How a Man Who Supported Looting During the Rodney King Riots Came to Renounce It

In April 1992, it was announced that no police officers would be prosecuted in the brutal beating of Rodney King. In the week that followed the verdict, Los Angeles was in flames as the city broke out in looting and violent protests. One of the residents who supported the looting was Larry, a guest who spoke up on The Oprah Winfrey Show during a particularly heated town hall discussion.

"The reason we did it was because we needed self-satisfaction," he said. "We had no satisfaction in what happened to Rodney King. Four-hundred-and-twenty-five years of being unsatisfied, what am I to do? What am I to do? I'm looking at the news and they're telling me my life isn't worth a nickel. They're telling me that they can beat me, they can do whatever they want to me whenever they feel like it, and I'm supposed to accept this and say, 'Well, we'll just go vote and make it better.' It hasn't been better. We've been voting for years, and it's not changing."

How does he feel today, more than 20 years after the riots? Watch to find out!

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