National Geographic makes its entry into feature documentaries with the bold, eerie and emotionally stirring LA ‘92. The film is being released on the 25th anniversary of the Rodney King verdict. A verdict which allowed police officers who were videotaped brutally beating Rodney King to go free, culminating in the days long L.A. riots of 1992. On the surface one would think that the riots, trial and eventual verdict were isolated incidents; however, careful examination will reveal that what caused the violent eruption onto the streets of Los Angeles were years and years of police brutality, racism, economic depression and neglect of America’s very own citizens.
The documentary doesn’t just start in the year of 1992, but goes back even further to the Watts Riots of ‘62 tracing society ills all the way until the present day protests of Ferguson, showing that the more things change, the more things stay the same.