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 particular incident. This type of ethical deviance is something the public has not seen since the civil rights era. Little did Chief Gates, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and the LAPD know what the consequences of their actions would lead to. Moving forward in time to the verdict of those police officers being acquitted of the charges, the public sentiment spiraled into an outrage. The disbelief and shock of the citizens of Los Angeles sparked a mammoth rioting that lasted for six days. The riots led to 53 deaths and the destruction of many building. This is a true but disturbing story uncovering the ethical deviance from the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The two perspectives are from the Rodney King incident are the LAPD and the L.A. riots. The first perspective of ethical deviance in the Rodney King incident is by the Los Angeles Police Department. Police brutality has ... ... middle of paper ... ...les and what they were actually going through was true. I could never imagine a mentality of a police chief being this way. It is an absolute horrific way of policing, and goes against anything to what the current era of community policing stands for. Also, what I don’t understand is how not one police officer took a stand against the police chief, and how this type of policing was never reported and deemed as acceptable behavior. The reason I also chose to include the L.A. riots is because it displays a side of the story many people simply do not discuss. The impression that I received is the rioting is deemed as justifiable. Both incidents are classic examples of how a lack of proper ethics and leadership can lead to such tragic incidents. What is even sadder is in between all this innocent people were affected, such as Rodney King, the businesses, and 53 deaths.
Racial discrimination in our society has reached its tipping point such that rioting has become a last resort. After the deaths of two young African American males that occurred due to police brutality , the public has been in an uproar, fighting and hoping for change;however the means of fighting aren’t seen as appropriate. The majority of the population argues that the rioting that had occurred in Baltimore and Ferguson, where the shootings happened, were unjustified. The media depicted the rioting to be criminalized and unrelated to the cause. It was portrayed that African Americans took the deaths of Michael Brown and Freddie Gray as an excuse to loot and raid.On contrary to popular belief, the rioting in Baltimore and Ferguson were adequate actions that took place. It wasn’t until the rioting occurred that investigations of these cases followed. Because of the investigation it was found that the problems at hand were more than racial issues highlighted by police brutality, but racial abuse in the system of the cities.
Chief Bernard Parks, has announce that it was time to move beyond the Cristopher Commission Report (Riccardi & Ravin, 2000). Bernard argue that nearly 80 percent of the recommendation had been completely implemented by the LAPD. However, recent studies have concluded that there is still a long way to go in order for the Police Department to reach its goal. Reports indicate that managers have failed to correct the behavior of officers involved in multiple misconduct complaints (Riccardi & Ravin, 2000). Officers who abuse of their powers have received minimum training, counseling or sanctions by their managers to help them reduce their bad behavior. Furthermore, the no tolerance on race has been implemented and caused the Police Department to become more diverse. Twenty five years ago the department was sixty one percent Whites, no a day’s Whites only account for thirty three percent of the officers. Diversity has grown in the department, but it seems that not much has changed since the Rodney King incident. According to Gerber and Winton (2015), African Americans represent nine percent of the population but account for thirty one percent of the use of force cases and nineteen percent of the deadly shooting by the police. On the other hand, the LAPD has almost met the objective of creating a community-based policing. The LAPD has created programs such as the Community Police Problem Solving
This incident would have produced nothing more than another report for resisting arrest had a bystander, George Holliday, not videotaped the altercation. Holliday then released the footage to the media. LAPD Officers Lawrence Powell, Stacey Koon, Timothy Wind and Theodore Brisino were indicted and charged with assaulting King. Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered a change of venue to suburban Simi Valley, which is a predominantly white suburb of Los Angeles. All officers were subsequently acquitted by a jury comprised of 10 whites, one Hispanic and one Asian, and the African American community responded in a manner far worse than the Watts Riots of 1965. ?While the King beating was tragic, it was just the trigger that released the rage of a community in economic strife and a police department in serious dec...
On the night of August 11, 1965 the Watts community of Los Angeles County went up in flames. A riot broke out and lasted until the seventeenth of August. After residents witnessed a Los Angeles police officer using excessive force while arresting an African American male. Along with this male, the police officers also arrested his brother and mother. Twenty-seven years later in 1992 a riot known as both the Rodney King riots and the LA riots broke out. Both share the similar circumstances as to why the riots started. Before each riot there was some kind of tension between police officers and the African American people of Los Angeles. In both cases African Americans were still dealing with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. Add these three problems with policemen having a heavy hand and a riot will happen. Many of the primary sources I will you in this analysis for the Watts and the LA riots can be found in newspaper articles written at the time of these events. First-hand accounts from people living during the riots are also used.
On August 9th, 2014, 18 year old Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri, sparking protests, riots, and widespread debate on police use of force. Numerous questions arose as to whether Michael Brown was armed or unarmed, if he had his hands in the air or was attacking Officer Wilson, and whether Officer Wilson was justified in firing his weapon that resulted in the death of Michael Brown (Itkowitz). Twenty-two years have passed since the riots in Los Angeles after the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King were acquitted on charges of excessive force, and it left many to wonder, including myself, as to why this happened again. Why were there so many questions surrounding the incident and how this could
On the morning of March 3rd, 1991 an African-American man led police on a high-speed chase through the city of Los Angeles. Approximately eight miles later police swarmed around the car and confronted the driver, who went by the name Rodney King. During the confrontation, officers tortured King until the point he was forced to seek medical care. A case was opened and the police officers were acquitted. This angered many people, specifically Blacks and led to the historical “L.A. Riots’’ , where they felt race had something to do with the case.
