Rodney King

Rodney King

Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an African-American construction worker that while on parole for robbery became nationally known after being beaten with excessive force by Los Angeles police officers following a high-speed car chase on March 3, 1991. George Holliday, a resident in the nearby area, witnessed the beating and videotaped much of it from the balcony of his nearby apartment.

The videotaped footage shows seven Los Angeles area officers surrounding King, with several of them striking him repeatedly. During the struggle to subdue King, other officers stood by, without seeming to take action to stop King from being struck. A portion of the footage was aired around the world, inflaming public outrage in Los Angeles and other American cities where racial tension was often high. The videotape also increased public sensitivity to, and anger about police brutality, racism, and other social inequalities throughout the United States.

Four police officers from the LAPD who took part in the incident were charged in Los Angeles County Superior Court for their conduct during the incident. After a judicial finding that that a fair and impartial jury could not be impaneled in Los Angeles County the case was given a change of venue to Simi Valley, in Ventura County where they were tried. Three of the police officers were acquitted of all charges and the jury acquitted the fourth officer on one charge but failed to reach a verdict on one other the charge. The acquittals are generally considered to have triggered the 1992 Los Angeles riots, in which 53 people were killed, and over two thousand were injured. The riots ended after soldiers from the United States Army National Guard, along with United States Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton, California, were called in to assist local authorities and quell the riots.

The United States federal government, through the United States District Court for the Central District of California, stepped in and held a federal trial for civil rights violations, ending with two of the police officers found guilty, and subsequently imprisoned. The other two officers were acquitted.

During the riots, King appeared on television and offered what would later be his famous plea, "Can we all get along?"