Editing Rodney King (section)

==Los Angeles riots and aftermath==
{{Main|1992 Los Angeles riots}}
Though few people at first considered race an essential factor in the case, including Rodney King's attorney, Steven Lerman,<ref>{{Cite news|last=Margolick|first=David|date=March 17, 1991|title=Beating Case Unfolds, as Does Debate on Lawyer|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/17/us/beating-case-unfolds-as-does-debate-on-lawyer.html|access-date=October 21, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> the Holliday videotape was at the time stirring deep resentment among black people in Los Angeles and other major cities in the United States, where they had often complained of police abuse against their communities. The officers' jury consisted of Ventura County residents: ten white, one mestizo or indigenous, one Asian. Lead prosecutor Terry White was black. On April 29, 1992, the jury acquitted three of the officers but could not agree on one of the charges against Powell.<ref name="jurist.law.pitt.edu" />

[[Mayor of Los Angeles|Los Angeles Mayor]] [[Tom Bradley (mayor)|Tom Bradley]] said, "The jury's verdict will not blind us to what we saw on that videotape. The men who beat Rodney King do not deserve to wear the uniform of the LAPD."<ref>Mydans, Seth (April 30, 1992). The videotape was largely thought to have helped inflame the riot. "[https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/home/rodney-verdict.html The Police Verdict; Los Angeles Policemen Acquitted in Taped Beating] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422065501/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/02/08/home/rodney-verdict.html |date=April 22, 2016 }}". ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved December 1, 2009.</ref> President [[George H. W. Bush]] said, "Viewed from outside the trial, it was hard to understand how the verdict could possibly square with the video. Those civil rights leaders with whom I met were stunned. And so was I, and so was [[Barbara Bush|Barbara]], and so were my kids."<ref>{{cite book|last=Fiske|first=J.|author-link=John Fiske (media scholar)|title=Media Matters: Race and Gender in U.S. Politics|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5mmFCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT188 188]|publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]]}}</ref>

Within hours of the acquittals, the [[1992 Los Angeles riots]] began, lasting six days. African-Americans were outraged by the verdicts and began rioting in the streets, by the time law enforcement, the [[California Army National Guard]], the [[United States Army]], and the [[United States Marine Corps]] restored order, the riots had resulted in 63 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damage to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses. Smaller riots occurred in other U.S. cities such as San Francisco, [[West Las Vegas riots|Las Vegas]], Seattle, and as far east as Atlanta and New York City. A [[Yonge Street riot|civil disturbance occurred on Yonge Street]] in Toronto, Canada when Canadians gathered to protest the acquittal in Los Angeles as well as a local police killing of a Black man in Toronto two days prior.<ref>{{Cite news|title=History called it a riot, but this doc argues it was actually an uprising – one that continues today|language=en-US|work=CBC|url=https://www.cbc.ca/arts/history-called-it-a-riot-but-this-doc-argues-it-was-actually-an-uprising-one-that-continues-today-1.4112456|access-date=November 14, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last1=Vyhnak|first1=Carola|date=May 4, 2017|title=Once Upon A City: The 1992 riot that served as a wake-up call for police|language=en|work=[[Toronto Star]]|url=https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/once-upon-a-city-archives/2017/05/04/once-upon-a-city-the-1992-riot-that-served-as-a-wake-up-call-for-police.html|access-date=December 26, 2020}}</ref>

During the riots, on May 1, 1992,<ref name=":1" /> King made a television appearance pleading for an end to the riots:

<blockquote>I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? And ... I mean we've got enough smog in Los Angeles let alone to deal with setting these fires and things&nbsp;... It's just not right. It's not right, and it's not going to change anything. We'll get our justice. They've won the battle, but they haven't won the war. We'll get our day in court, and that's all we want. And, just, uh, I love – I'm neutral. I love every – I love people of color. I'm not like they're making me out to be. We've got to quit. We've got to quit; I mean, after all, I could understand the first – upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shot on the ground – it's just not right. It's just not right, because those people will never go home to their families again. And uh, I mean, please, we can, we can get along here. We all can get along. We just gotta. We gotta. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's, you know, let's try to work it out. Let's try to beat it, you know. Let's try to work it out.<ref name=":1">{{YouTube|1sONfxPCTU0|Video of Rodney King's Plea during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots}}. Retrieved June 18, 2012.</ref></blockquote>

The widely quoted line has been often paraphrased as, "Can we all ''just'' get along?" or "''Can't'' we all just get along?"