Rodney King
Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an African American victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was severely beaten by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during his arrest after a high speed pursuit for driving while intoxicated on Interstate 210. An uninvolved resident, George Holliday, saw and filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage, which showed King on the ground being beaten, to a local news station, KTLA. The station broadcast the film, which was rebroadcast by other stations, and that exposure precipitated ghetto riots. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public uproar.
At a press conference, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates announced that the four officers who were involved would be disciplined for use of excessive force and that three would face criminal charges. The LAPD initially charged King with "felony evading", but later dropped the charge. On his release, King spoke to reporters from his wheelchair, with his injuries evident: a broken right leg in a cast, his face badly cut and swollen, bruises on his body, and a burn area on his chest where he had been jolted with a stun gun. King described how he had knelt, spread his hands out, then slowly tried to move so as not to make any "stupid moves", before he was hit across the face by a billy club, and shocked with a stun gun. King also said he was scared for his life when the officers drew their guns on him.
Four officers were eventually tried on charges of use of excessive force. Of them, three were acquitted; the jury failed to reach a verdict on one charge for the fourth. Within hours of the acquittals, the 1992 Los Angeles riots started, sparked by outrage among racial minorities over the trial's verdict and related, long-standing social issues, overlaid with tensions between African Americans and Korean Americans. The rioting lasted six days and 63 people were killed, and 2,383 other people were injured; the riots only ended after the California Army National Guard, the Army, and the Marine Corps provided reinforcements in an attempt to reestablish control. King advocated a peaceful end to the conflict.
The federal government prosecuted a separate civil rights case, obtaining grand jury indictments of the four officers for violations of King's civil rights. Their trial in a federal district court ended in April 1993, with two of the officers being found guilty and sentenced to serve prison terms. The other two were acquitted of the charges. In a separate civil lawsuit in 1994, a jury found the City of Los Angeles liable and awarded King $3.8 million in damages.
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