The Los Angeles Riots 1992 by Benzamin Yi

The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 has a personal story to me that I only realized after doing research many “year”s later. In order to follow through the events that took place while I was quarantined at home in the midst of the chaos, I created this visualization that had an hour-by-hour record of the events that happened from the beginning of the violence to the end of the violence. The only consequence I personally faced was not being able to get the Flamin’ Hot Lays I got at my neighborhood market, Jay’s Market, but instead had to go to my dad’s friend’s liquor store. Little did I know that the liquor store stood because my dad among other Koreans living in Los Angeles, acquired rifles and stood guard on the rooftop to deter looters. The lives that were lost in the riots were senseless. The Los Angeles Times gathered data including stories of who each person was and how they lost their lives. A memorial is usually created with the “name”s of the honorable who died defending our country or in a tragic event that marks history. I created this visualization in order to memorialize the events, as well as the “name”s of those who died as a means of symbolizing an ongoing tension of power relationships and race relations that still go unresolved. The sense of injustice is what ingnited the city, while little was done to absolve or resolve any of it. It’s easy to forget this event when everything is seemingly normal today, but there still lies a growing tension that should not be ignored. With that, this memorial hopes to remind us that we had to go through this tragedy and that we should do a lot more to assure the prevention of another riot like this.