Young voice: After 30 years, the L.A. Riots remind us of societal fragility

In 1992, a news helicopter showed live footage of an intersection of Florence Boulevard and Normandie Avenue in Los Angeles. In the middle of the road, a single truck is forcibly stopped by violent looters and rioters. Shards of broken glass and littered pieces of trash contribute to the chaos of the situation. Suddenly, the driver is pulled from his vehicle and is knocked unconscious with a cinder block. The city of Los Angeles fell into a spiraling whirlpool of terror, bullets and flames.

One year before the chaos, Rodney King — a name that has since been etched into the dark history of police brutality and racial profiling, was stopped by the Los Angeles Police Department. King at the time was on parole and had just finished serving a one-year prison sentence for robbing a local store of $200 (about $400 today) when he engaged in a high-speed chase with officers that ended eight miles later with a series of punishing blows and tasers. While it was later reported that the 6 foot 3, 225-pound King complicated the encounter with LAPD by initially resisting arrest while under the influence, the brutal beatings that he endured left not just physical scars on his own body, but emotional blows to the Black community as a whole. A bystander who recorded the entire ordeal and arrest sent the video to the media, and within hours the nation was stunned.

King would later be released without further charges. The four policemen (all white), however, would go to trial in L.A. However, a contentious ruling allowed the court case to be moved from Los Angeles to Simi Valley — a community with much less racial diversity — because of the defense team’s plea of unfair bias in the city. On April 29, 1992, at the hands of a predominantly white jury, the four men were eventually found not guilty on almost all significant charges brought up. Not long after the verdict, protesters surrounded LAPD headquarters by the hundreds and protested the result. Their phrase “no justice, no peace” instantly became synonymous with the racial struggles.

The protesting soon turned into violent looting over six days. By the time President George H.W. Bush called in the National Guard to put an end to the “civil disruptions,” the cumulative damages due to the arson and looting were staggering. There were about 60 riot-related deaths, 2,000 injuries and 7,000 arrests. 3,000 buildings were burned to the ground; property damages surpassed $1 billion, as well. Out of the $1 billion, $400 million was attributed to the loss of hundreds of businesses owned by first-generation Korean immigrants.

It would take months for Los Angeles to recover from the physical damages. For racial tensions, however, it took years for people to settle down. Some argue that they haven’t gone away to this day. Yet through the terrors, the United States and society as a whole learned important lessons because of what happened that fateful week.

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For one, the necessity of the Second Amendment in regards to self-protection and preservation flashed its true colors. While it’s true that Koreans lost so much to the riots, they know that it could have been much worse than what it ended up being. In one of the most underrated, iconic moments in American history, with the LAPD going to defend upper-class neighborhoods such as Beverly Hills, the lower-middle-class potpourri of Koreatown was under heavy fire. Without hesitation, Korean immigrants took up arms to protect their shops from looters. Not only were they successful in sending a message of warning, but also embodied the American spirit of freedom and liberty, earning the respect of many citizens. When the police left Koreatown to fend for itself, Korean Americans used the Second Amendment to guard what was their only source of income and hope.

On a more holistic note, Rodney King put it best. On May 1, speaking on national television, King, on the verge of tears, famously asked the world, “can we just get along?” By theory, global unity seems to be relatively straightforward. Thirty years later though, this simple plea seems unrealistic with the sheer amount of wars, racial attacks and other similarities. While one person may have a lot of differences compared to the person next to them, in the end, they are both strong individuals free to have personal thoughts and expressions. The L.A. Riots are a good demonstration of the fragility that distinguishes civilization from harmony to disorder.

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Alex Seojoon Kim is a high school sophomore in Stillwater.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How fragile is US civility? What we can learn 30 years after L.A. Riots.