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1992 Los Angeles riots

The 1992 Los Angeles riots (also called the Rodney King riots or the 1992 Los Angeles uprising[4][5]) were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. The incident had been videotaped by George Holliday, who was a bystander to the incident, and was heavily broadcast in various news and media outlets.

"LA riots" redirects here. For other uses, see Los Angeles riots.

1992 Los Angeles riots

April 29 – May 4, 1992
(6 days); 31 years ago

Los Angeles County, California, United States
  • Widespread rioting
  • looting
  • assault
  • arson
  • protests
  • vandalism
  • shootouts

Riots suppressed

  • Many homes and businesses damaged, looted, or destroyed
  • Resignation of chief Daryl Gates

63[1]

2,383

12,111[2][3]

$1 billion

The rioting took place in several areas in the Los Angeles metropolitan area as thousands of people rioted over six days following the verdict's announcement. Widespread looting, assault, and arson occurred during the riots, which local police forces had difficulty controlling. The situation in the Los Angeles area was resolved after the California National Guard, United States military, and several federal law enforcement agencies deployed more than 10,000 of their armed first responders to assist in ending the violence and unrest.[6]


When the riots had ended, 63 people had been killed,[7] 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, and estimates of property damage were over $1 billion, making it the most destructive period of local unrest in U.S. history. Koreatown, situated just to the north of South Central LA, was disproportionately damaged. Much of the blame for the extensive nature of the violence was attributed to LAPD Chief of Police Daryl Gates, who had already announced his resignation by the time of the riots, for failure to de-escalate the situation and overall mismanagement.[8][9]

No effort made to close the busy intersection of Florence and Normandie to traffic.

Failure to secure gun stores in the Division (one in particular lost 1,150 guns to looting on April 29).

The failure to issue a citywide Tactical Alert until 6:43 p.m., which delayed the arrival of other divisions to assist the 77th.

The lack of any response – and in particular, a riot response – to the intersection, which emboldened rioters. Since attacks, looting, and arson were broadcast live, viewers could see that none of these actions were being stopped by police.

1992 Los Angeles riots in popular culture

Rooftop Koreans

1981 Brixton riot

1980 Miami riots

2011 London riots

2015 Baltimore protests

2020–2023 United States racial unrest

Attack on Reginald Denny

The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption

Murders of Ming Qu and Ying Wu

1991 Crown Heights riot

Driving while black

Ferguson unrest

King assassination riots

List of ethnic riots in the United States

List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States

Mass racial violence in the United States

May 1998 riots of Indonesia

Police brutality in the United States

Racial profiling

Race in the United States criminal justice system

Racism against Black Americans

Racism in the United States

Long, hot summer of 1967

George Floyd protests

Killing of Trayvon Martin

Simultaneous 1992 riots:


Other Los Angeles riots:

Afary, Kamran, Performance and Activism: Grassroots Discourse After the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992, Lexington Books, 2009.

Assembly Special Committee To Rebuild is Not Enough: Final Report and Recommendations of the Assembly Special Committee on the Los Angeles Crisis, Sacramento: Assembly Publications Office, 1992.

Baldassare, Mark (ed.), The Los Angeles Riots: Lessons for the Urban Future, Boulder and Oxford: Westview Press, 1994.

Cannon, Lou, Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD, Basic Books, 1999.

Gibbs, Jewelle Taylor, Race and Justice: Rodney King and O.J. Simpson in a House Divided, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.

Gooding-Williams, Robert (ed.), Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising, New York and London: Routledge, 1993.

Hazen, Don (ed.), Inside the L.A. Riots: What Really Happened – and Why It Will Happen Again, Institute for Alternative Journalism, 1992.

Jacobs, Ronald F., Race, Media, and the Crisis of Civil Society: From the Watts Riots to Rodney King, Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Los Angeles Times, Understanding the Riots: Los Angeles Before and After the Rodney King Case, Los Angeles: Los Angeles Times, 1992.

Song Hyoung, Min, Strange Future: Pessimism and the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.

Wall, Brenda, The Rodney King Rebellion: A Psychopolitical Analysis of Racial Despair and Hope, Chicago: African American Images, 1992.

Webster Commission, The City in Crisis' A Report by the Special Advisor to the Board of Police Commissioners on the Civil Disorder in Los Angeles, Los Angeles: Institute for Government and Public Affairs, UCLA, 1992.

– 25 Years After, an Artist's Response – LA Times, April 28, 2017.

Of the 63 people killed during '92 riots, 23 deaths remain unsolved – artist Jeff Beall is mapping where they fell

from Time.com.

The L.A. Riots: 15 Years after Rodney King

Archived December 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine – full listing of 53 known deaths during the riots, from the L.A. Weekly.

The L.A. 53

 – Christian Science Monitor retrospective and interviews with victims and participants.

L.A.'s darkest days

. Los Angeles Times. April 29, 2002.

"Charting the Hours of Chaos"

David Whitman, U.S. News & World Report, May 23, 1993, with special emphasis on the riot's first day

The Untold Story of the LA Riot