The forgotten victims of the riots



The riot anniversary coverage on most media outlets revisited images of the Rodney King beaten by police, of trucker Reginald Denny being pulled and brutally attacked by a mob on Florence and Normandie, fires consuming the city, looters brazenly entering stores and stealing as much as they could and Korean storeowners armed with guns shooting at crowds.

imageBut there was a blaring omission in the coverage: the savage attack of Guatemalan immigrant Fidel López, who suffered a similar fate to that of Denny. On April 29, 1992, minutes after Denny was brutalized and rescued by four good Samaritans, the 48 year-old López was pulled from his truck, robbed and viciously assaulted in the very same intersection.

López’s assailants split his forehead open, almost severed his ear, stripped him naked, spray painted his body black and doused him with gasoline with the intent to set him on fire. He was saved by the Rev. Bennie Newton, an African-American minister who shielded López from the attackers with his own body and took him to the hospital.

Why is Denny remembered and López forgotten, if they both suffered the same fate, on the same day, in the same intersection and both beatings were captured on video?

Read the rest of the story here.

Photo of Fidel López courtesy of La Opinión newspaper.

Photos of the aftermath



On the morning of May 1st, 1992, award-winning documentary filmmaker and photographer Christine Burrill ventured out to different parts of Los Angeles to record the aftermath of the riots. During the following week, she captured hundreds of images showing devastation and despair. When she finished, she stored the pictures, never showing them to anyone or looking at them again… until now.

Check out the story here.