Rodney Glen King (born April 2, 1965) is a
Black American who, on 3 March 1991,
was the victim of
police brutality,
committed by
Los Angeles
police officers. A bystander, George Holliday, videotaped much
of the incident from a distance.
The footage showed
LAPD officers repeatedly
striking King with their batons. A portion of this footage was
aired by news agencies around the world, causing public outrage
that raised tensions between the black community and the LAPD and
increased anger over
police
brutality and
social
inequalities in the black community and the worldwide community
as a whole.
Four LAPD officers were later tried in a state court for the
beating but were acquitted. The announcement of the acquittals
sparked the
1992 Los Angeles
Riots. A later federal trial for civil rights violations ended
with two of the officers found guilty and sent to prison and the
other two officers acquitted.
Incident
On the night of 2 March 1991, Rodney King and two passengers,
Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were driving west on
Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) in the
San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. The three men had spent
the night watching a basketball game and drinking at a friend’s
house in Los Angeles.
The presumptive evidence, from a
blood-alcohol level test taken 5 hours after the incident, when
King registered just under the legal limit, is that as King drove
his blood alcohol level was
approximately 0.19—nearly two and a half times the legal limit in
California
. At 12:30 AM, Officers Tim and Melanie
Singer, a husband-and-wife team of the
California Highway Patrol, spotted
King’s car speeding. The Singers pursued King, and they claimed the
subsequent freeway chase reached speeds in excess of 100 mph.
According to King’s own statements, he refused to pull the car over
because a
DUI would violate his parole for a
previous robbery conviction.
King exited the freeway, and the chase continued through
residential streets at speeds allegedly ranging from 55 to
80 mph. By this point, several police cars and a helicopter
had joined in the pursuit. After approximately eight miles,
officers cornered King’s car. The first five LAPD officers to
arrive at the scene were:
Stacey Koon,
Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind,
Theodore Briseno, and Rolando Solano.
Highway Patrolman Tim Singer ordered King and his two passengers to
exit the vehicle and lie face down on the ground. The two
passengers complied and were taken into custody without incident.
King initially remained in the car. When he finally did emerge, he
acted bizarrely: giggling; patting the ground; and waving to the
police helicopter overhead. King then grabbed his buttocks. Highway
Patrol Officer Melanie Singer momentarily thought he was reaching
for a gun. She drew her gun and pointed it at King, ordering him to
lie on the ground. King complied. Singer approached King with her
gun drawn, preparing to make the arrest.
At this point, Sergeant Stacey Koon intervened and ordered Singer
to holster her weapon. LAPD officers are taught not to approach a
suspect with a drawn gun, as there is a risk of the suspect gaining
control of it if they get too close. Koon then ordered the four
other LAPD officers at the scene—Briseno, Powell, Solano, and
Wind—to subdue and handcuff King. As the officers attempted to do
so, King physically resisted. King rose up, tossing Officers Powell
and Briseno off his back. King then allegedly struck Officer
Briseno in the chest. Seeing this, Koon ordered all of the officers
to fall back. The officers later testified that they believed King
was under the influence of the dissociative drug
phencyclidine (PCP), although King's
toxicology results tested negative for PCP.
The use of the taser
Sergeant Koon then ordered the officers to "stand clear". While
King was still on the ground, he shot King with a
Taser. King groaned; momentarily fell to the ground;
then stood back up. Koon fired the Taser again, knocking King to
the ground. Powell's arrest report states that the Taser
"temporarily halt[ed] deft's [King's] attack", and Solano stated
that the Taser appeared to affect King at first because "the
suspect shook and yelled for almost five seconds".
Beating with Batons: Events on the Holliday Video
As George Holliday's videotape begins, King is on the ground. He
rose and moved toward Powell. Solano termed it a "lunge", and said
it was in the direction of Koon. From the videotape it is
impossible to tell whether the movement is intended as an attack or
simply an effort to get away. At this time taser wires can be seen
coming from King's body. As King moved forward Officer Powell then
struck King with his
baton,
the blow hit King's head knocking him to the ground immediately.
Powell hit King several additional times with his baton. The
videotape shows Briseno moving in to try and stop Powell from
swinging, and Powell then backing up. Koon reportedly yelled
"that's enough". King then rose to his knees: Powell and Wind
continued to hit King with their batons while he was on the
ground.
Koon acknowledged that he ordered the baton blows, directing Powell
and Wind to hit King with "power strokes". According to Koon,
Powell and Wind used "bursts of power strokes, then backed off".
Notwithstanding the repeated "power strokes", the videotape shows
King apparently continued to try and get up. Koon ordered the
officers to "hit his joints, hit the wrists, hit his elbows, hit
his knees, hit his ankles".
Finally, after 56 baton blows and six kicks, five or six officers
swarmed in and placed King in both handcuffs and cordcuffs
restraining his arms and legs. King was dragged on his stomach to
the side of the road to await arrival of a rescue
ambulance.
