15 years after Rodney King acquittal, lessons not learned

April 24, 2007

April 29 marks the 15th anniversary of the acquittal of four white Los Angeles police officers in the severe beating of Rodney King, a black motorist. Sadly, America seems to have learned nothing from this case.

The beating, the acquittals and the riot that followed focused the spotlight on America's eternal problems of racism, police brutality and disparities in the criminal justice system.

On March 3, 1991, officers with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stopped King and ordered him out of his Hyundai following a high-speed car chase. The officers repeatedly beat King with their batons, fracturing his skull
and causing internal injuries. George Holliday, a manager of a plumbing company whose apartment was close by, caught the beating on tape.

Afterward, one of the officers said on the car radio, "Oops," and "I haven't beaten
anyone this bad in a long time."

Although 21 officers from the LAPD and California Highway Patrol were on the scene, and none intervened, only four officers -- Sgt. Stacey Koon, Officer Laurence Powell, Officer Theodore Briseno and Officer Timothy Wind -- were
indicted. The trial was moved to the white, conservative, pro-police suburb of Simi Valley.

On April 29, 1992, a jury of 10 non-Hispanic whites, one Latino and one Asian
American acquitted the officers. Reacting to the verdict, South Central Los Angeles erupted in violence and burst into flames.

Over the next four days, 55 people were killed, 2,383 others injured and more than 8,000 arrested. Property damage was $1 billion. It was one of the most devastating urban rebellions in U.S. history.

Later, in 1993, two of the officers -- Koon and Powell -- were found guilty in federal court of violating King's civil rights. They served 30 months in federal prison. But the damage was done.

Since the Rodney King case, police brutality has continued.

In New York, several officers were charged with sadistically torturing and sodomizing a Haitian immigrant Abner Louima in 1997. One of the officers was sentenced to 30 years for the crime and another was later sentenced to five years for perjury in the case. The $8.75 million settlement with the city of New York was the largest in the city's history.

In 1999, four white NYPD officers shot Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo 41 times, killing him. Although no convictions resulted -- the trial of the officers was moved upstate -- the city settled with the Diallo family for $3 million.

In November 2006, the NYPD killed Sean Bell, 23, an unarmed black man, in a barrage of 50 bullets.

These examples are just from one city. Others -- in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Philadelphia -- are easy to document, as well.

Sadly, 15 years after Rodney King, America has learned nothing from its mistakes.

Almost 40 years ago, President Johnson's Kerner Commission noted that, "to some Negroes, police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a 'double standard' of justice and protection -- one for Negroes and one for whites."

This atmosphere of hostility and cynicism persists, even 15 years after Rodney King.

David A. Love is a lawyer and writer based in Philadelphia. He can be reached at pmproj [at] progressive [dot] org.