“Still a Struggle”: Los Angeles Remembers Rodney King Riots

Los Angeles is being hit by civil disorder following the controversial decision by a grand jury not to charge Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson over the shooting death of Michael Brown.

For many it has brought back memories of the LA Riots that gripped the city following the 1992 acquittal of LAPD officers on trial over the videotaped beating of Rodney King.

Over six days there was looting, rioting, hundreds were injured and more than 50 people lost their lives, with the scars of the trouble still plain to see in communities all over the city.

"It was a horrible thing. Everyone was fighting in the streets. They was looting, they was running," South Los Angeles resident Charles Ray Causey Jr. said.

And Causey cannot help but see parallels between the current strife and the problems of more than 20 years ago due to the current economic situation many people find themselves in.

"It reminded me of the riots here because people was mad , frustrated….  Can’t get no jobs no more. Everything is tight, " Causey said.

And he feels the help that promised to black communities has never materialized.

"Supposed to have grants and everything, I haven't ever seen that," Causey said.

West Adams business owner Stacey Jenkins is also unhappy at the position so many working class people now find themselves in.

"They say things are getting better but it's still a struggle out here," Jenkins said.

However she believes it is essential people learn the lessons from 1992, as many businesses and schools never returned after shutting down due to the destruction.

"The places that were over here they never returned… they never were able to come back from it and they were in our own community. they were our own people," Jenkins said.

If people want permanent change she says they have to stop being destructive, and start engaging in the democratic process.

"I feel like if all the people that were out looting were the same people who were out voting and changing things we could see a definite change in our community," Jenkins said.

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