ABSTRACT
The footage of the beating, as King lay prostrate on the ground, created a global media event that led to the trial of the officers and the birth of a new form of struggle against police brutality that went far beyond Los Angeles and lasted nearly a decade before it would be overshadowed by the events of September 11, 2001. The 1992 protests that exploded into four days of rioting, gave birth to a number of multifaceted grassroots organizing campaigns that lasted for several years and impacted Los Angeles in profound ways. A newly created economic redevelopment agency called Rebuild Los Angeles was formed to encourage corporate investment and job creation in economically distressed areas. It had limited success, in large part due to entrenched racism. During the 1980s many urban youths were being driven into illegal activities while the dominant classes sought to suppress them with increased policing and mass incarceration.
