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The Los Angeles Riots: Independent and Webster Commissions Collections

Incidents and Statistics

Over the six days of unrest in Los Angeles following the acquittal of the four LAPD officers who beat Rodney King, the city experienced a staggering level of damage to both life and property. One goal of the Webster Commission was to bring clarity to the myriad incidents that occurred throughout L.A. in those six days in order to comprehend the totality of damage and understand who and what had been involved and when and where events had unfolded. Staff from the law firms assisting the commission gathered data from a variety of sources, including 911 calls and arrest statistics, and visualized this data in a number of graphs, charts, and tables, a few of which are shared here.

A riot chronology chart (1 below) outlines when major events such as arrests, fires, and deaths occurred from the time the verdict was announced on April 29 to the de-escalation of activity on May 4, showing a peak of incidents on April 30, the day after the verdict. Another incident graph for April 30 (2 below) breaks down the number of overall incidents reported by geographic areas policed by different LAPD bureaus, and indicates waves of activity throughout much of the city over a twenty-one-hour period, most of it concentrated in the Central, South, and West areas.

“Incidents” were broken down into a number of categories. Crime (3 below) was measured very broadly according to “individuals”, “crowds,” and “property crime,” with the last constituting fifty-eight percent of the overall crimes committed from April 29 to May 4. One page (4 below) of a thirty-page document listing the financial losses due to the destruction of property through arson and vandalism indicates the extent of loss in this crime category.

Charts summarizing overall arrest statistics indicate the breakdown of arrests by race (5 below), as well as the percentage breakdown of where the arrests occurred by LAPD bureau (6 below). Fatalities were located on a map of the city and in a chart (7 below) providing information—race, average age, cause and time of death—relating to those thirty-five individuals* who were killed in April 1992.

*The Los Angeles Times subsequently raised and tracked the total number of deaths during the riots to more than sixty.

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Office of the Special Advisor Incident Database Analysis, an extensive summary of incidents through either 9-1-1 calls or police radio, attorney work product, 1992 April 29 - 1992 May 4. PART OF SERIES: The series is comprised of detailed analyses of incidents that occurred during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Included are graphs, statistics, figures, and spreadsheets that summarize data involving police deployment, incident calls, structural fires, and arrests. Materials are presented through charts, graphs, tables, and a group of floppy disks.
Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety survey about structural damage incurred as a result of the 1992 riots, 1992 July 7. PART OF SERIES: Materials in the series assess a number of policies, plans, and procedures in place prior to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, many of which arguably contributed to the social upheaval. Included are several reports produced by the International Association of Chiefs of Police about model law enforcement policy; reports that address deficiencies in police-community relations in Los Angeles; emergency operations and recovery plans developed by the City of Los Angeles; demographic analyses of the city's public housing developments; and a Los Angeles Times publication assessing the riots' root causes. Also included are statistics released by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety about structural damage incurred as a result of the violence and looting.A revised draft of a recovery and reconstruction plan for Los Angeles after a major earthquake or disaster, 1992 May.
A report that assesses the 1992 riots using a wide variety of socioeconomic indicators. PART OF SERIES: In addition to analyzing the 1992 riots as a whole, the Webster Commission also divided into several smaller task forces and study groups, each of which addressed one specific aspect of the civil disturbance. The series consists of reports and appendices produced by five of these groups: the Chronology Team, the Public Officials and Community Team, the LAPD Team, the Comparisons Study Group, and the Inter-Agency Team. Also included are two copies of Webster Scope, a report that interprets the riots and their cumulative effects primarily through graphs, charts, statistics, and figures, and several research memoranda that discuss the legality of several riot-response tactics.
Office of the Special Advisor Incident Database Analysis, an extensive summary of incidents through either 9-1-1 calls or police radio, attorney work product, 1992 April 29 - 1992 May 4. PART OF SERIES: The series is comprised of detailed analyses of incidents that occurred during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Included are graphs, statistics, figures, and spreadsheets that summarize data involving police deployment, incident calls, structural fires, and arrests. Materials are presented through charts, graphs, tables, and a group of floppy disks.
Office of the Special Advisor Incident Database Analysis, an extensive summary of incidents through either 9-1-1 calls or police radio, attorney work product, 1992 April 29 - 1992 May 4. PART OF…
more
Office of the Special Advisor Arrests Database Analysis, a summary of arrests during the 1992 riots, attorney work product, 1992 April 29 - 1992 May 4. PART OF SERIES: The series is comprised of detailed analyses of incidents that occurred during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Included are graphs, statistics, figures, and spreadsheets that summarize data involving police deployment, incident calls, structural fires, and arrests. Materials are presented through charts, graphs, tables, and a group of floppy disks.
Office of the Special Advisor Arrests Database Analysis, a summary of arrests during the 1992 riots, attorney work product, 1992 April 29 - 1992 May 4. PART OF SERIES: The series is comprised of…
more
A report that assesses the 1992 riots using a wide variety of socioeconomic indicators. PART OF SERIES: In addition to analyzing the 1992 riots as a whole, the Webster Commission also divided into several smaller task forces and study groups, each of which addressed one specific aspect of the civil disturbance. The series consists of reports and appendices produced by five of these groups: the Chronology Team, the Public Officials and Community Team, the LAPD Team, the Comparisons Study Group, and the Inter-Agency Team. Also included are two copies of Webster Scope, a report that interprets the riots and their cumulative effects primarily through graphs, charts, statistics, and figures, and several research memoranda that discuss the legality of several riot-response tactics.

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Riot deaths by police district A report that assesses the 1992 riots using a wide variety of socioeconomic indicators. PART OF SERIES: In addition to analyzing the 1992 riots as a whole, the Webster Commission also divided into several smaller task forces and study groups, each of which addressed one specific aspect of the civil disturbance. The series consists of reports and appendices produced by five of these groups: the Chronology Team, the Public Officials and Community Team, the LAPD Team, the Comparisons Study Group, and the Inter-Agency Team. Also included are two copies of Webster Scope, a report that interprets the riots and their cumulative effects primarily through graphs, charts, statistics, and figures, and several research memoranda that discuss the legality of several riot-response tactics.