On the anniversary of California's notorious urban uprising, TIME checks in with 15 of the event's key figures to see what they're doing now.
While driving down the 210 freeway in Los Angeles with two friends, Rodney King was detected speeding by the California Highway Patrol. Fearing that his probation for a robbery offense would be revoked because of the traffic violation, King led the CHP on a high-speed chase, eventually hitting 115 miles per hour, according to the police. By the time he was caught and ordered to exit his vehicle, several L.A.P.D. squad cars had arrived on the scene. A struggle ensued, and some of the officers quickly decided that King was resisting arrest.
Sergeant Stacey Koon fired two shots into King with a TASER gun, and after that failed to subdue him, the officers, including
Laurence Powell, beat him mercilessly with their batons. The incident was videotapedby a man named George Holliday, who lived nearby, and it didn't take longfor the tape to send shockwaves around the world and enrage the alreadyfrustrated Los Angeles African American community, which felt that racialprofiling and abuse by the police had long gone unchecked.
Once the four officers accused in the beating were acquitted a year later by a predominantly white jury in the majority white suburb of Simi Valley, all that rage turned into the worst single episode of urban unrest in American history, which erupted on April 29, 1992, and before they were quelled a few days later, had left 53 people dead and $1 billion in damage.
In the midst of the harrowing violence, King nervously uttered the phrasethat would forever be synonymous with him and the riot: "Can we all justget along?"
His sudden fame didn't make things much easier for King. He did win $3.8million in damages from the City of Los Angeles for the beating incident,but much of it went into starting a rap record label, Straight Alta-PazzRecords, which soon folded. Over the next several years, he was arrested forvarious charges, including convictions for drunk driving and domestic abuse. He movedfrom Los Angeles to suburban Rialto to live quietly with his family. Overthe years, King has refrained from talking to the press about the incidentor his troubles, and there was no response to numerous interview requests byTIME relayed by intermediaries.
"He was really desperately trying to rise above it and put the incidentbehind him," says his most recent attorney, Renee Campbell. "Rodneyhas this wonderful personality, he's always looking for the good part oflife. He's simply a very nice man caught in a very unfortunate situation."
His sister Ratasha says that through it all, King has managed tomaintain high spirits, and that he is living once again in Los Angeles,helping to run a family-owned construction company and doting on hisgranddaughter. "He's doing well," she said. "We don't really talk about thatwhole thing. We did then, but we don't now."
?Madison Gray
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