The Rodney King verdict and urban riots: A value-added theory perspective

The urban riots in several cities following the acquittal of the l,os Angcles police officers accused of brutally beating an African-Americanl nloR)rist, Rodney King, reminded many observers of the wave of race riots that r(xkcd the country in the 196()s. The disturbances after the Rodney King verdict are not tile first riots to occur since the sixties. Mi,tmi has exploded at least twice lollowing retx~rts of police misconducl, and several other cities have experienced prol)lems of vi~qcnce on a collective behavior scalc. Ho,,vcver, the King verdict disturbances arc significant for several reas~ms. Most iml• the King riots were not confined to one city (Mercer I992; Kaihla & Lavcr 1992). Most disturbances since the sixties have bccn limited to the city in which Lhc grievance began. 1,1 the King disturbances, the problems spread quickly and wi(lely, catching police forces m several cities unprepared. Anolher anomaly of the King riots is the impact of the video tape which documents the evidence against the police officers. The g l second tape, taken by an amateur c;.llller~An/an, W.~tS played repeatedly on national television countless times until this event became burned into the national consciousness (O'St,llivan 1992). The events on the evening in Los Angeles became a national problem, not just one of the Los Angeles P~dicc Department. Additionally, the King riots arc signilicam bccause they were nol a response to the brutality of the police officers as much us a response to the perceived failure of the criminal justice system when an all white .jut 3, failed to convict the police officers (Scheck 1992). Many felt the tape provided c~mclusive l)l't}~,)l] of guilt and took the. acquittal as an indication that the criminal jtlSlice systenl treats people differeatially, according to race rathcr than lhtmg our color blind ideal. "lhe purpose of ttlis paper is to exa~niilc the urban riot:,~ following the verdict by utilizing a distinct theoretical l)erspcctivc that wa_s often used to accoullt for race riots in tile sixties. Nell Smelser's (1962), Vahie Added Theory of Collective Bcllavior is lhe model elnph)yed here It) explain the distinct [c:.ltures of the recent riots. This theory is useful not only becatsse it has been apl~licd to urban riots in the past, but because it l(x~ks at collective behavior :Is a process r;.tther thal-i as just gin event. By specifying how the events of 1992 compare and t:onlras! to the events of the sixties' riots, we can better understand the unique features operating in tile contemporary city. Value-added Theory Of Collective Behavior fIow does one account for the sponumo:ms violence of a crowd of people? Clearly, theories of individual psychology ~ue limited in their ability to explain how pe,-~plc act difli:rently when Ihey are part of a group. People do things as part of a crowd that they would not do in thc company of f.'mfily membcrs. Some attribute a "mind of the mob" or a "mob psychology" fe, alure to violent collective behavior. "l'hese theories talk in terms of "social contagion," "emergent nornIs," and "social behavioral mtcracthm," (Miller 1985). One of tl~e most ambitkms of these theories is Smelser's vah,e-addcd theory. Valuc-addcd theory is borrowed from the field of economics. It envisions a process where transfommtions on a product take phlce as it finds its way from raw material through mantffacturing and finally to the market place. At each step al<mg the process the prcxtuct underg(• changes which add to its value but also limit the potemial for other uses. By way of example, consider the left tailfm of a '57 Chevy. The iron ore which coralS}Set this uiilfin has undergone several tmnslormations which render it usc[ul for only its present purpose. When the iron ore came out of the ground, it had