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This act "abolished the national origins quota system that had structured American immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants’ skills and family relationships with citizens or residents of the U.S.”
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Video shot by amateur camera man George Holliday from the balcony of his Lake View Terrace apartment shows what appears to be a group of police officers beating a man with nightsticks and kicking him as other officers look on; the clip aired on KTLA.
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Rioters beat and nearly kill truck driver Reginald Denny. Hundreds of arson and looting incidents begin. At the same intersection, just minutes after Denny was rescued, Fidel Lopez, a self-employed construction worker and Guatemalan immigrant, was pulled from his truck, robbed and beaten.
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Four officers were acquitted of assault; three were acquitted of using excessive force.Verdicts are read and the riots begin.
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Looting and fires reported across LA County. Korean community forms armed community teams in absence of police presence. A dusk-to-dawn curfew is imposed in large portions of the city of LA and its county. About 1,000 California National Guard troops are currently deployed "on the street," with more than 1000 more prepared to deploy and awaiting mission requests from law enforcement agencies.
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Rodney King goes on television and famously asks, "Can we get along?" That night President Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office and outlines the federal response to the riots.
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Some 4,000 soldiers and Marines order crowds to disperse. LA begins to quiet down.
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LA Mayor Tom Bradley announces the crisis is over. National Guardsmen shoot and kill a motorist who tried to run them over at a barrier.
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Violence and crime breaks out sporadically. Schools, banks, and businesses reopen.
