Rodney King in his earlier years had no trouble with the police, It wasn't until later that issues began occurring.At 24 he robbed a store and was put on patrol. One night King led officers on a high speed chase and later tried to avoid the police in attempt to not get caught violating his parole. Eventually they pulled him out the car and proceeded to beat him claiming that he was resisting.Later a video came out and it showed king getting beaten by the cops following him. There was no evidence of him resisting. The video spread and sparked reactions all across America. Lives were lost and thousands of dollars of damage was caused because of rioting. The cops responsible were charged a year later but the charges were dropped. In 1993 the trial …show more content…
King was with two people Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms. The three men spent the night drinking.“King, who was intoxicated, had been caught speeding and initially tried to evade the police.”(Adams). King attempted to escape the police because driving under the influence would violate his patrol. While the officers pulled king out of the car, George holliday took out is camera and got it all on …show more content…
Rodney king became a national sensation. He was featured on several news broadcast. People all over America were disgusted by what they saw. The video showed no evidence of King resisting. In fact witnesses reported hearing him say ,” Please stop, please stop.”However the police officers there saw him as a threat. Over a year after the beating the charges towards the LAPD officers were dropped The trial was held in a majority white neighborhood.This upset all of America but Los Angeles had the biggest response. “Los Angeles was rocked by widespread rioting, looting and acts of arson after four white cops were acquitted of nearly all assault charges in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, the black motorist...”(Polner).Many were surprised and upset when the officers involved in the beating were not charged despite their incriminating evidence. However nearly two years after the assault two of the officers were charged while the other two were acquitted once again of any charges. King was given 3.8 million dollars for his injuries from the
In the Lexington, Kentucky a drug operation occurred at an apartment complex. Police officers of Lexington, Kentucky followed a suspected drug dealer into an apartment complex. The officers smelled marijuana outside the door of one of the apartments, as they knocked loudly the officers announced their presence. There were noises coming from the inside of the apartment; the officers believed that the noises were as the sound of destroying evidence. The officers stated that they were about to enter the apartment and kicked the apartment door in in order to save the save any evidence from being destroyed. Once the officer enters the apartment; there the respondent and others were found. The officers took the respondent and the other individuals that were in the apartment into custody. The King and the
The Los Angeles riots kicked off on the twenty-ninth day of April 1992 following the acquitting of four officers who had beaten and injured a motorist in the previous year. In the year 1991, California Highway Patrol officers detected Rodney King speeding as he drove in Los Angeles. King then led the officers on a high speed chase for the fear that the court would revoke his probation for a robbery offense he had committed (Gray, 2014). He was caught and ordered out of his car surrounded by several L.A.P.D cars and this led to a struggle between him and the police officers with some of them thinking that he was resisting arrest. One sergeant, Stacey Koon, used a Taser gun to fire at him before they beat him with their buttons mercilessly. He was struck with police batons more than fifty times and suffered eleven fractures besides other injuries. George Holiday, who was a nearby resident, videotaped the ordeal and delivered it to a local television station the following day (CNN Library, 2014). The tape sparked tension between the black Americans and the whites. The blacks saw the beating as racial discrimination against their community. However, no violence was recorded from the blacks du...
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.
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...
It all begun one year before (March 3, 1991) when Rodney King and two friends were detected to be speeding in the 210 freeway in Los Angeles. He was driving under the influence of alcohol. King, scared because he was already in probation, went on a high speed chase. Eventually King was surrounded by police cars and had no ch...
The Los Angeles riots were a release of pressure that had build up from the innocent charging of Officer Laurence M. Powell and other Police officers that "Used excessive force" on Rodney King on March 3, 1991, but that was not the only reason.(8) In the words of a singer singing about the riots "They said it was for the black man, they said it was for the Mexican, but not for the white man, but if you look at the streets it wasn't about Rodney King, It's bout this f****d up situation and the f****n' police."(9) Did the riots even have anything to do with King? Was King a minor reason for this to happen, or did King put the level of pressure right over the top? Whatever way you see it, the fact is that on April 29, 1992, anarchy was set free in Los Angeles and before the papers could write about the happenings in this city of angels, the writing on the walls could tell it all.
