Rodney King

Rodney King

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Rodney King

March 3, 1991: Rodney King beaten by LAPD officers

Rodney Glen King (born April 2, 1965 in Sacramento, California) is an African-American construction worker who, in 1991, was stopped and then beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Sergeant Stacey Koon) after being chased for speeding. A bystander, George Holliday, videotaped much of the event from a distance.^[1] Part of the video was broadcast around the world and shows four LA police officers restraining and repeatedly striking a black man, while four to six other officers stand by. King had also been tasered by the officers.^[2]

The resulting public outrage raised tensions between the black community and the LAPD, and increased anger over police brutality and issues such as unemployment, racial tension, and poverty in the black community. The four officers were tried in a state court for using excessive force, but were acquitted. The announcement of the acquittals sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Arrest and trial
LA riots and the aftermath
Federal trial of officers
Analysis and cultural impact of the event
After the riots
References
See also
External links

Arrest and trial

Home movie showing Rodney King being beaten by police.

On the night of March 3, 1991, Rodney King was driving with two passengers, Byrant Allen and Freddie Helms, when California Highway Patrol detected his car speeding. Fearful of violating his parole for a previous robbery conviction, King refused to pull over. After exiting a freeway, King led officers on a chase that reached a top speed of 80 mph. At the time, King's blood alcohol content was at twice the legal limit, which would have violated his parole. ^[3]

When police finally cornered King's car, they ordered both he and his two passengers out of the vehicle. The two passengers complied with officers' orders and were taken into custody without being physically harmed. ^[4] According to author Lou Cannon, the intoxicated King initially stayed in the car but when he finally did emerge, he acted bizarrely: giggling; grabbing his buttocks; waving to the police helicopter overhead; and patting the ground. ^[5]

According to Cannon, after the officers' orders were ignored, they unsuccessfully attempted to wrestle King to the ground. King tossed two of the officers off his back. ^[6] The officers fell back to regroup. They then shot King with a Taser. ^[7] King groaned; momentarily fell to the ground; then stood back up. They fired the Taser again, knocking King to the ground. ^[8] King then stood up and charged in the direction of one of the police officers, Laurence Powell. Officer Powell then struck King with his baton. ^[9]

Powell, with three other officers, then repeatedly struck King with their batons. This beating was caught on video by a private citizen, George Holliday, from his apartment near the intersection of Foothill Blvd and Osborne St. in Lake View Terrace. The officers testified that they believed King was under the influence of the dissociative drug phencyclidine (PCP),^[10] but King's toxicology results were negative for PCP.^[11]

The Los Angeles district attorney charged the four officers with use of excessive force. The initial judge was replaced, however, and the new judge changed the venue, as well as the jury pool, citing contamination of the jury pool by the media coverage. The new venue was a new courthouse in Simi Valley in neighboring Ventura County. The jury consisted of Ventura County residents ? ten whites, one Latino and one Asian. The prosecutor, Terry White, was African-American. The jury acquitted three of the officers, but could not agree about one of the charges for Powell. On April 29, 1992, only Powell was convicted.^[12]

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said, "the jury's verdict will not blind us to what we saw on that videotape. The men who beat Rodney King do not deserve to wear the uniform of the L.A.P.D."^[13]

LA riots and the aftermath

The news of acquittal triggered the Los Angeles riots of 1992. By the time the police, the US Army, the Marines and the National Guard restored order, the casualties included 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damages to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses. Smaller riots occurred in other cities such as Las Vegas and Atlanta. On May 1, 1992, the third day of the L.A riots, King appeared in public before television news cameras to appeal for calm, asking:

Federal trial of officers

After the riots, the Department of Justice reinstated investigation and obtained an indictment of violations of federal civil rights against the four officers. The federal trial focused more on the evidence as to the training of officers instead of just relying on the videotape of the incident. The jury found Officer Laurence Powell and Sergeant Stacey Koon guilty, who were subsequently sentenced to 30 months of prison, while Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno were acquitted of all charges.

Analysis and cultural impact of the event

The video of the beating is an example of inverse surveillance of citizens watching police. Several copwatch organizations were subsequently organized nationally to safeguard against police abuse, including an umbrella group, October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality.^[14]

References to the incident in popular culture began to appear almost immediately, notably with the 1992 film Malcolm X. The video of the beating was prominently used in the opening credit sequence of Spike Lee's film.^[15]

The 1994 films Airheads and Natural Born Killers both contain scenes inspired by the King videotape and subsequent events. In Airheads, a crowd begins chanting his name, and the principal characters' failure to recognize it is played for comedic effect.^[16] Natural Born Killers features policemen beating Woody Harrelson's (white) character in a manner very similar to the actual incident, and also uses clips of the original video.

The riot was the backdrop for the 1997 film Riot, which focuses on stories from the perspective of four people of different races - Chinese, Hispanic, White and Black. The videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas modeled the 1992 Los Angeles Riots in the game after a corrupt police officer was found not guilty. Mention of Rodney King or the riots that transpired has become a meme for police brutality in music too as exemplified by artists such as Tupac, Lil' Wayne, and Sublime among others.

After the riots

King was awarded $3.8 million in a civil case and used some of the proceeds to start a hip hop music label, Straight Alta-Pazz Recording Company.^[17]

In May 1991, he was arrested on suspicion of trying to run over a vice officer who allegedly found him with a transvestite prostitute in Hollywood. In 1993, King entered an alcohol rehabilitation program and was placed on probation after crashing his vehicle into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles. In July 1995, he was arrested by Alhambra police, who alleged that he hit his wife with his car, knocking her to the ground. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run.^[18]

On August 27, 2003, King was arrested again for speeding and running a red light while under the influence of alcohol. He failed to yield to police officers and slammed his SUV into a house, breaking his pelvis.^[19]

While going home on November 29 2007, King was shot in the face, arms, back and torso with birdshot by two thieves attempting to steal his bicycle,^[20] but his injuries were characterized as not life threatening. King currently appears on the second season of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which premiered in October 2008.^[21]