Attack on Reginald Denny

The attack on Reginald Denny was an incident in the 1992 Los Angeles riots in which Denny, a white construction truck driver, was beaten nearly to death by a group of black assailants who came to be known as the "L.A. Four". The attack was captured on video by a news helicopter, and broadcast live on US national television.

Background

On March 3, 1991, video tape captured Rodney King, a black man, being repeatedly beaten by a group of LAPD officers. At their criminal trial more than a year later, on April 29, 1992, all four police officers were acquitted when the jury could not reach a verdict. The result sparked outrage about racism across the country, especially in South Central Los Angeles and South East Los Angeles where large groups of black people took to the streets, many shouting "Black justice!" and "No justice, no peace!" Some of these protests and other large gatherings transformed into what became known as the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Reginald Denny

Reginald Oliver Denny (born January 22, 1956), 36 years old at the time, was a construction dump truck driver. On the first day of the rioting, Denny was attacked by four men, pulled from his International Road Tractor and brutally beaten, sustaining serious head trauma and other injuries. There was no apparent motive outside of racial hatred. As a result of the injuries he suffered during the attacks, Denny had to undergo years of rehabilitative therapy, and his speech and ability to walk were permanently damaged.

Reginald Denny

Reginald Denny may refer to:

Reginald Denny (actor)

Reginald Leigh Denny (20 November 1891 – 16 June 1967) was an English stage, film and television actor as well as an aviator and UAV pioneer. He was once an amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.

Acting career

Born in Richmond, Surrey, England, Denny (sources differ on his birth name giving variously Reginald Daymore,Reginald Leigh Daymore and Reginald Leigh Dugmore Denny) began his stage career at age seven in The Royal Family and in The Merry Widow at age 16, the year he left St. Francis Xavier College, Mayfield, Sussex. Years later he joined an opera company as a baritone, and toured India. After continuing his stage career in America, his film career started in 1915 with the old World Film Company and he made films both in the United States and Britain until the 1960s. He came from a theatrical family which went to the United States in 1912 to appear in the stage production Quaker Girl. His father was the actor and singer W.H. Denny. Reginald appeared in John Barrymore's 1920 Broadway production of Richard III; the two actors became friends.