Circumstances Leading to Rodney King's Beating

My first scholarly article that I read was Racism and Police Brutality in America by Cassandra Chaney and Ray V. Robertson. The article begins by highlighting the beating of Rodney King in 1992. Police brutality has gone on for a long time, and with the help of technology it has finally been brought to the light. In 1992, four white police officers beat an African American man named Rodney King. The events were caught on camera and were aired that night by a local TV station in Los Angeles. In the video the officers kicked, tasered, and beat King until he was left with an inch of his life. The injuries King sustained were crushed bones, shattered teeth, kidney damage and a fractured skull. The Rodney King beating showed American people the

Throughout police history in the United States and around the world there have been numerous incidents of reported police brutality and other forms of corruption including taking bribes, theft, sexual deviance, and many more. In our present time corruption has decreased significantly from what it once was decades ago but still exists. One of the most publicized cases of police brutality, if not the most, was the beating of Rodney King. Most people have heard about the case and seen the video of the brutal beating that took place in Los Angeles on the night of March 2, 1991. The video shown to the public contained officers appearing to beat Mr. King while he is on the ground while

The story of Rodney King began on October 3, 1991, when King ran from the police, and then was brutally beaten by three police officers. The beating was captured by a nearby citizen, and it “...immediately

That was not enough for some officers they believed King was resisting arrest. Due to their belief some cops shot Rodney with a taser gun. Shortly several officers started to fiercely beat King with their batons. “We won that game didn‘t we,” says officer Laurence Powell to his mates. George Holliday, a men standing near the scene, video tapped the action. Rapidly this video was broadcasted not only across America but around the world. It would not be ignored by its viewers. Everyone who tuned in and watched was shocked. Justice was expected to be made towards the heartless cops who savagely bet Rodney King.

On March 3, 1991 Rodney King led the Los Angeles police on a high speed chase. Once the chase was over officers pulled King out of his vehicle and began to brutally beat,taze and stomp on him. The recording of the video taken by a witness standing on the other side of the street was locally broadcasted then nationally broadcasted.The reasons that police officers acted the way they did was because “Rodney King was driving while intoxicated and when officers attempted to arrest him, the large belligerent man resisted that arrest.” (Blue Knights with Lt. Dan Marcou ) It was already said that King had a criminal record of second degree robbery and out on parole so the officers were aware of who he was by now. I also believe that racial profiling was another factor that caused the police officers to act they way that they did. As stated by Connie Rice a lawyer and civil rights activist , “The LAPD at the time was almost an occupying force, partially biased against people of color.” (Sastry & Bates) Personally, I do not believe that the officers acted in an appropriate matter because instead of pulling him from his car and brutally beating him they should've just gone up to him and arrested him. I understand that he was seen as a threat during this time because of the high speed chase but there were other ways that they could have handled the situation. The use of forces that could have been appropriate for this situation were verbal commands, maybe a bit of empty hand control with the soft empty hand technique and if he resisted then that is when the use of less lethal force would of been used. Also they found out that in the first three seconds of the film were cut of and showed that “Rodney King rising up from the street to charge one officer in a clear-cut violent assault. In self defense, that officer struck King with his PR-24.” (Blue Knights with Lt. Dan Marcou.) Now with this new information I believe that the officer had a right to defend himself however not to the extent that they all went. Hitting King ith the PR-24 would have caused him to fall and during that time they could have arrested him instead. According to Biography.com, “The United States Department of Justice filed federal civil rights charges

This is proof that there is racial discrimination in law enforcement that affects police brutality. This also reinforces the culture of people of color being less human than white people, which takes its roots all the way back to slavery in America. When slavery was still prevalent in the United States, white people believed that black people(slaves), did not feel pain like they felt pain. After slavery was abolished, black people were still strongly regarded as inferior to white people and white people still saw them as wild creatures rather than human beings. White people saw themselves superior to every other race of people, so it was common for them to mistreat other races that weren’t white. This mindset is not as strong as it was in the past but, it is still strong enough to affect the choices police officers make during interactions with people of color. As a result of discrimination at the police level, many people have turned to court system’s to reach justice.

