Andrea Delgado (Humboldt State University)
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Where does public history end and personal narrative begin? Practically everyone in the United States during the 1990s saw the footage of LAPD officers beating Rodney King, a Black motorist. Known by many names, the events that followed the acquittal of the four charged LAPD officers also took over television sets and radio waves far and wide. What the nightly news denounced as “the Riots,” others articulated as part of a resistance by the name of “No Justice, No Peace.”
2022 marks 30 years since April 29th, 1992 prompting a revisiting of the events in Los Angeles that continue to reverberate to this day. The narratives crafted about Los Angeles in 1992 frame our understanding about the events—the stories we tell shape the reality around us. This session aims to explore the narratives around April 29, 1992, as (re)told by the multicultural communities of Los Angeles.
Where does public history end and personal narrative begin? Practically anyone in the United States during the 1990s saw the footage of LAPD officers beating Rodney King, a Black motorist. Indeed, the perspective that George Holliday, an Argentinian immigrant, captured on his camcorder from his apartment balcony became an undeniable fulcrum towards the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising, firmly wrenching itself onto screens nationwide. The power of a visual representation of police abuse—seemingly irrefutable evidence of a long history of systemic racism—was supposed to sway the predominantly white jury into charging the officers; instead, acquittals for the officers showed that the official narrative did not intend to account for structural racism. For five days afterward, business was not usual. What the nightly news denounced as “the Riots,” others articulated as part of a resistance by the name of “No Justice, No Peace.” Known also as Sa-I-Gu in Korean and Los quemazones in Spanish, whatever the perspective on the aftermath, its catalysts could not be ignored.
Prosecutors would not call Josie Morales to testify about how the LAPD officers began the beating without any instigation; her testimony contradicted Melanie Singer, a CHP officer. The testimony of the officers on the stand contradicted the moving images of the grainy home video. How easily one personal narrative becomes entrenched in official history, and another relegated to the margins--a process that assumes the inherent truth of state hierarchies even in the face of irrefutable video evidence. In the retrials, CHP and LAPD officers recanted their initial reports about King being under the influence of drugs or speeding over 100mph.
Ever present in the memories of the diverse communities of the city, the events of Los Angeles 1992 provide an opportunity to connect this historical moment to other recent acts of state violence and subsequent protests. Decades before police were captured on video killing Eric Garner, Mike Brown, George Floyd, and, tragically, many others, a jury in Los Angeles decided that the newest technology in video recording was always already obsolete in holding state institutions accountable for racial violence.
2022 marks 30 years since April 29th, 1992 prompting a revisiting of the events in Los Angeles that continue to reverberate to this day, in academic fields ranging from history and politics to cultural studies, literary studies, music, and art. Reverberating, also, as protests on streets in New York, Missouri, Minnesota, and all across the U.S.