Another interpretation is that we remember Rodney King not because of the revelation that police were violent, but because of the massive riots which were initiated in response.
After all, black people in LA had been brutalized by the police continually for a Very Long Time before 1992. That wasn’t new, what was new was the possibility of a mass coordinated response, facilitated by the media.
Today we forget each of the people abused and murdered by the police not because we’re desensitized, but because we’re unable to mount a meaningful response. After all, everyone does remember Mike Brown, because his murder set off days of rioting. The random black person who is killed by the authorities every 36 hours? We don’t remember them because people didn’t have the power to make us remember.
Outrage cannot sustain itself in a vacuum. Without the power to act on it, the feelings evaporate without a trace. We don’t lack things to be upset about, we lack the strength, conviction, and coordination to act powerfully and disruptively when we are all upset about the same thing.
