The Beating of Rodney King

Brian Martin, Justice Ignited, chapter 5 (author’s prepublication version) 5 The beating of Rodney King Shortly after midnight on 3 March 1991, context of racism and social control,1 an Rodney King was beaten by officers of the examination of the practices of professionals, Los Angeles Police Department. King was hit namely the police,2 an analysis of media by two tasers — electroshock weapons using narratives about the beating,3 and a study of two darts connected by wires to a high-voltage the effects of the beating on public opinion source — and then struck dozens of times by about racial discrimination.4 metal batons, as well as being kicked, over a If the beating is thought of as an attack on period of several minutes. Four officers King, then it is reasonable to say the attack participated in the arrest and more than 20 backfired: it recoiled adversely on the attack- police were present during the beating, which ers. That the beating ended up being damaging was illuminated by floodlights from a police to the police has been attested by observers of helicopter hovering overhead. diverse persuasions5 and confirmed by re- This event probably would have become search.6 just another arrest statistic except that a portion of the incident was captured on 1. Robert Gooding-Williams, ed., Reading videotape by an observer, George Holliday, Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising (New who heard the commotion from his apartment York: Routledge, 1993). nearby. After the video was screened on television, the “Rodney King beating” became 2. Charles Goodwin, “Professional Vision,” the most well known case of police use of American Anthropologist 96 (1994): 606–33. force in history, with serious adverse effects 3. Ronald N. Jacobs, “Civil Society and Crisis: for the police. The reputation of the LAPD Culture, Discourse, and the Rodney King took a battering, as the force was widely Beating,” American Journal of Sociology 101 perceived to be tolerant of brutality. There (1996):1238–72; Ronald N. Jacobs, Race, were vociferous calls for LAPD Chief Daryl Media, and the Crisis of Civil Society: From Gates to resign. The four officers directly Watts to Rodney King (Cambridge: Cambridge involved in the beating were charged with University Press, 2000). assault and brought to trial. Media attention was intense over the following months, with 4. Lee Sigelman, Susan Welch, Timothy thousands of newspaper articles published as Bledsoe, and Michael Combs. “Police Brutal- well as extensive coverage by electronic ity and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimi- media. Morale in the LAPD was seriously nation: A Tale of Two Beatings,” Political damaged. Research Quarterly 50 (1997): 777–91. The King beating is an ideal case study for 5. Lou Cannon, Official Negligence: How social analysis given the great amount of Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los documentation of the incident and the subse- Angeles and the LAPD (Boulder, CO: quent media coverage, trials, and riots. Among Westview, 1999), 228; Jerome H. Skolnick the studies undertaken are assessments of the and James J. Fyfe, Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force (New York: Free Press, 1993), 10. 6. J. R. Lasley, “The Impact of the Rodney King Incident on Citizen Attitudes toward The beating of Rodney King 31 Several factors contributed to the backfire. precisely parallels the reaction to violent George Holliday’s video was an essential attacks on peaceful protesters. element, enabling a vivid visual exposure of I will look more closely at the King beating the events. Television stations repeatedly by examining in some detail each of the five screened a portion of the video, taking it to a methods of inhibiting outrage: cover-up; huge audience.7 The timing was advantageous devaluation; reinterpretation; use of official for obtaining media attention. The first Gulf channels; intimidation and bribery. I present war had ended just recently, leaving the news evidence, especially from valuable partisan agenda open to other issues. If the video had books about the beating, that is especially come to attention on the day the Gulf war useful in illustrating features of the struggle began, for example, it undoubtedly would over reactions to the beating.8 have had far less impact. This is not an attempt to tell “the story” of Also crucial was the symbolism of a police the King beating, much less to determine beating. Police are supposed to be protectors “what really happened.” Despite the existence against injustice. Though many people are of the videotape, the meaning of the events aware of discrepancies between the ideal and remains contested. My aim here is to show the reality of policing, nevertheless dramatic how attackers and their supporters used a evidence of police abuse can strike a chord variety of methods that inhibited outrage and through its challenge to the