To the Point

Tenth Anniversary of the LA Riots

Ten years ago today, an all-white jury acquitted 4 Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of an African-American motorist. Three days of looting and burning spread from a disadvantaged South-Central LA to the West Side, Hollywood, San Fernando Valley and even Beverly Hills. Fifty-four people were killed and property damage hit a billion dollars before National Guard and active duty soldiers could extinguish the violence. What's happened since and what does it means for inner cities around the country? We speak with civil rights attorney Connie Rice, economist-political analyst Joel Kotkin, community organizer Bong Hwan Kim, and Anna Deavere Smith whose one-woman show captured the voices of America's worst civil disturbance of the 20th Century. Newsmaker: Arafat's Release from Ramallah Compound President Bush has brokered a deal designed to result in Yasser Arafat's release from the Ramallah compound where he's been a virtual prisoner for the past month. Alan Philps, Jerusalem correspondent for London's Daily Telegraph, reports on the pact's establishment of international wardens to monitor Palestinian prisoners, and the reaction of Palestinians and Israelis to the US-brokered deal. Reporter's Notebook: Bush to Visit Los Angeles When the violence of the riots subsided ten years ago, Presidential candidate Bill Clinton and then President Bush both made appearances in South-Central LA. Today, President George W. Bush will visit the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, a place of symbolic importance since 1992. Ron Brownstein, political writer for the Los Angeles Times, contrasts the distinctly different urban agendas of the three presidents.