And they were diverging in how they saw the law. The Rodney King riots were the first act of domestic unrest that influential observers described not as a riot but as a rebellion. One man’s hoodlum was another man’s freedom fighter. For most whites, until black crime fell, blacks would not have the standing to complain about equal justice. For most blacks, until there was equality in all walks of American life, whites would not have the standing to call all black misbehavior “crime.”