Rodney King Beating and Riots. CNN documentary (Full length). (2011, March 6). YouTube. Available at:
I partly agree with you; the police officer could have done so many things to prevent the excessive using of force. However, as an African American woman, Breaion King couldn’t have done anything to stop this situation from happening. As the officer mentioned in the squad car, White people are afraid of Black people because they are violent, and that is why White people are afraid of Black people. My understanding of this is that, basically the officer considers Breaion King as a violent and dangerous for just being Black in American. Indeed, safety is one of the most important thing an officer should have in mind when dealing with people. But, escalating the situation doesn’t help police officer safety. Breaion went out of her vehicle after
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that sometimes laws were unjust. In these cases, King would first attempt negotiating with those who were proponents for the unjust issues or laws. If the negotiations were found to be unsuccessful, King would arrange non violent direct action. Antigone on the other hand, didn’t attempt negotiations, she believed that in certain cases, civil disobedience was necessary, and would do whatever was necessary to do her part of doing what she felt was just.
The officers were acquitted of use of excessive force and abuse. This started riots in Los Angeles that rocked our country. This was the beginning of a stigma and stereotype that would be placed on all police officers. The stigma was that Rodney King was brutally beaten because he was black. The media portrayal of incidences across the nation since 1991 only heightened the stereotype. There was a very similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014 with the shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer. The coverage for Ferguson lasted for weeks and put the police in a very negative light. The Portland Press Herald states that “many police think they’re being stereotyped as racist and brutal” (Wise). There also seems to be a stereotype within a stereotype. Besides the stereotype of police officers profiling young black men, is the stereotype that all young black men are thugs, especially if they’re in neighborhoods known for gang and drug activity. “Our country 's history, culture and social divide feed a subconscious attachment to stereotypes, even in the minds of people with no measurable racial bias.”
In the following quote he writes, “I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. If you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.” In this quote, King shows how the police officers would let the dogs out to bite the Negroes. It would be more understanding if the Negros were retaliating with violence. However, they were doing nonviolence protest and the police would use violent attack against the people. The police were treating the Negros as if they were not human just because they look physically different. This is unbelievable because you would not expect law enforcers to mistreat old Negro women and young Negro girls. They were not just picking on one group of people; they would bully people from young to old. Dr. King agrees to the point that they need to have law enforcement; however, he cannot join this group of law enforcers. They are not being fair to the people in the community and they are using their power in a negative
up until he got caught for marching without a permit because King was not doing anything wrong up until that point. King was trying to change the law, persuade the law for African Americans. King was trying to persuade the people, not because he wanted to ultimately overthrow the laws, but because he wanted to help change. He and his following got to the point where sitting down and talking and trying to propose their ideas simply did not work. So, they began to try and persuade in a different light. It was another take of persuasion that they took to try and spread. This is something Socrates consistently insisted on, “You must either persuade or obey it’s [the laws] orders,” (Crito 51b). By King trying to persuade they law, he is in fact following Socrates guidelines for living under the
The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri became a controversial media sensation. The shooting created uproar and mistrust towards police officers. Many believed the shooting was unjustified and even an act of racism on the behalf of the police Officer Darren Wilson. The Department of Justice issued an investigation in order to understand the basis of the shooting and to decide whether or not to charge Darren Wilson in the shooting. Despite the evidence and the investigation which portrayed the shooting as an act of self- defense, the shooting still remains controversial.
...te police officers of charges stemming from the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. As a result of this verdict, thousands of citizens rioted for six days. Mass amounts of looting, murder, arson and assault took place.” Riots are one of the most common forms of mob mentality and are shown in this book several times.