Race tensions easing
April 25, 2002
The Daily News of Los Angeles
Post-riot survey finds increased optimism about L.A.
By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer
TEN YEARS AFTER RIOTS over acquittal of four white officers in the Rodney King beating rocked Los Angeles, most Angelenos see improvements in race relations, cultural diversity, neighborhoods and law enforcement, according to a long-term survey released Wednesday.
In dramatic shifts in public opinion from polls conducted in 1992 and 1997, Loyola Marymount University found that the city's residents now overwhelmingly believe racial and ethnic groups get along pretty well and that the LAPD does a good job.
"In a city that was torn apart a decade ago," Marks said, "this poll reveals clear indications of community resiliency and optimism - in ethnic relations; in the diversity of their neighborhoods. At a gut level, community optimism is incredibly strong." But the poll also found a downside: Nearly half of those polled fear a similar riot is likely to occur within the next five years.
"That 50 percent expect a riot is shocking," said study author Mara Marks, associate director of the Loyola Marymount University Center for the Study of Los Angeles, which conducted the same poll in 1992 and 1997.
"The glass is half full and half empty: 50 percent believe another riot in five years is likely or very likely; however, that number was 60 percent in 1997 and 1992."
The Loyola Marymount survey, conducted in late February and early March, questioned residents about race relations, city services, the economy, education, health care, where they live and what they hope to become.
The bottom line, according to "Los Angeles: A Decade After the 1992 Disturbance": "Much healing has occurred since 1992, but much hard work remains in building a more just, livable and prosperous Los Angeles."
It was on April 29, 1992, following the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers charged in the videotaped beating of African- American motorist Rodney King, that Los Angeles erupted in the most lethal riot in the nation's history.
Violence engulfed South Central Los Angeles, spread north into Koreatown and Hollywood, then moved into Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
In three days of rioting, 54 people were killed, 2,383 were hospitalized, and 600 fires damaged or destroyed more than 1,100 buildings. Property losses exceeded $1 billion, according to LMU researchers.
Some 50,000 residents participated in the burning, looting and violence; more than twice that number stood by as sympathetic bystanders. It took 3,700 Los Angeles police and sheriff's deputies, 2,300 Highway Patrol officers, 10,000 National Guard troops and 4,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines to quell the disturbance.
Of the rioters, according to the study, 36 percent were African-American, more than 50 percent Latino. Koreans, targeted by the violence, lost or suffered damage to more than 2,800 businesses and had $400 million in losses not covered by insurance.
Charles Kim, executive director of the Korean American Coalition in Los Angeles, was not surprised by the survey's findings.
"We never eradicated the cause of the riots," he said. "The infrastructure is still there: the crime problem; the social problem. The merchants are there.
"A group of people is still frustrated and looking for a way out - and anything like the Rodney King case will give them a cause to break out."
The LMU survey interviewed 1,549 residents, both in English and in Spanish, of whom 38.5 percent live in the San Fernando Valley. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percent.
Among the survey highlights:
--Since 1992, almost twice as many believe race relations have improved across Los Angeles.
--Nearly three-quarters believe racial and ethnic groups get along well or somewhat well, compared with one-third in 1997. Forty-six percent believe the lack of a single racial or ethnic majority is a good thing.
--Overall, 47 percent believe Los Angeles is headed in the right direction, with 55 percent feeling that way about their particular neighborhood.
--Regarding their Police Department, 62 percent believe it does a good job, and 16 percent an excellent job, particularly after Sept. 11. Citywide, 43 percent supported the reappointment of former Chief Bernard C. Parks.
Countering the stereotype that Angelenos lack community, 76 percent of those surveyed said they talked or visited with their neighbors at least once a month; 36 percent did so every day.
Valley residents, according to the study, were more likely to talk over the back fence, at 79 percent.
Among particular concern among respondents was crime, education, traffic, jobs and affordable health care.
The Rev. Zedar E. Broadous, president of the San Fernando Valley Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and a commissioner on the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, was not surprised at the survey results.
But he questioned those who said the city is moving in the right direction, particularly in the removal of Parks when so many supported him. Civil unrest, he said, is a historical reaction to a callous system.
"People feel the complete abandonment and hopelessness with dealing with the systems that are in place," he said. "When the system doesn't work, people lash out. When African-Americans suffer beatings like Rodney King, they ask, 'Why should I have any hope ... why should I get involved?'
"Sooner or later, the city is going to bust out again."
Lewis Yablonsky, a California State University, Northridge, criminologist who testified in the prosecution of two notorious rioters, said it was hard to predict another riot.
"The last riot we had was small and disgusting, when the Lakers won in 2000," he said. "There's always the possibility of something igniting, but I don't think anything's imminent."