the back seat. When King was signaled by police car behind him, but he did not stop, and increased his speed. One estimate stated that King drove one hundred miles per hour for about eight miles, while being chased by police officer Melanie Singer of the California Highway Patrol. When King finally pulled over Officer Singer instructed King to move away from the vehicle and to...
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...Community Profile Yer Gabul Ethics & Social Responsibility/ETH 316 06/12/2014 Community Profile I am profiling South Los Angeles (formerly known as South Central Los Angeles). South Los Angeles is famous for the 1992 Los Angeles riot. While there are famous historical landmarks in this area, it is mostly inhabited by low-income families. There are small business establishments, but most adults work for local merchants, small factories and assembly lines. Today, there are about 700,000 residents of which 55% are Latinos and 40% African-Americans. In the 1980s, widespread unemployment, poverty and street crime contributed to the rise of street gangs such as the “Crips” and “Bloods”. The neighboring communities often refer to this area as the “ghetto” or the “hood”. Needless to say, this region is heavily infested with drugs and crime. Also, the people in this region have faced issues involving discrimination and segregation. In recent years, however, local political leaders, commercial owners, and residents have joined forces in hopes of revitalizing and removing the association of urban decay and street crimes and violence with which South Los Angeles had become associated. Many non-profit agencies were established by promoting peace, employment assistance, and youth development and education. A monthly town meeting has been established where business owners, local politicians and residents address any issues and explore new opportunities to improve...
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