Bush to mark 10th anniversary of L.A. riots

Amateur videotape showed police beating King after a 1991 car chase.

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Bush on Monday will mark the 10th anniversary of the deadly riots in Los Angeles sparked by the acquittal of four police officers accused of brutalizing black motorist Rodney King, the White House said Friday.

The president will discuss the riots during a White House-sponsored event in California to promote the president's faith-based initiative and his ideas to boost economic growth in poor American cities, said deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan.

"It's the 10th anniversary and he will note that," McClellan said. "He will touch upon the Rodney King verdict and the riots in general."

Officers stopped King for speeding on March 3, 1991, and police beat him repeatedly, delivering 56 baton blows and six kicks, inflicting skull fractures, and brain and kidney damage. The entire beating was captured on amateur videotape and broadcast numerous times on national and worldwide news broadcasts.

Four Los Angeles Police officers were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force. They were acquitted of state charges on April 29, 1992.

The verdicts spawned rage in black neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

The ensuing riots lasted three days, with much of the violence, vandalism and looting broadcast live on national television. The riots took a heavy human and physical toll: 55 dead, 2,000 injured, 12,000 arrests and more than $1 billion in property damage.

Two of the officers, Sgt. Stacey Koon and Officer Laurence Powell, were later convicted of federal civil rights violations.

The riots occurred in the final year of the first Bush presidency and divided top White House advisers, some of whom pressed the president to use the riots to launch a new push for urban revitalization. Others said the president had to strike a tough, anti-crime tone -- the approach followed by Bush, the father of the current president.

While in California, the younger Bush also will headline two fund-raisers for GOP gubernatorial nominee Bill Simon, who defeated the favored White House candidate, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. In addition to headlining fund-raisers, the president has offered to dispatch cabinet secretaries to campaign for Simon.