Would you call the violence after the Rodney King Verdict a riot or an uprising?

44 comments

1. Riot. An uprising sounds like a coup in a country.

2. I would definitely call it a riot. An uprising is more organized and focused. It would have involved, say, storming government buildings. Not just looting random stores.

3. It was absolutely a riot. They had every right to be pissed off at the injustice. No question there. But it was very much a riot.

4. Riot.

5. Riot.

   There wasn’t really a stated goal. It was just disorganized craziness.

   An uprising generally has an endgoal. A riot is an outletting of anger.

6. Riot.

   Uprising aims to overthrow the government not show displeasure or change policy.

7. It was called both (not in the same breath), from the beginning.

   Source: Lived through it in real time.

8. Those were riots. Uprising denotes power centers as targets. That was not the case in ‘92

9. It was a riot. Stores were looted and set on fire, then everyone went home. It was meant to express anger, not resistance.

10. Everybody still refers to them as riots in LA.

11. It was a riot as it was aimless destruction. If it was a mob of people who were going to get together for something specific like overthrowing the local government, then it’d be an uprising.

12. I think there’s some overlap between those two terms. Uprisings can include riots, but not all riots are necessarily uprisings.

    I think most people would agree that they were riots, but whether they were focused and specific enough to be part of an uprising is a more complicated question.

    Personally, I think the BLM riots in 2020 had more elements of an uprising than the Rodney King riots did, because they were more organized, more coordinated, more widespread, and had more specific goals. But I don’t think they met the bar of being a rebellion or an insurrection, because they didn’t have the goal of overthrowing or toppling the government completely. Movement is probably the best descriptor there, to be honest.

13. [Definition of uprising](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/uprising)
    : an act or instance of rising up
    especially : a usually localized act of popular violence in defiance usually of an established government

    [Definition of riot (Entry 1 of 2)](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/riot)
    1a: a violent public disorder
    specifically : a tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent
    b: public violence, tumult, or disorder

    I’d probably go with uprising? There’s not a big distinction here. I don’t recall there being any true “acting with a common intent” other than “[We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LLkRw_lhss)”

14. Riot. Uprisings are coordinated and targeted.

15. I lived in Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots.

    “Riot” is the right term. It wasn’t really an uprising against government authorities, as much as disorder targeted at, well, everyone: stores, [violence against certain minority groups](https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/roof-koreans-civilians-defended-koreatown-racist-violence-la-riots-1992/), indiscriminate violence against various city residents, opportunistic looting.

    It may have been triggered by a court ruling–but the riot was not about overthrowing the government of the city of Los Angeles, but generalized anger at the perceived racism and a list of grievances that people took advantage of.

16. It was a riot.

17. Definitely a riot. No doubt about it. An uprising is far more organized and with a goal that usually involves government buildings. If it was an uprising then it failed miserably and turned into a riot.

18. It was a Riot.

    Dragging some random guy who happened to be driving down the road out of his truck and then beating him near to death for literally no reason is the action of a rioter.

    As is smashing windows to steal electronics and other non-essential items from minority owned businesses.

    Those “shifting” to calling it an uprising are either attempting to rewrite history, or are children/not even born at the time and romanticizing the past.

19. A riot, people who say it was an “UpRiSiNg” don’t know what an actual uprising is. The rioters had every right to be angry at the police and the criminal justice system, but had no right to try and burn half of LA.

20. Uprising implies organization beyond “let’s go fuck shit up”. That was definitely a riot.

21. It was a riot. There was no violence against those who were responsible for the situation (LAPD).

22. I was there back then, it was a riot. People were getting killed that had nothing to do with anything. Stores were being lit on fire, looted…

    It wasn’t a good moment in American history. Shameful because of the verdict and reaction to the verdict.

23. A riot for sure.

24. It’s still a riot, tho I don’t approve of what the cops did to Rodney King, I don’t approve of the riots even more, the Koreans in LA had to defend their businesses because all the rioting and looting, alot of innocent people were hurt and killed.

25. Breaking into and looting random businesses, burning down random buildings, and murdering random civilians is a riot. People trying to redefine that as an uprising against institutionalized racism and police brutality are historical revisionists in my opinion.

26. Riot.

27. A riot. An uprising doesn’t have looting as its main objective.

28. That was a riot. Looting minority owned businesses will never be an “uprising”

29. I’d call it crime

30. That shit was definitely a riot.

    What is an uprising anyway? Something like one of those Eastern European things where they forced the government to step down?

31. Riot

32. It was a riot with some looting. The most wonderful thing that came out of it was the meme of the Rooftop Korean.

33. According to the historian Bradley Nowell, a riot.

34. Can’t it be both? Can’t an uprising take the form of a riot?

35. It was a riot, I watched it every night on tv.
    That was a fucking riot.

36. Since it was politically left-leaning, it is now considered a “Peaceful Protest” rather then a “Riot” or “Insurrection”.

37. It was a riot. Those calling It an uprising are just giving violence a pass.

38. Riot. My parents were local and affected by what happened. They have always described it as such and so did all their neighbors, coworkers, and family members(including those directly in it).

39. Riot. Who exactly are you rising up against by destroying white owned businesses?

    I’m a white, backwoods Texan as redneck as they come and definitively right-wing; I don’t like the police either. Maybe if the line wasn’t drawn at race, a little unity would come about and y’all would be able to get some shit done aside from starting a little fire then getting shot.

40. Having been alive back then and seeing all that on TV, it was a riot.

41. I love that turn of phrase you used- people ‘shifting’ terms. Well said.

    But to me, this isn’t wise. If we erase our history, we are doomed to repeat it. Many/ most historical events are bad. Shameful, brutal and ugly. We should not gloss over it, clean it up to be pc, etc. Only by truly looking at what we’ve done to each other in the past will we become a high conscience species…..

    The events in LA after the Rodney King verdict were deemed riots. Proof of this is how the insurance companies handled the 1000s of claims for property damage that resulted. Riot and civil commotion were not covered- specifically excluded. So ,the poor store owners, many were left looted, burned, vandalized beyond repair. Luckily, a couple of the good guy carriers swept in and allowed these stores and businesses to claim these 2ndary perils to be covered. Fire, theft, vandalism After this, most carriers hung their heads in shame and reversed their decisions, but technically, damages from riots were not covered at that time. Even your homeowners insurance excluded this. Due to the Rodney King events, this was changed in almost all property policies and is now riot a covered peril. Interesting eh?

42. Race riot

43. Riot.

    I remember watching my city burn.

44. A riot.

    The difference between and uprising and a riot is what property is being damaged. In an uprising, no one wants to destroy the property of the common people who live around them. It’s not your neighbors fault shit is fucked up, it’s the elitist. But in a riot, it’s just violence for the sake of violence. Cops don’t have the resources to control this scene and I can do whatever I want.

    Those riots were violent and dangerous. And it fixed nothing. It gave police more power, much like even the most recent riots have done. Which is the opposite of what the point usually is. The most significant legislation passed a response to the george floyd riots was anti-riot legislation that gave police more power.