Mark Craig, one of the faces of the riots following officers’ acquittals in the Rodney King beating, understands the anger he is seeing after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police c…
He watched the car fires, the store-front windows being smashed and the looting on television with his granddaughter in his arms. He saw the peaceful protesters trying to make a point about police violence and the angry mobs bent on destruction.
“People are willing to fight,” he said. “It’s part of the struggle. Positive things come from rioting. These people would rather die than be oppressed. That’s how I felt.”
Mark Craig, now 51, was one of the iconic participants in the 1992 uprising after the acquittal of the police officers who were charged in the beating of Rodney King. Craig, wearing a T-shirt with a large peace symbol, was photographed in front of angry flames when he was 23 years old. That picture appeared on the cover of Newsweek magazine and in countless publications around the world.
Craig, who works as a tour guide in Los Angeles and often takes people past murals where his own image is depicted, did not go out to protest this weekend. Protesting, rioting and looting, he said, are young people’s tactics.
And they work, he said.
“It’s all about symbolism,” Craig said. “Kap (former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick) took a knee. I saw the police headquarters in Minnesota burning. I saw people surrounding the White House. That symbolism could change this country’s hand again.”
As new unrest sparked, first in Minnesota and eventually Southern California, Craig said he spent the weekend “glued to his television set.
