Police Brutality Effect

17 year old african american boy Trayvon Martin was going into a 7 Eleven to get a snack before he flew back home. He walked out of the store and was being stalked by a strange man who turned out to be a volunteer cop. The cop had then told the station that there was suspicious juvenile. The police said not to pursue but he did anyways. He then shot Trayvon in the chest instantly killing him. This was not the only occasion that a police officer beat up an african american for no reason at all. Police brutality towards african americans in america needs to end. Excessive police brutality towards african americans is an issue/ongoing problem that needs to be addressed because it is unjust. Readers can expect to learn the cause and reason why this happens.

Gelsey Piatt and Madalyn Davishrr 1990’s News Article -Rodney King BREAKING NEWS: Rodney King was found face down in his LA home pool, dead at the age of 47. Rodney King’s public life all started on March 3rd, 1991 where after a high-speed chase from LAPD, King was violently beaten with batons suffering more than 11 fractures, all caught on tape. 4 Los Angeles Police Department officers by the name of Laurence Michael Powell, Timothy Wind, Stacey Koon, and Theodore Briseno are all indicted by grand jury in connection to the beating of King, to the joy of the public. April 29th, 1992 almost a year following the initial incident, the trial of the 4 officers comes to a harrowing defeat when they were pronounced not guilty of brutally beating King.

On March 3, 1991 an African American man named Rodney King became a posterboy for racial tension and police brutality in America. On this day, police officers Stacey C. Koon, Laurence M. Powell, Timothy E. Wind, and Theodore J. Briseno attempted to pull Rodney King over because they suspected he was driving under the influence. Mr. King then lead the officers on a 110 mph chase through San Fernando Valley, California, and finally stopped his car in a residential area. Police officers began beating Mr. King after he got out of his car. Officers tasered, kicked, stomped on, and hit Mr. King with their batons for about 10 minutes.

A team of the Los Angeles Police Department followed King for approximately eight miles as he was speeding within city limits. Consequent to capturing him as a result of another crew interfering, the police officers drew an aggressive King out of his car and the fact that he was resisting arrest influenced them to proceed with using extreme force involving "striking him with a baton 56 times and forcefully kicking him six times" (Rodney King beating 1).

On March 3rd, 1991, African American citizen Rodney King found himself engaged in a high speed chase with a few Los Angeles policemen. Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Ward, Stacey Koon, and Theodore Biseno eventually caught up to 27 year old King at Dodger Stadium, where they proceeded to brutally beat him. Witness George Holliday filmed the four officers striking King with their batons over 50 times, and eventually sold the footage to KTLA in Los Angeles, which would soon find itself on news and broadcasts nationwide. This event was eventually taken to trial, where the four police officers involved in the violence against King were not found guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force. After hearing the final verdict, many people throughout the city and beyond were enraged, with even mayor Tom Bradley saying, “Today the jury asked us to accept the senseless and brutal beating of a helpless man” (Wallenfeldt). Not only were people angry about the verdict of the trial because of the video evidence and obvious ethical issues, but also because of his race and the belief that his civil rights had been violated. The outcome of Rodney King’s trial angered many Americans across the country, and eventually caused them to take actions they normally would not.

March 3rd, 1991. A day that has lived on in infamy for more than 20 years. Rodney King was just a normal 25-year old guy who had a family, a job, people who loved him. He had work the next day, so he decided to pop open some beers with one of his friends. According to King, around the time of 20th anniversary of the LA riots, “I know drinking and driving is not OK, and I shouldn't have been back then, and there's no excuse for it. But I had a job to go to that Monday, and so I went over to a friend's house and popped a couple of beers. We were just sitting around awhile, and I decided to go to a spot where my dad used to take us fishing called Hansen Dam in California.” (Martin 3) King then said he saw the patrol car behind him and for no apparent reason at all did not pull over on the side of the road, as people are supposed to do with cops. He finally pulled over and got out, and the cops tasered him with 50,000 volts. Three officers then started to beat the crap out of King, hitting him in the head, neck, kidneys, and legs, over 50 times. The beating was recorded by a passerby, and sent out to every major news outlet in the country. However, this is only part of the context surrounding the case of the Rodney King beating.

