Sylvester Monroe

“My press pass used to shield me from police violence. Sadly, yours may not protect you.” Days before the verdicts in the trial of four White Los Angeles police officers charged with the brutal beating of Rodney King, I suggested a story about the disquiet in a Black community waiting for justice once again. For me, the tension in the air was palpable. My bosses at Time magazine dismissed the idea. I could never have predicted what happened in LA in 1992.

hApril 30, 1992: Police officers stand watch over a burning building in West Los Angeles following a looting and arson reaction to the acquittal of four LAPD officers in the Rodney King incident. (Fred Sweets/The Washington Post) Perspective: The furious response to the Rodney King verdict foreshadowed today’s Black Lives Matter movement By Sylvester Monroe I could see the fires as soon as I left the First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles on that spring evening 25 years ago.

I could see the fires as soon as I left the First A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles on that spring evening 25 years ago. I was a correspondent for Time magazine, covering the reaction to the stunning, April 29, 1992, acquittal of four white Los Angeles police officers charged with the brutal, videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. There was no “Black Lives Matter” movement then.