KING CASE AFTERMATH: A CITY IN CRISIS : Then and Now: 1965 and 1992

WATTS: AUG. 11, 1965

Shortly before dusk on a hot summer night, California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer Lee Minikus pulled over 21-year-old Marquette Frye on suspicion of drunken driving. A crowd soon gathered, rumors began to spread and an argument broke out. The crowd reacted violently, and soon hundreds of angry and frustrated young blacks were setting buildings and cars afire. The riots continued for 144 hours.

The toll: Thirty-four people died, 29 of whom were Watts-area residents. More than 1,000 were injured, 118 with gunshot wounds. Of 4,000 arrested for arson and looting, almost half were tried and found guilty. Two hundred buildings were destroyed and another 400 were burned and looted. About $40 million in property ($183 million, adjusted for inflation) went up in flames during six days and nights of rioting in South-Central Los Angeles.

Many of the people who died in the riots were looters, shot by police and National Guardsmen. Others were hit by rocks or sniper fire, or killed as they drove through police barricades.

The background: In the 43-square-mile curfew area of South Los Angeles, 93,975 people were on welfare; unemployment was between 12% and 15%.

The aftermath: A shopping center, housing projects, recreational facilities, an industrial park and Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital were built. But today, the hospital’s emergency rooms are filled with victims of gunshot wounds, stabbings and disease--the results of crime, poverty, unemployment and unrest--the very things that led to the uprising in the first place.

LOS ANGELES: APRIL 29, 1992

By evening, angry residents had ignited fires, beaten motorists and looted stores, reacting to not guilty verdicts in the trial of four white police officers accused in the beating of black motorist Rodney G. King .

The verdict came 14 months after Los Angeles police officers from the Foothill Division pulled over unemployed construction worker King, 25, after he led them on a high-speed chase that ended with a beating; a bystander captured 81 seconds of it on videotape.

The toll: In the first three days, angry demonstrators set more than 4,500 fires, and about 5,000 emergency calls were placed. Forty people are confirmed dead, including eight killed by police officers and three fatally injured when a car crashed as it was chased by Beverly Hills police. About 1,800 people were treated for gunshot wounds and other injuries, and about 4,400 arrests have been made.

The background: The violence first erupted in South Los Angeles, a 35.5-square-mile area where the population is about 523,000, accounting for 6% of the total population of Los Angeles County. Immigration has changed the overwhelmingly black community of 1965 to an area where black and Latino residents are nearly equal in population. Unemployment is estimated at 40%. High school dropout rates are 30%.

For the police, perhaps the biggest change for the worst was the urban arms race. Some gang members now pack semiautomatic weapons instead of chains and knives.

The same streets of run-down bungalows and strip malls are bearing the brunt of the violence this time. But the destruction has spread.

The future: Dozens of civic and religious leaders decry the violence and propose ways to quell the uprising and rebuild from the rubble. Also, Community Redevelopment Agency approves $20 million in emergency relief aid for small businesses and homes located in parts of South-Central Los Angeles, Hollywood, Watts and the Crenshaw area.

SOURCE: L.A. Times files

Map Source: Report of the governor’s Commission on the L.A. Riots (“McCone Report”), December, 1965