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"Rodney" Glen King (born April 2, 1965 in Sacramento, California) was an
African-American motorist who, while videotaped by a by-stander, was beaten by
Los Angeles police officers (LAPD) during a police stop on March 3, 1991. King's beating ignited a scandal, as many people, both within
and outside the African-American community, believed that the beating was racially motivated, excessive, and an example of
police brutality. The acquittal of four officers charged with using
excessive force in subduing King led to riots in Los Angeles and around the country.
King had been pulled over for driving recklessly through a residential neighborhood. Later tests showed he was extremely drunk
and had marijuana in his system. When police ordered him out of the car, he
refused, and the police eventually pulled him out. Twice, the police attempted to subdue him with tasers, but these did not succeed in rendering King immobile. Next, the police kicked King and struck him 56 times
with night sticks, first to knock him on the ground, then to keep him
there as he attempted to lift his head while he lay on the ground.
In addition to the three officers personally involved in delivering blows, 24 other law enforcement officers watched the
beating, then assisted in holding King down by placing their feet on his back. Two other African-American passengers who were in
the car with King cooperated with police and were not harmed.
The three officers and the sergeant said to be in charge of them were indicted on March 15 for "assault by force likely to produce great bodily injury and a deadly weapon" and with assault "under
color of authority," and two were charged with filing false police reports, which had been filed before the officers were aware
the incident had been videotaped. Three of the officers were white, and one was Hispanic.
The defense successfully filed for a change of venue away from Los Angeles County where the incident occurred and where they argued the defendants would not receive a
fair trial, to suburban Ventura County (Simi
Valley), whose population is more affluent, contains a much smaller proportion of African-Americans, and contains a disproportionately large number of law enforcement officers. At trial,
the defense argued that the officers had legitimate reason to believe King was extremely dangerous and possibly on a
mind-affecting drug such as PCP, and that the force
used was justified by this threat. Although media coverage had repeatedly emphasized the
racial aspect of the case, King himself testified at trial that he did not believe the
police beat him because he was black.
On April 29, 1992, three of the officers
were acquitted by a jury of 10 whites, a Hispanic, and an Asian. The jury could not
agree on a verdict for one of the counts for one of the officers.
The verdict shocked much of the country, many of who had already decided the officers were guilty before the trial began. The
President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, made a rare
statement on a trial, saying that the verdict "has left us all with a deep sense of personal frustration and anguish." The
verdict triggered massive rioting
in Los Angeles which left hundreds of buildings severely damaged or destroyed and dozens dead. Smaller riots occurred in other
U.S. cities. During the riot King pleaded with the rioters, saying on national television, "Can't we all just get along?"
On May 1, as the riots continued, President Bush announced that he would most likely
charge the officers with violating King's civil rights. This was a common
practice in the 1960s when all-white juries routinely acquitted people charged with racially-motivated crimes. King testified in
this trial on March 9, 1993. Then on August 4, a federal judge sentenced LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell to 30 months in
prison on this charge. The other officers were not convicted and there was no rioting. Many critics have claimed that this second
trial violated the principle of double jeopardy.
King's actual first name is Glen, not Rodney. The media referred to him as "Rodney King" because in either initial police
reports or initial news reports, he was mistakenly called Rodney King, and as the news was rebroadcast, the error was rebroadcast
as well. The name "Rodney" was not associated with Glen King (Glen being King's birthname) until after his 1991 car stop by
police.
Since the 1991 incident, King has been arrested several times for drug infractions, violence, and motoring offenses.
The video of the incident is an example of inverse
surveillance (i.e. citizens watching police). To the extent that the bystander was initially capturing the incident
serendipitously, the recording was a form of sousveillance, in both the
sense of inverse surveillance as well as the sense of personal experience capture. The video was first broadcast on the local Los
Angeles television station KTLA Channel 5.
African American community and civil rights leaders have
repeatedly used the Rodney King incident as an analogy of other incidents of perceived police beating against black suspects.
Fiction
- The movie Dark Blue is set with the
events in the background, and contains the same themes.
External links
- Stan Chambers: Rodney King and the Los Angeles Riots
- Salon: Rethinking Rodney King
- Rodney King's Legacy
- [1]
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