This is 20 minutes of news footage from CNN on April 30, 1992 covering the Los Angeles riots which followed the “not guilty” verdict in the case of the four patrolmen who beat Rodney King with their nightsticks in an action videotaped by a witness on March 3, 1991. We see Dan Blackburn reporting from the streets of L.A. as people on the street and shop owners react to the devastation of the riots. Jonathan Mann and Susan Rook report from the studio and show us glimpses of reactions in other cities, most notably Atlanta, where 300 arrests were made. Various politicians are heard from, including President George H. W. Bush and New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, who recounts the number of blows suffered by King that night. We also see an excerpt of an interview that CNN host Larry King conducted with a juror from the police trial, who is then rebutted by Rodney King’s lawyer. There are cuts where I paused for commercials or switched to other channels to see what was going on, so it’s not unbroken footage. Still, it offers a fairly valuable overview of what it was like in the nation in the aftermath of the verdict.
