I lived in L.A. when the riots started. I had to drive into Hollywood for an interview when it was first breaking out. I saw multiple smoke columns around the city from fires that were supposedly set by random people--except they were all the same smoke column height, odds are they were set at exactly the same time--coinkydink?
I lived just a mile from where Reginald Denny was pulled from his Semi Truck and beaten. The word on the street was most of the rioters didn't know the results of the Rodney King trial and the acquitted police officers, they saw others looting, so they joined in.
William Cooper was right about both the Cops and Rodney King being in the wrong. King provoked the incident by punching and fighting the police at the beginning--this is the part of the video they never showed on TV. They only broadcast the latter part when the cops had a free for all baton attack on King as he lay on the ground. A friend I worked with saw the entire video on public access TV in L.A., so did William Cooper. The other passengers in the car put their hands up with no resistance. King was high on something and lashed out. If it was a white man doing the same thing, he would have been treated in the same manner by the cops. When King went down the first time, the cops should have cuffed him then and there, but they didn't and that is when they crossed the line between law and order and criminal behavior.
Thanks for the additional insight! Yup, I think these police incidents are selected and amplified for maximum division, with professional riot starters and pre-written laws needing the right opportunity to get passed through.