Rodney King is beaten by policemen
Video technology began to reveal the long and dirty history of police brutality in the United States 31 years ago today.
At 12:45 a.m. on March 3, 1991, robbery parolee Rodney G. King stopped his car after leading police on a nearly eight-mile pursuit through the streets of Los Angeles.
The chase began after King, who was intoxicated, was caught speeding on a freeway by a California Highway Patrol cruiser but refused to pull over.
Los Angeles Police Department cruisers and a police helicopter joined the pursuit, and when King was finally stopped by Hansen Dam Park, several police cars descended on his white Hyundai.
A group of LAPD officers led by Sergeant Stacey Koon ordered King and the other two occupants of the car to exit the vehicle and lie flat on the ground. King’s two friends complied, but King himself was slower to respond, getting on his hands and knees rather than lying flat.
Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Ted Briseno and Roland Solano tried to force King down, but he resisted, and the officers stepped back and shot King twice with an electric stun gun known as a Taser, which fires darts carrying a charge of 50,000 volts.
At this moment, civilian George Holliday, standing on a balcony in an apartment complex across the street, focused the lens of his new video camera on the commotion unfolding by Hansen Dam Park.
In the first few seconds of what would become a very famous 89-second video, King is seen rising after the Taser shots and running in the direction of Officer Powell.
The officers alleged that King was charging Powell, while King himself later claimed that an officer told him, “We’re going to kill you, nigger. Run!” and he tried to flee. All the arresting officers were white, along with all but one of the other two dozen or so law enforcement officers present at the scene.
Unaware that the arrest was videotaped, the officers downplayed the level of violence used to arrest King and filed official reports in which they claimed he suffered only cuts and bruises “of a minor nature.”
George Holliday sold his video of the beating to the local television station, KTLA, which broadcast the footage and sold it to CNN. The widely broadcast video caused outrage around the country and triggered a national debate on police brutality.
Rodney King was released without charges, and on March 15 Sergeant Koon and officers Powell, Wind, and Briseno were indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in connection with the beating. All four were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer. An all white jury found the officers not guilty.
The acquittals touched off rioting and looting in Los Angeles that grew into the most destructive U.S. civil disturbance of the 20th century. In three days of violence, more than 50 people were killed, more than 2,000 were injured and nearly $1 billion in property was destroyed.
Under federal law, the officers could also be prosecuted for violating Rodney King’s constitutional rights, and on April 17, 1993, a federal jury convicted two of the officers for violating King’s rights by their unreasonable use of force under color of law.
They were sentenced to two and half years in prison and King received $3.8 million in a civil suit against the Los Angeles police department.
Since the King attack, video has been used to reveal dozens of unwarranted police attacks. With the advent of the iPhone, now it is hard not have some video of police beatings.
The Orangeburg Massacre in Orangeburg, South Carolina resulted in three black college students and 27 being wounded by white highway patrolmen in South Carolina. The state covered up the crime and to this day it has not been investigated. No doubt, had there been video, the white highway patrolmen would not have gotten away with murder.
Thanks History.com