African Americans in Los Angeles and throughout the United States have experienced racial oppression for centuries. (Background about racial oppression by the LAPD). Rodney King was an African American motorist who inspired positive police reforms after he had a brutal conflict and was beaten by four members of the LAPD. Rodney King’s encounter resulted in a social and legal compromise because the incident made people aware of police brutality, gave African Americans a voice against police abuse, and resulted in reforms to the way that the LAPD responds to communities of color.

The memory of incidents such as O. J. Simpson’s high profile criminal trial, the assault of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1992, and the 2009 arrest and charging of Harvard Professor Henry Gates for racial profiling still freshly linger in the minds of many Americans. The people’s perceptions of justice in these situations continue to represent how the criminal justice system is viewed in present times, and continue defining racial disparity in America (Mauer, 2011).

The beating of Rodney King from the Los Angeles Police Department on March 3, 1991 and the Los Angeles riots resulting from the verdict of the police officers on April 29 through May 5, 1992 are events that will never be forgotten. They both evolve around one incident, but there are two sides of ethical deviance: the LAPD and the citizens involved in the L.A. riots. The incident on March 3, 1991 is an event, which the public across the nation has never witnessed. If it weren’t for the random videotaping of the beating that night, society would never know what truly happened to Rodney King. What was even more disturbing is the mentality the LAPD displayed to the public and the details of how this mentality of policing led up to this

Lee sigelamn,George Washington University,Susan Welch Pennsylvania state university, Timothy Bledsoe, Wayne State university, Michael Combs, University of Nebraska. “Police Brutality and public perceptions on racial Discrimination: A tale of two beatings”.

In the Article, "Legal System Could Stop Police Brutality" by Alan Dershowitz he talked about if Rodney King’s arrest wasn't to record the outcome would have been different. Rodney G King was a 25-year-old African American male that was brutality beaten by the LAPD. On March 3rd, 1991 Mr. King was caught after his high-speed chase. The Police then proceed to drag him out of the vehicle, made racial slurs and also brutality beat Mr. King. The Events were recorded by a bystander by the name of George Holliday. Rodney King later went to trial that took up to three months with an all-white trial. The officers were later acquitted for the event. Which then started the LA Riots. Without the recording of the Rodney King, "The events would have been

Sigelman, L., Welch, S., Bledsoe, T., & Combs, M., (1997, December). Police Brutality and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Tale of Two Beatings. Political Research Quarterly, 50(4), 777-791.

The beginnings of the riots came on March 3, 1991, when Rodney King was stopped and brutally assaulted by police. King was stopped after a high speed chase police after police caught him intoxicated and was subsequently forced out of the car (History.com). From there, police began to unlawfully assault Rodney King, leaving him with a fractured skull, along with a broken cheekbone (History.com). A witness, George Holliday, filmed the officers beating Rodney King; a day after the tape was airing on CNN for the rest of the country to witness (Los Angeles Daily News). Four officers were later arrested and put to trial a year later, however all of them were not pleaded guilty. The verdict angered a massive amount of African

The most famous case of police brutality occurred on the night of March 3rd, 1991, when Rodney King was pulled over by LAPD officers. A video taken of the encounter shows King being savagely beaten by metal batons long after being subdued. The LAPD responded, saying the department had “inadequate supervisory and management attention”, noting that “of approximately 1,800 officers against whom an allegation of excessive force or improper tactics was made from 1986 to 1990, more than 1,400 had only one or two allegations. But 183 officers had four or more allegations. Forty-four had six or more, 16 had eight or more, and one had 16 such allegations” (West Valley College). Clearly, a vast majority of police officers abuse their power. But clearly this is not on an individual level;

When you see that something is wrong, when should you step in? At what risk? Is it worth losing your job for someone else's life? "Doing the right thing requires knowledge of what might be the right action and a willingness to step up and safely intervene when you see something is wrong."(Share Cornell) I think that in the Rodney King incident, Ju should have stepped in and did something. In the movie Battle in Seattle, I think something should have been done about the police officers spraying innocent, peaceful protesters with tear gas. That should not have happened.