On March 3, 1991 Rodney King was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol for speeding. He was completely unarmed. But that didn’t stop four Los Angeles Police Department officers who had responded subsequently tasered King and beat him within an inch of his life. Another dozen or so LAPD cops stood by and watched without stopping these bad cops. In so doing, they defined what it is to be a bad cop who facilitates and allows the more aggressive bad cops to commit acts of brazen police brutality and violence.
The beating of Rodney King was famously captured on video. Prior to this incident, many in the community had alleged similar experiences, but they were always brushed off by law enforcement and even by many in more affluent communities.
“If only there was some proof of what you’re saying,” so many would hear.
But now there was. Finally.
It was a new era: an era of personal “camcorders” that meant anyone, anywhere could theoretically catch the police on film carrying out illegal acts of brutality and injustice.
“Finally,” so many thought, and said, “we finally caught these rogue cops on tape. They aren’t going to get away with it this time.”
Watch the full video below…
The beating was severe, by all estimates. King was dropped from the start by a baton to the face. He was hit with batons over 50 times after that.
One of the officers, after being informed that King worked at Dodger Stadium, said, “We played a little ball tonight, didn’t we Rodney? …You know, we played a little ball, we played a little hardball tonight, we hit quite a few home runs… Yes, we played a little ball and you lost and we won.”
But after a grand jury convened and returned indictments for all four officers, a criminal trial – almost a year later – saw three of the officers entirely acquitted on April 29th, 1992.
Though justice was not served in the courts, the widespread discussion and awareness of the video-taping of the beating inaugurated a new era of citizens filming the police in order to hold them accountable in the public’s eyes. After all, even though justice was not served in court, the verdict led to widespread “rioting” throughout Los Angeles. It became clear to all who began filming the police way back then, that officers did not want to be recorded and if they were, their demeanor and attitude would instantly change.
Since the beating of Rodney King, a lot of things have not changed: the killings of Eric Garner, John Crawford and Tamir Rice have all been captured on video in the past year. None of the killer cops have been brought to justice – just like on April 29th, 1992. But one thing has changed: today it has become widely acknowledged that the public has the right to film the police.
Recording the police is easier today than ever. With smart phones we have access to apps like Bamboozer, which can stream video and store it off of the device, so that even confiscation or destruction of the phone would do nothing but make the officer being recorded look even worse.
The struggle against police brutality still continues, but today we carry on revolutionary act of recording the police that essentially began 24 years ago today.
While police accountability must be fought on an individual basis, we have had some victories, scattered among even more losses… But the struggle against injustice continues.
It continues because it must.