Rodney King Riots Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rodney King Riots - Essay Example The riots caused a great deal of damage and injury and remain one of the most violent periods in the history of the city. The present research looks into the causes of the riots, the events that led up to them, the evidence that was brought forward and decisions handed down and how this news was received by the greater community. The immediate and long-term effects of the riots will be examined and the lessons learned will be explored. In 1991, a man named Rodney King was brutally beaten up by four police officers and the video recording of the incident had been publicized. The LAPD officers were put on trial for this controversial incident after the video was released. This caused it to stay in the center of the public eye. The verdicts handed down as a result of the trial amazed the public because only one officer was found guilty of the excessive use of force that all four officers were seen to take part in within the video. The other officers were released with no further charges or punishment (Los Angeles Times, April 29th 1992). The video coverage of the trials and verdicts angered the populace who perhaps felt threatened that the same thing might someday happen to them. They reacted in masses as hundreds of Black people filled the streets to share their anger and disbelief. This negative emotion fed on itself and began to tip over into violence. \ The result was the riots which have jarred the nerves of eve ryone involved. Three days of violence followed. Four thousand National Guardsmen were deployed to re-establish law and order. Live news television coverage showed fires raging in various parts of the city started by the rioters. People were rioting and looting and assaulting innocent bystanders leading to utter havoc in the heart of the city. By the time the riots were brought under control, the death toll was 50 and more than 4,000 people were injured. Property damage was assessed at $1 billion and 12,000

Chinese Popular Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chinese Popular Culture - Essay Example The wealthy had the opportunity to invest in the property markets and the rural households acquired partial property rights that allowed them to accumulate wealth in the form of consumer durables. These reforms introduced discrepancies in the distribution of wealth. The Urban household had a greater opportunity to accumulate in the form of financial assets. Rural household, on the other hand, has had limited access to financial instruments and hence owning a house of lower value than their urban counterparts have. Even within the urban areas, the benefits of reform from property rights have not been shared equally. The distribution of housing wealth contributes about two-thirds of the overall housing inequality in China (Luigi Tomba, 4). The rural poor cannot afford the prices of house in an urban setting. The Urban poor as well cannot access modern housing units because due to the rent effects resulting from the methods of house acquisition. The middle class can afford apartments in urban centers. The apartments are highly subsidized with prices that bear little relationship with market values. For instance, in northern Beijing, Chaoyang District, Hopetown is one best example of a quarter developed because of the property rights reforms. The residential area is home to most of the middle-class members of the public in Beijing. This group of middle-class dwellers represents a social identity of persons who have the ability to afford home ownership. In the PRC, the wealthy members of the society are not well educated. This leads to the need to acquire educational credentials to enhance their social status. Since 1999, higher education has been expanded, especially in expensive executive programmes. The wealthy are having access to higher education. The middle class has higher regard for education because it a symbol of high social status are a post-communist class that has managed to accumulate wealth through handwork and quality education credentials that made them access to well paying jobs. At the Hopetown estate, the majority of the residents are the middle class of educational affluence with well paying jobs-the salaried population. The middle class is also composed of rich entrepreneurs that were co-opted by the Communist Party (CCP) with constitutional amendments to embrace capitalists. The poor have limited access to education. The decentralization the fiscal system in China has increased the dependence of the poor in th e rural regions on their own resource base to access education. The local