Notes

The 1992 conflict was the outcome of a consequence of long-standing racial, social, and economic tensions in the region. Riots broke out in Los Angeles after four white police officers were acquitted of charges regarding the brutal beating of Rodney King. Compton, Koreatown, and South Central Los Angeles were hit by six days of rioting that resulted in 51 fatalities, over 2,000 injuries, more than 8,000 arrests, as well as approximately $1 billion worth of property damage. However, the root causes of the unrest were more profound: structural injustices that persisted throughout much of downtown and a population that was constantly changing. During the 1980s, Los Angeles experienced a significant change in ethnic identity due to the significant immigration from Mexico, Central America, and Asia. The Asian and Latino populations experienced a significant surge between 1980 and 1990, while the African American population in South Central Los Angeles decreased from 17% to 13%. By 1990, immigrant groups had displaced established Black residents in South Central areas due to "hyper-ethnic succession," and Los Angeles County had the highest percentage of foreign-born residents among all US cities. The demographic shift led to competition for scarce resources such as housing, employment opportunities, and social services, which fueled tensions and hostilities among different groups. These conflicts were made worse by economic inequality, as while some neighborhoods had unemployment rates exceeding 13%, Koreatown ($22,060) and South Central Los Angeles ($20,766) had median family incomes that were significantly lower than the county average. Evidence suggests that collective violence was fueled by poverty and economic distress, as studies establish a robust link between financial hardships and riots. Data on arrests and deaths revealed how structural prejudices affect the responses of federal and law enforcement agencies, which have an unjust impact on racial and ethnic minorities. For example, Latino representation in the arrest data had turned out to be been distorted since, for instance, many arrests during the riots targeted people for curfew violations, and undocumented immigrants frequently faced deportation. According to Janowitz's typology of riots as stated prior, there are two perspectives on the matter. "Communal" or economic "rioting," where communal tensions between groups lead to violence, and "commodity", in which devastating property damage is enacted against companies or organizations that represent structural injustice. There was also a study in which immigrant-owned businesses in Koreatown were disproportionately affected by the apparent economic gap between Black and immigrantal areas, which was caused by their close proximity to South Central LA. Albert and Herman employed both census tract data and statistical techniques like Poisson regression to explore the impact of demographic and economic changes on riot violence. They also used these findings to generate estimates for other variables. Most of the fatalities occurred where two or more census tracts crossed, which emphasized the highest social and physical boundaries. The riots were better understood because of this particular approach, which showed how integral elements like economic and racial inequality and fast population change combine to produce an environment that is prone to urban violence. The necessity to effectively manage demographic shifts and solve systemic inequality was highlighted by the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the biggest racial violence outbreak in history.