Influencing History: Rodney King and the Election of 2000

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During the years 1992 and 2000, a series of developments and events occurred that changed the way America functions. Of these events, two stuck out in the minds of many people as the national news coverage was hard to ignore. These two events that occurred resulted in many changes, Rodney King and the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the disputed election of 2000. It proves that one person can be the reason behind an event that will cause local and national governments and officials to stop and think of the consequences, both negative and positive.

The Los Angeles riots kicked off on the twenty-ninth day of April 1992 following the acquitting of four officers who had beaten and injured a motorist in the previous year. In the year 1991, California Highway Patrol officers detected Rodney King speeding as he drove in Los Angeles. King then led the officers on a high speed chase for the fear that the court would revoke his probation for a robbery offense he had committed (Gray, 2014). He was caught and ordered out of his car surrounded by several L.A.P.D cars and this led to a struggle between him and the police officers with some of them thinking that he was resisting arrest. One sergeant, Stacey Koon, used a Taser gun to fire at him before they beat him with their buttons mercilessly. He was struck with police batons more than fifty times and suffered eleven fractures besides other injuries. George Holiday, who was a nearby resident, videotaped the ordeal and delivered it to a local television station the following day (CNN Library, 2014). The tape sparked tension between the black Americans and the whites. The blacks saw the beating as racial discrimination against their community. However, no violence was recorded from the blacks du...

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...spective. Political Science Quarterly, 116(1), 29-52. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/208270903?accountid=45049

Golden, A. L. (2001). Disputed ballots, partisan conflict, and constitutional uncertainty: The election of 2000 in historical context. The American Behavioral Scientist, 44(12), 2252-2268. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214769221?accountid=45049

Gray, M. (2014). The L.A. riots: 15 years after Rodney King. Retrieved from http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/la_riot/article/0,28804,1614117_1614084_1614831,00.html

Levy, W. (2013). United States presidential election of 2000. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1570192/United-States-presidential-election-of-2000

Morris, R. (2012, April 28). LA riots: How 1992 changed the police. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-17878180

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