lized and made politically independent since the 1940s. Numerous incidents had occurred between the police and minority group members, with numerous shootings and killings that had been seen as suspicious by the minority community (Domanick 22-23).
Prior to the recent scandal, the public was made most aware of the civil rights violations of the LAPD by the Rodney King case in 1992. From the first, there was a degree of division along racial lines, with blacks seeing the beating as an example of "business as usual," while whites, appalled at the videotape, expressed surprise that such things could occur. Los Angeles had experienced considerable racial tension in the 1960s leading to the Watts Riot. Studies show that many of the same tensions continued to be potent in the 1990s in spite of supposed changes and advances in the intervening years. Racial isolation was still a major factor, and police behavior remains a major factor. One difference is that the Watts Riots were seen as a black-white conf
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