Rodney King's March 3, 1991, traffic
stop and beating turned LA into a riot zone; then changed it
By Tony Castro, Staff Writer POSTED: 03/01/11,
9:00 PM PST |
Twenty years ago,
what should have been a routine traffic stop on a San Fernando Valley freeway
escalated into an altercation that forever changed policing - and race
relations - in Los Angeles.
Unaware they were
being filmed by an amateur cameraman, four white LAPD officers beat an
African-American motorist named Rodney King. The 12-minute video was aired that
night by a local TV station, giving Angelenos and the rest of the world a
glimpse of shocking behavior from those sworn to protect and serve.
"That day
put in motion the forces that changed and dramatically transformed Los Angeles,
the LAPD and many of our institutions," says Bernard Kinsey, who helped
lead Rebuild Los Angeles, the economic redevelopment agency formed after the
1992 Los Angeles riots. | See
photo gallery.
"The city
would never be the same."
Those riots
erupted April 29, 1992, hours after the four officers charged with the use of
excessive force were acquitted by a predominantly white jury in Simi Valley.
"Ultimately,
the (minority) community felt that it needed to get justice and sadly, people
took it into their own hands," says Danny Bakewell Sr., a former civil
rights activist who now is publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel.
"We don't
condone that, but we certainly do understand that. You can only suppress and
oppress a people for so long."
In three days of
violence that spread from South Los Angeles to other parts of the city, 53
people were killed and nearly 2,400 were hurt. Looting, vandalism and arson
resulted in an estimated $1 billion in damage.
In the midst of
it, King made a public appearance and broadcast his now-famous plea:
"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"
Chase turns ugly
The incident
began after King - who later admitted to driving drunk - refused to stop when
California Highway Patrol officers tried to pull him over for erratic driving.
The LAPD joined in the high-speed chase, which ended at Osborne Street and
Foothill Boulevard in Lake View Terrace.
With a police
helicopter hovering overhead, officers kicked, tasered and beat King, leaving
him with crushed bones, shattered teeth, kidney damage and a fractured skull.
The attack was captured by George Holliday, who lived nearby and grabbed his
new video camera when he was awakened by police sirens.
"From the
(minority) community perspective, the video validated years and years and years
of complaints that this was the treatment that they were receiving and no one
took action or believed that these things were going on," said City
Councilman Bernard Parks, a deputy chief of police at the time of the beating
and later police chief.
Raphael
Sonenshein, a political science professor at Cal State Fullerton, said the
videotape gave then-Mayor Tom Bradley the power he needed to reform the Police
Department.
"The LAPD
was a political entity unto itself," said Sonenshein, who has written
three books on Los Angeles politics and government.
"Bradley
sort of fought them to a draw up until the Rodney King beating, and it was the
Rodney King beating ... (that) gave him the political clout to finally win that
battle."
In July 1991, in
the wake of the beating, Bradley formed the Independent Commission on the Los
Angeles Police Department, headed by attorney Warren Christopher, who would
later become U.S. secretary of state.
The blue-ribbon
panel issued a blistering report that detailed a pattern of racism and
excessive force within the LAPD.
The outgrowth of
the Christopher Commission was Proposition F, passed by voters in 1992, which
put the chief of police and the LAPD under civilian control.
The beating and
its aftermath - the LAPD was later found to be woefully unprepared for the
riots - forced the retirement of longtime Chief Daryl Gates, whose
controversial tenure was marked by allegations of racism and arrogance.
"Police
chiefs now are considered civilian leaders of the city ... having to maintain
the support of the mayor," Sonenshein said. "Two consecutive chiefs
lost their jobs because they didn't have the support of the mayor. That would have
been unheard of."
No one appears to
be more aware of those changes than the current chief, Charlie Beck, a career
law enforcement officer named to the position by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in
late 2009.
"I don't
think there's any other incident in modern times that certainly changed the
Police Department and changed the city to the extent that the King incident
did," Beck said.
"We're still
responding to things that were put in place by the Christopher Commission,
their recommendations, the Inspector General, the role of the Police
Commission, even to the way I act as chief trying to be a nonpolitical chief.
All that traces its way back to Rodney King."
The changes
wrought by the King beating have been substantive, not only in the upper
echelons of the LAPD but in the police culture seen on the streets, according
to San Fernando Valley anti-gang advocate William "Blinky" Rodriguez.
"It's a
completely different type of relationship that communities now have with the
police," Rodriguez said. "I think law enforcement realizes that the
community has to play its role.
"Sometimes
it's just co-existing because there's an open dialogue, and you have to say
that the leadership of the LAPD has played a tremendous role in making this
happen."
'Memories still there'
Now 45, King says
he still has nightmares about the beating, according to an interview
with CNN set to air Friday night.
"I wake up
like tossing and turning and sometimes even hearing the voices that went on
that night," he says in the interview. "You know, 'Hands behind your
back. Lay down. Get down! Get down! Get down' ...
"I have to
wake up. It's a nightmare, all right. I have to look outside. It's all green,
blue. That time has passed on, but the nightmares and memories is still
there."
Two of the four
officers who were acquitted in Simi Valley, Sgt. Stacey Koon and Laurence
Powell, were convicted of federal civil rights violations and served 30 months
in prison.
The other two
officers, Theodore Briseno and rookie Timothy Wind, were acquitted in the
federal civil rights trial.
The city of Los
Angeles paid King $3.8 million to settle a civil suit.
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