dominant belief how critics of the beating countered these system about policing and justice. Further- methods. more, it was important that Rodney King, a black man, was beaten by white policemen Key Figures (though a few of the police observing the • Rodney King, a black man beaten in the arrest were black). The graphic image of course of being arrested on March 3, 1991. whites attacking a black man resonated with • Stacey Koon, the police sergeant in charge of the U.S. history of racist violence against King’s arrest. blacks. • Lawrence Powell, Timothy Wind, and Although there were quite a number of Theodore Briseno, police officers directly citizens and groups concerned about police involved in King’s arrest. misconduct, there was not a powerful social • George Holliday, a witness to the beating movement to boost concern about the beating. who recorded it on his videocamera. Existing groups did not have a high public • Daryl Gates, Los Angeles police chief at the profile, nor was King associated with them in time of the events. any way. • Tom Bradley, Los Angeles mayor at the As in the cases of Sharpeville, Dili, and time. Dharasana, the King beating involved a violent assault by authorities. But there is also a big difference: King was neither a protester nor — Cover-up as described later — particularly peaceful, and certainly not a practitioner of nonviolent The defining feature of the King beating is the action. Yet the public reaction to his beating availability of a videotape recording the event. As noted by numerous commentators, without Police,” Policing and Society 3 (1994): 245– the videotape, the beating would have been 55. 7. Richard L. Fox and Robert W. Van Sickel, 8. For a vivid film documentary, see The Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice in an Age of Rodney King Incident, video. Directed by Media Frenzy (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, Michael Pack. Chevy Chase, MD: Manifold 2001), 33–35. I thank Kevin Wehr for Productions, 1998. I thank Jeff Ross for recommending this book. recommending this treatment. 32 Justice Ignited unlikely to come to public attention.9 There- Some of the reported cases of police brutality fore, cover-up, as a means to inhibit popular are far more serious than the King beating and anger, failed spectacularly in this case. seem to have less justification. They include Nevertheless, evidence of cover-ups can be beatings without pretext, torture, and killings, found in the King saga. But first it is worth some apparently premeditated.12 In these noting the usual scenario for cases of police cases, cover-up is central to reducing a brutality and other misconduct: no publicity backlash. The basic means of cover-up is and little or no negative consequences for police lying about what happened: “Far too police.10 An investigation into police miscon- many officers lie with impunity about the duct in the United States, stimulated by the conduct of a defendant, about what they were King beating, stated: able to observe, and about whether proper procedures were followed.”13 Many cases of police misconduct take Other police often know their colleagues place out of the public eye. Often, there are lying but decline or refuse to speak out are no witnesses to the incident other against them. This so-called “code of silence” than police officers and the victim of the is a form of police loyalty that inadvertently misconduct, and thus no one to corrobo- can sanction abuse. As described by the rate the complainant’s account. Repre- Christopher Commission, set up in response to sentatives of community organizations the King beating, the code of silence “consists and legal agencies described the diffi- of one simple rule: an officer does not provide culty of pursuing complaints against the adverse information against a fellow officer.”14 police, particularly in the absence of Long-time Minneapolis police officer Michael witnesses. Both police and civilians W. Quinn wrote a book about code of silence. agreed that, if it comes down to a He says when he joined the force, he had no citizen’s word against an officer’s story, idea about the extent of corruption, including the police version controls. In the vast lying, burglary, and beating prisoners. These majority of cases involving one civilian activities often were tolerated. But — and one officer the complaint is not sustained.11 There was only one thing you never did. You never snitched on another cop. 9. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., Mary Prosser, Abbe The Code of Silence was the only rule Smith, and William Talley, Jr.; Criminal you had to obey above all other. Cops Justice Institute at Harvard Law School for the didn’t tell on other cops. Not for any 15 National Association for the Advancement of reason. Ever! Colored People, Beyond the Rodney King Story: An Investigation of Police Misconduct 12.

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