cal data" (Gurr, 1970, p. 322).
Survey research and statistical inference would have been ineffective in predicting the propensity of African-Americans, in Los Angeles and other areas throughout the country, to riot as a result of the Rodney King verdict. In this case, the relative deprivation was based on a strong sense of injustice. In fact, the rallying cry for the rioting was "No justice, no peace." Although material deprivation may have been a factor in the Los Angeles riots, the chief cause was perceived inequities in the criminal justice system.
Gurr (1970) makes no mention of the role of the media in inciting discontent among certain groups. In the case of the Rodney King riots, the videotape of the brutal beating of King by a group of police officers was aired relentlessly before, during, and after the Simi Valley verdict. The expectation of African-Americans was that the evidence was so indisputable that justice would prevail and the police officers would be convicted. When an all-white jury returned a verdict of not guilty, the discrepancy between expectation and reality was so intense that rioting resulted. The King verdict was perceived as the "last straw" of a series of similar instances that had occurred in the black commu
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