23 Years After Rodney King, Victims of Police Violence Get Even Less Justice

[sabrina 1]

23 Years After Rodney King, Victims of Police Violence Get Even Less Justice



Rodney King (second from right) leaving a courthouse in 1994.

On March 3, 1991 the California Highway Patrol pulled over Rodney King for speeding after a brief chase. He was subsequently Tased and beaten by four L.A.P.D. officers, while another 10 or so stood by and watched. He was unarmed.

......

On March 8, 1991, only five days after the incident, the district attorney in Los Angeles impaneled a grand jury, asking for indictments for assault and excessive force by a police officer against four officers. On March 14, the grand jury returned indictments for all four officers—11 days after the incident.

The trial began on February 3, 1992. A new, more police friendly venue was eventually chosen for the trial. It was transferred to the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley, Ventura County. There were no Afrcan Americans on the jury.

Three of the four officers were acquitted on April 29, 1992. Riots began in which eventually 53 people died, thousands were injured, more thousands arrested, and there was over $1 billion in property damage.

The day after the verdicts, President George H.W. Bush ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate possible federal charges against the officers. William Barr was attorney general. Bush said when he watched the video of Rodney King he “felt anger, [he] felt pain,” and he wondered, “How am I going to explain this to my grandchildren?” Los Angeles Chief of Police Daryl Gates said after watching the video, “It was a very, very extreme use of force--extreme for any police department in America. But for the L.A.P.D., considered by many to be the finest, most professional police department in the world, it was more than extreme. It was impossible.”

That was back then. Rodney King wasn't shot to death. But the brutality of the assault was horrific, the acquittal of three of the perpetrators, an outrage, as stated even by people like Bush Sr and acknowledged by Police Chief Daryl Gates as an extreme us of force.

On August 4, 1992 a federal grand jury returned indictments against all four officers. A trial was held and two officers were found guilty. They were sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. The U.S. Department of Justice appealed the officers’ sentences to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that they were overly lenient.

Compare these GJ indictments to TODAY'S GJ decisions, in cases where UNARMED African Americans were shot to DEATH by police. And compare the reaction of the Department of Justice back then which went to the Supreme Court complaining about the leniency of the sentencing!

That case shamed this country. You would think that things might have improved regarding police brutality, especially against African Americans, since then.

Twenty-three years later, the nation’s attention is captured by a series of brutal attacks on black men by police officers. This time, the attacks are deadlier, the use of force against the black men has escalated from a brutal beating to shooting and choking to death. Even Sergeant Stacey Koon, the supervisor on scene who oversaw the beating of King and instructed his officers to continue beyond any reasonable point of submission, testified at trial that he had instructed the original responding C.H.P. officers to holster their firearms because he wanted to avoid using deadly force if he could. He later went to federal prison. It’s a terribly uncomfortable twist of fate that we can now look to Sergeant Stacey Koon’s actions as an example of police restraint.

As the article says, Police Brutality has ESCALATED since then from broken bones to DEADLY FORCE against unarmed African Americans.

Michael Brown, John Crawford 111, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, a little boy, and so many others, unarmed, shot to death by Police, and not a single GJ indictment!

Who could ever have predicted that we could look back at the Rodney King case and compare Sgt Coon, favorably, to today's brutal cops?

Something has gone terribly wrong and appears to be getting worse, and no one in a position to do so, appears to be willing to do anything about it.

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'm glad that man is still able to stand up, damn!

Not just victims of police violence, ALL of us have suffered more brutality and less security in one way or another.

Unless you're a Bush, a Kock, a Clinton, or any one among the others in the 99%.

Damn.

[sabrina 1]

5. Somebody hated us for 'our freedoms'.. But it doesn't look like it was the

'terrorists'. Looks like someone right here at home, is GIVING them away.

And whenever freedom is under attack from within, it is easier to begin with those who are already marginalized. That we could see these horrible injustices towards the African American community and for the most part, remain silent about it, says something not very good about where we are in terms of race relations.

If just ONE person who was the son of a powerful, wealthy American were to be gunned down in the street, his body left lying there for four hours, or a 12 year old playing with a toy gun, the outrage would be intense.

The perps would be indicted, most likely convicted and sent away for life.

But that isn't likely to happen regarding the cops They KNOW who they can safely kill and who they cannot.

What a shame that is.

[Blue_Tires]

2. You're not allowed to point out racial realities like this

Lest the usual suspects hijack the discussion with some faux hand-wringing over rioting...

[sabrina 1]

3. 'A riot is the language of the unheard' - MLK

And 'Riot Police' are aptly named considering how often they violently disrupt peaceful protests.

[2naSalit]

4. Called such because...

the CAUSE riots... or the ARE the riot. Either one or both is the reality.

[olddots]

6. sadly not much has changed

The racism gets handed down when not brought to actual justice .

[sabrina 1]

8. What has changed just reading this, is that back then it was possible to at least get a few GJ

indictments. It's impossible to do that today as we have seen.

Another thing I noticed, even Bush Sr. was able to express disgust at the Police:

Bush said when he watched the video of Rodney King he “felt anger, felt pain,” and he wondered, “How am I going to explain this to my grandchildren?”

Contrast that public condemnation of the brutality, with today. When Mayor de Blasio merely told the truth about his and his wife's concerns about their own son's safety as a young Black American male, he was attacked, disrespected and threatened by members of the NYPD with little condemnation of THEM in the media.

Imagine eg, if Obama were to express disgust, to say 'he felt pain, anger' after hearing about all these killings by cops of young African Americans, or ask 'how will I explain this to my grandchildren'??

Or ANY public figure. I don't recall ANY public figure, other than the mild reference to the facts by Mayor de Blasio, publicly expressing outrage over any of the recent killings of Black Americans, by cops.

[olddots]

7. remember the Reagan Library

is in Simi Valley ....