Rodney King is a name that many associate police brutality with and the outrage it can cause to a community. It was on March 3, 1991 when 25 year old Rodney King, who was on parole at the time, had been driving around in Los Angeles with some friends and reports say driving drunk had failed to initially pull over after driving at high rates of speed. He was finally pulled over and King resisted arrest and was initially subdued by a taser and that’s when things got ugly and ugly fast. King was beat with nightsticks over fifty times and one of the officers began to kick King in the head repeatedly and unknown to the officers and King, the arrest was being videotaped. King suffered brain damage, eleven skull fractures and other physical and emotional damage. The officer in the case was initially found not guilty of all criminal charges. This caused a major backlash is the community and a riot has ensued in South Central Los Angeles. The rioters, whom were mostly you black males began to set fires to buildings and cars, looted stores and assaulted innocent people coming through the neighborhood. Those horrendous assaults were also caught on film by local television stations as they filmed the riots from their helicopters. King won a civil lawsuit and was awarded 3.8 million dollars. This was an epic moment in US history as it shed light on what and when it is necessary to use force and what type of force is deemed appropriate and inappropriate for the police. Did the LA officers have the right to do what they did or were they completely out of line. Depending on who you ask, you will get a different
This paper was written to discuss the hot button topic, “Black Lives Matter.” Specifically, in regard to law enforcement. This has been an ongoing and controversial issue ever since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. This is when the movement “Black Lives Matter,” was born, with the belief that blacks are treated unfairly by law enforcement. I, however, do not believe that blacks are treated any more unfairly by law enforcement than any other race.
This year there's been a lot of brutalities. In fact, there have been at least 500 people killed by the police officers this year. In this article, we are going to be talking about police brutality against African Americans. We are also going to talk about the differences and similarities of different cases that have been in the news this year. For example, the Sandra bland, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and the Walter Scott cases. Also, we're going to talk about how these cases have affected the African American community.
Background and Audience Relevance: According to the Human Rights Watch 2012 report on Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States; police brutality has become one the most serious human rights violation. As citizens of the United States it is our duty to make sure that those with authority don 't take advantage of their power.
The four white policemen who brutally beat Rodney King Jr., a black man, half to death for merely speeding is determined by the court¡¦s judgment, as officers performing their duty. Hate, to those particular jurors and judge, was not a valid concern. To them, the beating was not due to the officers¡¦ resentment for a black man, but because they were simply disciplining an offender of the law. To the minority groups, the court¡¦s ruling was outrageous.
The death of Rodney King was a day that has caused change in the police work enforcement. King's death affected the community and caused chaos throughout the nation. His death was caught on camera being beaten by officers of the Los Angeles police department due to being pulled over after a high speed chase on the 31st of March 1991. Due to this it is said that he “became a symbol of racial tension in America(Rodney King)”. Due to this tragic death, it had impacted
For years police corruption has been a major problem in American society but where is the line between moral and unethical police corruption, many modern movies address this vary issue. Some films portray how types of police corruption can have a positive influence on society, while others show the dark side of police corruption. Many law enforcement agents join the criminal justice with the basic idea of “justice for all,” however, most of them do not realize that the nice guy doesn’t always win. Even though there are vast amounts of movies which specifically address police corruption we will use three main movies for our argument today, mostly LA Confidential, however, also Training Day.
The police department does not reflect the demographics of the town’s residents which has three black officers out of a 53 officer department. The people in the community lost trust and respect for an organization that was put in place to protect and serve their people. Instead they have lost complete control of their society. The Rodney King case is another case that was a problem relating to police brutality. Rodney King was severely beaten in 1991 by members of the Los Angeles Police Department. He was severely beaten with batons and kicked and punched by a group of officers. He was also hit with a stun gun, received over fifty baton blows, and kicked several times (Walter, 2014). The officers were acquitted in state court on excessive force charges which led to riots in the city causing multiple deaths and injuries. Researchers have discredited the idea that police brutality is simply an individual problem, which is certain officers are just bad cops, while others are good cops. The videotaped beaten of Rodney King was not a tragic enough lesson for the police departments across the country, police beatings and killings of African
The protestors that take part in these movements believe that policemen are actually evil and devoted to taking the lives of their innocent people (“The Truth of Black Lives Matter,” 2015). People who support the “Black Lives Matter” movements state that 1960’s civil rights laws have not made enough progress. These laws made three powerful declarations: black lives matter, black citizens matter, and black families matter. The reality in their eyes is that if this were the case, police violence and brutality should not be specifically aimed towards black people. Senator Elizabeth Warren makes a speech about the unfair discrimination and the situations that are going on every second of the day. “This is America, not a war zone, and policing practices in all cities, not just some, need to reflect that” (Fang, 2015). Sherriff Ron Hickman draws out the perspective of police and what he thinks are the unfair practices within America. “We’ve heard black lives matter, all lives matter. Well, cop’s lives matter too. So how about we drop the qualifier and just say lives matter” (Wing, 2015). Shannon J. Miles allegedly shot and killed a deputy, and police have yet to find a motive. It is logical for them to assume that the Black Lives Matter movement is a major source of the problem. There is an intuition on many police officers