The Rodney King Trial And Verdict

In looking at Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) history with using excessive force, there needs to be a way that hold these police officers accountable to prevent citizen-police tension and create transparency for the public. During the 1990s, 61% of police officers from the LAPD were white and considered aggressive with African American communities which suggest racial tension among the two groups (Suburbanstats, 2017). Eula Love and Rodney King are two victims of

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

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

From the disturbing beating of Rodney King to the horrific death of Malice Green to the shooting of Michael Brown shows there is a consistent problem with police brutality and the exertion of force used. Police brutality seems to be a rising issue again with the occurrence of the Michael Brown shooting and the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement making sure that any form of police brutality should not be swept under the rug. Action has been taken in some cities around the country for dealing with police brutality, such as police reform, which requires the retraining of hundreds of officers. There has also been talk and use of police body cameras that would record interactions between officers and the public to clear up any discrepancies in police/witness reports. To look at the effects and causation of police brutality we will be analyzing the media’s role, the sociological and psychological aspects of officers who administer the beating, and the timing of when these beatings/killings occurred.

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).

While racing down the freeway on March 3, 1991, driver Rodney King and friends were leading the Los Angeles Police Department on a high speed chase making it up to 115 miles per hour. When King was eventually caught, officers pulled him from his car and began to beat King with their batons hitting and kicking him more than 50 times and shocking him with stun guns in a period of two minutes as he struggled helplessly on the ground outside of his car. King suffered 11 skull fractures, kidney damage, and brain damage. This was one of America’s first viral video of what excessive force is, and it changed the way police interacted with communities forever. The use of police force is an obligation, but unfortunately some officers may misuse, or abuse

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

In the 1996 case Koon v. United States, four white police officers were accused of using excessive force to arrest African-American, Rodney King, igniting claims of racism and police brutality. 1991 was a short 27 years after civil rights had been established and racism was still a prevalent factor in the streets of Los Angeles. Donna Batten states that, “The controversy surrounding each of these actions raised the issues of race, racism, and police brutality in communities throughout the United States” (Batten). The King Beating Trials promoted the idea that race meant people should be treated differently, and tensions rose. Relations between police and civil rights activists were plummeting after receiving national media coverage of police brutality. Megan Condino, author of African American Eras: Contemporary Times, reports that, “there were several well-publicized incidents of police assaulting peaceful demonstrators [and] clubbing and setting their dogs on child picketers” (Condino “Police Brutality”). The strain between police and the people created much anger and distrust during the trial The feelings and tensions across the nation strongly influenced the verdict of the King Beating Trials.

According to CNN, King led those officers on the chase because he violated his parole by drinking. He stopped in front of some apartment buildings thinking they would just arrest him and someone would catch it on tape. He was beaten by the police officers that caught him over 50 times. Three of the four officers were later acquitted and one had a mistrial, even after their vile beating was caught on tape. The trial’s result  sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots; 50 people were killed, 2000 injured, and almost 12,000 arrested. Racial diversity in American has had many ups and downs in the past. However, there seem to be more downs that have never been corrected. Aside from the three-day L.A. 1992 riots, there were: Japanese internment camps during WWII, the civil rights movement during the 1960s, and of course, slavery, during the first 100 years of our country's founding. Slavery happened not only to Africans, but to the Native Americans, the native people of the Caribbean islands, etc. These lows points in our history have caused poets like Claude McKay that this injustice will not be taken lightly. In his poem, “If We Must Die” he notes that “We'll face the murderous pack. Pressed into a wall but fighting back!” when African Americans face hardships purely because of their skin tone. We need authors like Maya Angelou to remind us that “It is time for parents to teach young

That cool, February night in Sanford, Florida Trayvon Martin never planned to die. Trayvon was 17 years old when he got shot by George Zimmerman.When trayvon got shot the man who shot him ran away so he want go to jail.So the police is looking for the man so they can put him in jail and go to court.Trayvon friend tyrek was walking with him when he got shot so he saw the man face.The police was seaching for the man and tyrek wanted to help to find trayvon killer but the police wounldn't let tyrek help with the case so they can find him easy.

Excessive force and police brutality have become common terms for anyone keeping up with today’s current events. In 2014, the media covered numerous cases of excessive force that resulted in the deaths of several people of color (Nelson & Staff, 2014). The most widely covered cases by the media in 2014 were of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black male shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri; and Eric Garner, a 43-year-old black male in Staten Island, New York who was put into a choke by police officer Daniel Pantaleo until he lost consciousness and stopped breathing (Nelson & Staff, 2014). These cases brought attention to the seriousness of police brutality and the curiosity of how often it occurs (Brown, 2015).

When police brutality with an emphasis of racism is mentioned, most people automatically think of Rodney King. In fact, movies and television sitcoms reference Rodney King as an act. Rodney King was portrayed by the media as a black male that was being beaten unfairly by four white police officers. The media only chose certain parts of the video to present to Americans, that incited riots. Not until much later was it revealed that Rodney had in fact lunged at the officers, not just “cowered down and crawled away.” (CNN 2012). ("Rodney King was a symbol of civil rights and he represented the anti-police brutality and anti-racial profiling movement of our time," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement. "It was his beating that made America focus on the presence of profiling and police

The Rodney King incident was presented as a case study of how failure to institutionalize some of the contextual themes concepts can result in malfeasance. Research incidents of other criminal justice malfeasance and, by using the five contextual themes as a guide, identify administrative concepts that could have prevented these situations.