The long climb back, haltingly
Years of recovery are traced through Times polling of residents’ views of their city.
The 1992 Los Angeles riots — which left 53 people dead and 2,300 injured — exposed racial tensions, economic inequities and institutional dysfunction.
Twenty-three years later, there have been tangible gains.
The LAPD, once a predominantly white institution looked on with suspicion by many in the city’s ethnic minority communities, now more closely reflects L.A.’s demographics. The force is majority nonwhite, both in its patrol ranks and management. Community relations have improved, and crime rates have plunged.
But the economy in South Los Angeles — where the violence erupted following the April 29 acquittals of four white L.A. police officers charged in the beating of black motorist Rodney King — remains challenged, with high unemployment and poverty rates.
Many black residents fled to the suburbs or beyond in the years after the riots, and those who remain have struggled to find steady work, according to a 2012 report by The Times. As of 2012, median incomes in parts of South L.A. were lower than in 1992 when adjusted for inflation.
One way of tracking L.A.’s recovery from the riots is through a look back at The Times’ polls. 1992: Months later, fear and loathing
Several months after the unrest, Los Angeles still felt wary and wounded.
Most residents said another outbreak of rioting was likely within a few years. A Times poll found that 67% of residents believed the city had not seen the end of the violence.
Among whites, 3 in 4 predicted more violence; 2 in 3 African Americans also did so, as did 3 in 5 Latinos.
Of those surveyed overall, 85% said “things are going badly” in Los Angeles, compared with 60% who expressed that view before the riots and 25% who felt the same way in 1985, the year after the Los Angeles Olympics.
1993: Confidence slowly returning
A year later, the city’s confidence was rebounding — but slowly. Sixty-nine percent of Times poll respondents said they were confident that city officials and the Los Angeles Police Department could quell a major outbreak of violence should it occur.
And 58% said they approved of the way the LAPD handled its job, up from 40% in the month after the riots. 1997: Optimism, but worries about race
As the city continued its emotional recovery, a Times poll found residents in a more hopeful mood. Fiftyone percent of respondents said life in Los Angeles was going well.
But some warning flags remained. Two-thirds of those queried believed that race relations in the city were poor, a large percentage, but down from 82% in the months after the rioting.
2000: LAPD scandal, renewed pessimism
The Rampart police corruption scandal in the late 1990s caused a decline in public confidence in the LAPD and in the city in general for the first time since the riots.
According to a Times poll, 55% of respondents said they believed most police were honest and hardworking. But just 36% had a favorable impression of the way the force as a whole did its job.
The survey found just 35% saying Los Angeles was headed in the right direction.
By contrast, a year earlier, 53% had thought so.
2002: Most think we can all get along
Ten years after the unrest, 69% of Angelenos polled agreed that at least some progress had been made toward the question King posed on the third day of the rioting: “Can we all get along?”
Forty-six percent described race relations as good, while 51% took the opposite view. Among whites, 51% said race relations were good, but only 30% of blacks and 45% of Latinos agreed with that assessment.
Still, that was a much rosier finding than the 82% figure six months after the riots.
A solid majority, 78%, felt that by 2002 Los Angeles had recovered emotionally, at least somewhat, from the riots. Blacks who held that view came in at 67%, with whites at 77% and Latinos at 85%.
2012: Few fear more unrest is on the way
The Times didn’t conduct a poll for the 20th anniversary of the riots.
But a survey by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University found that residents thought the city was safer and race relations were better compared with 1992.
They also didn’t expect to see a repeat of the unrest in the coming years.