Academy Award© winners dig deep into archives and hearts for LA 92, a documentary exploring the deep racial roots of the 1992 Los Angeles riots on National Geographic Channel.

By Dennis Huffington

April 12, 2017

There’s a saying: There’s no time like the present. Except there is a time like the present, and National Geographic is premiering LA 92, a documentary that dug up every nook and cranny of 1992 in the City of Los Angeles, a time just like the present. LA 92’s edge comes from the use of only archival footage tell its story. There are no interviews or experts, just raw footage of each and every catalyst, narrated by everyday people and news media alike. Even though I knew the outcome, I still sat in suspense because every second is authentic.

About 35 minutes in, my stomach began to burn and I felt the same disappointment and resentment as the real people in the documentary. America hasn’t recovered from Ferguson, Baltimore, and police brutality continues to deepen America’s political and racial divide, just like the divide in LA 92, the divide that has always been in America. LA 92’s tagline, The Past Is Prologue, couldn’t be more fitting. Just as the LA riots preceded Ferguson, riots in Watts preceded LA’s 92 riots.

From the opening of LA 92, it is crystal clear, that racism and police brutality have long been intertwined. We see a police department that not only criminalizes a group of people but also fails to protect that same group of people. The LAPD has long been tarnished by accusations of racism, and there is enough footage in LA 92 to uphold those accusations. In their own words, LAPD officers admitted they performed actions that were “violent” and that “police work can be brutal.”  The smoking gun was the admission that, “In Los Angeles, the chokehold is associated with death for blacks.”

One officer’s testimony in the Rodney King Trial sounds like the blueprint for George Zimmerman’s testimony during his trial for the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Both Zimmerman and the officer defended themselves by saying they were so scared of being killed by their victims that they acted violently and brutally in self defense. This mindset that African-Americans are inherently violent is the dangerous societal side effect of the systematic criminalization of African-Americans that has led to the murders of Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, Philando Castile, Trayvon Martin, Alton Sterling, and countless other African-Americans.

At one point of LA 92, someone shouts out “Black lives matter!” long before the hashtag. That is the importance of LA 92. This documentary is a case study that examines a system and not just a city or a year. LA 92 could easily be BALTIMORE 2015 or FERGUSON 2014. The buildup, explosion, and aftermath were all the same, yet we still have the same problems. The hysteria we see in LA is the same hysteria I witnessed firsthand living in St. Louis during 2014. I remember the boarded up storefronts and closed off highways. I also remember the burning buildings in Ferguson and military tanks parked in random locations, ready to pushback against any resistance.

Did we learn anything from any of those events? The answer is yes, but there is still much more to learn and that is what makes LA 92 a must-see.  

 LA 92 premieres at Tribeca Film Festival on April 21, followed by a screening tour including St. Louis on April 29, before premiering on National Geographic on April 30.