Unseen by those involved, the lengthy 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
. Holliday did not know what he was recording
at the time, and only realized later when he played the tape back.
He contacted the police about a videotape of the incident but was
dismissed. He then went to the news with his videotape.
Post-arrest events
King was taken to Pacifica Hospital immediately after his arrest.
He suffered a fractured
facial bone,
and a broken right ankle, and numerous bruises and lacerations. In
this negligence claim filed with the City, King alleged he had
suffered "11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones
and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical
trauma."Blood and urine samples taken from King five hours after
his arrest showed that his blood-alcohol level was 0.075%,
indicating that at the time of his arrest, he was over the level at
which one can be presumed intoxicated under California law. The
tests also show "traces" of marijuana (26 ng/ml), but no indication
of PCP or any other illegal drug.At Pacifica Hospital, where King
was taken for initial treatment, nurses reported that the officers
who accompanied King (including Wind) openly joked and bragged
about the number of times King had been hit.
Trial of the officers
The Los Angeles district attorney charged officers Koon, Powell,
Briseno, and Wind with use of excessive force. While Sergeant Koon
did not strike King and had only used the Taser, he was the
supervisory officer at the scene and was charged for "willfully
permitting and failing to take action to stop the unlawful
assault." The initial judge was replaced, 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. On April 29, 1992,
the jury acquitted three of the officers, but
could not agree about one of the charges for
Powell.
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."
Los Angeles 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 United States 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. On March 9 of the 1993 trial,
King took the witness stand and described to the jury the events as
he remembered them. The jury found Officer
Laurence Powell and Sergeant
Stacey Koon guilty, who were subsequently
sentenced to 30 months in prison, while Timothy Wind and Theodore
Briseno were acquitted of all charges.
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 22
Coalition to Stop Police Brutality.
The clip to Ministry's song "N.W.O." features a re-enactment of the assault video,
substituting a woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty
for King.
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.
On 29 November 2007, while going home King was shot in the face,
arms, back and torso with
birdshot by two
thieves attempting to steal his bicycle, but his injuries were
described as not life-threatening.
Like his father, King is an
alcoholic. In
1993, he 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. 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.
In May
2008 King checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena,
California
, which was filmed as part of the second season of
Celebrity Rehab with
Dr. Drew, which premiered in October 2008. Dr.
Drew Pinsky, who runs the facility,
showed concern for King's lifestyle and said that he (King) will
die unless his "fatal disease" is treated. He also appeared on
Sober House, a
Celebrity
Rehab spin-off focusing on a
sober living environment, which
aired in early 2009. Both shows filmed King's quest to not only
achieve sobriety, but to reestablish a relationship with his
family, which had been severely damaged due to his drinking.
King won a
celebrity boxing match against ex Chester City
(Delaware County, PA) police officer Simon Aouad on
Friday, September 11, 2009 at the Ramada Philadelphia Airport in
Essington, Pennsylvania.
References
- Cannon. Official Negligence: p. 39.
- Koon v. United States 518 U.S. 81 (1996)
- Cannon. Official Negligence: p. 43.
- Cannon. Official Negligence: p. 27.
- Cannon. Official Negligence: p. 28.
- Cannon. Official Negligence: p. 31.
- Cannon. Official Negligence:
- Cannon, Lou (March 16, 1993). " Prosecution Rests Case in Rodney King Beating Trial".
The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- " Chapter 1: The Rodney King Beating". Report
of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police
Department: p. 6. 1991.
- " Chapter 1: The Rodney King Beating". Report
of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police
Department: p. 7. 1991. "The blow hit King's head, and he went
down immediately."
- " Chapter 1: The Rodney King Beating". Report
of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police
Department: p. 7. 1991.
- Cannon. Official Negligence: p. 205.
- " Chapter 1: The Rodney King Beating". Report
of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police
Department: p. 8. 1991.
- " Chapter 1: The Rodney King Beating". Report
of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police
Department: p. 15. 1991.
- Mydans, Seth (April 30, 1992). " The Police Verdict; Los Angeles Policemen Acquitted
in Taped Beating". The New York Times. Retrieved
2009-12-01.
- PBS[1] and the ACLU[2] draw connections between the event and the
subsequent activities of many organizations.
- " Flashback: Rodney King and the L.A riots". BBC News.
July 10, 2002.
- Reston, Maeve (November 30, 2007). " Rodney King shot while riding bike". Los Angeles
Times. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- TV Guide:
page 8. June 23, 2008.
- " Sober House Will Follow Celebrity Rehab Cast, Andy
Dick in Sober Living". RealityBlurred.com. December 19,
2008.
- " Rodney King Fight Results". BittenAndBound.com.
September 12, 2009.
- Stamm, Dan (August 19, 2009). " No Plan to “Get Along” When Rodney King Takes on
Former Cop". NBC Philadelphia. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
Sources
See also
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