Not unlike the 1965 Watts riots, the 1967 riots in Detroit and Newark and other urban rebellions that broke out in U.S. cities, the 1992 riots in South Central Los Angeles were precipitated by acts of police brutality against citizens of color. In both decades, the civil disturbances placed the spotlight on police abuse in the black community, poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and a sense of disenfranchisement among African-Americans