On March 3, 1991 Rodney King led the Los Angeles police on a high speed chase. Once the chase was over officers pulled King out of his vehicle and began to brutally beat,taze and stomp on him. The recording of the video taken by a witness standing on the other side of the street was locally broadcasted then nationally broadcasted.The reasons that police officers acted the way they did was because “Rodney King was driving while intoxicated and when officers attempted to arrest him, the large belligerent man resisted that arrest.” (Blue Knights with Lt. Dan Marcou ) It was already said that King had a criminal record of second degree robbery and out on parole so the officers were aware of who he was by now. I also believe that racial profiling was another factor that caused the police officers to act they way that they did. As stated by Connie Rice a lawyer and civil rights activist , “The LAPD at the time was almost an occupying force, partially biased against people of color.” (Sastry & Bates) Personally, I do not believe that the officers acted in an appropriate matter because instead of pulling him from his car and brutally beating him they should've just gone up to him and arrested him. I understand that he was seen as a threat during this time because of the high speed chase but there were other ways that they could have handled the situation. The use of forces that could have been appropriate for this situation were verbal commands, maybe a bit of empty hand control with the soft empty hand technique and if he resisted then that is when the use of less lethal force would of been used. Also they found out that in the first three seconds of the film were cut of and showed that “Rodney King rising up from the street to charge one officer in a clear-cut violent assault. In self defense, that officer struck King with his PR-24.” (Blue Knights with Lt. Dan Marcou.) Now with this new information I believe that the officer had a right to defend himself however not to the extent that they all went. Hitting King ith the PR-24 would have caused him to fall and during that time they could have arrested him instead. According to Biography.com, “The United States Department of Justice filed federal civil rights charges

On April 29, 1992, a jury convened to try four LAPD officers for the beating and use of excessive force against Rodney King, a black motorist involved in a high-speed chase with the police prior to the incident. The beating occurred in March 1991 and had been videotaped by a witness. Within days, every news channel in America was broadcasting the disturbing video in which King had been kicked, tazed, and beaten over fifty times by the four officers with police batons (Sides). King had offered little resistance after exiting his vehicle. The images of excessive force were printed across all media channels, confirming complaints of police brutality against minorities, specifically by the black community (Monroe). Subsequently, the black community became outraged and festered in their anticipation of a guilty verdict for the four officers.

On March 3, 1991, a spectator filmed Rodney King, an African American resident of Los Angeles, being beaten by four Caucasian officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, who used a stun gun on King and continually kicked him and struck him with batons. For weeks afterward, the assault obtained capacity coverage appearing in the news media; according to the Vanderbilt Television News Index and Abstracts (1992), from March 5, the evening the story broke, until the conclusion of the remaining

Race and Rage: The Beating of Rodney King was a documentary about just that, the beating of Rodney King and the Chicago Riots that were a result. In 1991 Rodney King was chased by cops for several miles before finally pulling over in a parking lot. He was then beaten almost to death by police and the entire incident was recorded by a resident in a nearby apartment. Chicago riots begin in 1992 due to the police brutality incident. The damage to the city was immeasurable and finally King came on and said he just wanted it to all be over. I feel this was a very brave and mature thing for him to do. The amount of force taken by the police on him that night is ridiculous and unnecessary. I do believe indicting the two police most involved in the beating was fair and the right thing to do. The riots however were too out of hand and ridiculous.

The Watts riots began in the summer of 1965, in a city in Los Angeles called Watts. It all began with the arrest of a young African American by a white California Highway Patrol officer. Now, it was not because he was arrested for already doing something illegal, it was for the way the police officer treated the individual. According to Lacine Holland, an eyewitness to the arrest, the officer “took him and threw him in the car like a bag of laundry and kicked his feet in and slammed the door.” (Flournoy) This caused lots of unrest among the fellow residents of Watts. This was just the beginning of years of pent up oppression for the minorities, which participated in the event. Similarly, in 1992, the Rodney King riots also arose due to the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department officers for their brutal beating

Racism act plays a major part in police misconduct. Decent numbers of minority groups are more likely to be victims of unfair police treatment. A case that still stands as a classic in police history is Rodney King. Rodney King beating is truly a depiction of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stopped motorist Rodney King who was speeding 100 mph and charge for a traffic violation. During the arrest King was hit over fifty times with nightsticks after initially resisting police orders. A witness to the event, George Holliday, videotaped the arrest, which was later viewed on local station KTLA and commercial news networks nationwide. Within a week following the incident, a Grand Jury

The beginnings of the riots came on March 3, 1991, when Rodney King was stopped and brutally assaulted by police. King was stopped after a high speed chase police after police caught him intoxicated and was subsequently forced out of the car (History.com). From there, police began to unlawfully assault Rodney King, leaving him with a fractured skull, along with a broken cheekbone (History.com). A witness, George Holliday, filmed the officers beating Rodney King; a day after the tape was airing on CNN for the rest of the country to witness (Los Angeles Daily News). Four officers were later arrested and put to trial a year later, however all of them were not pleaded guilty. The verdict angered a massive amount of African

Lately there’s been plenty of police killings in the black community. When police kill an African American their looking at it as justifiable, because of the behavior of some African American people. One of the killings that started the movement. Travon Martin, 17, of Miami Garden, Florida fatally shot by George Zimmerman due to an

"On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was the driver of a car in Los Angeles, California. The driver didn't stop when signaled by a police car behind him, but increased his speed. When police finally stopped the car, they delivered 56 baton blows and six kicks to King, in a period of two minutes, producing 11 skull fractures, brain damage, and kidney damage. Unaware that the incident had been videotaped, the police officers filed inaccurate reports, not mentioning the fact that Rodney King was left with head wounds. On March 15, 1991, four police officers were arraigned on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force" (Mike Lepore).