officers - The Black Vault

FD·35.E)"(Rev. 5·8·81)
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The Investigation of a
Videotaped Beating
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Da!~: THURS • , MAR 7 , 19 91
Edition: HETRO SECTION, PAGE 6
Title:
Character:
THE INVESTIGATION OF A
VIDEOTAPED BEATING
CIVIL RIGHTS
Shocking incident leads' to womsome questions about ~.~. p()lice =~ication: 4 4A-LA= 119 9 54 ; 8 0-3 3B
The cops thought nobody was looking-but
• some folks made good use of a video
camera, and now the whole world has
··seen a deeply disturbing and shocking vision: at
. · "" --·· - • · Submitting Office:
ros ANGELES
Indexing:
.-s-EA-RC-HE-o::::::-IN-:-:DEX:-:::EO
least 10 officers, clearly out of control, wielding S~RIAU~EO fiLED _::_-::_-_-_-~ 1
-..their batons like baseball bats, ferociously
MAR 20 1991
:beating and kicking a black man who lay
Jtelplessly on the ground. ·.
This shameful violence committed py Los
·Angeles police officers last Sunday night has
drawn a collective national gasp of horror as the
videotape has played time and again on televi­
:Sion. The victim, Rodney King, was driving at
:speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour on the
Foothill Freeway but re­
·fused to p:ull over, accord­
_ing to the California High­
'v(ay Patrol. The CHP
·requested assistance from
the Los Angeles Police
Department when King
.drove from freeway to
·-surface streets in the Lake
View Terrace section of
the San Fernando Valley.
Whatever King's actions,
there can be no justification
for the brutality.
Mayor Bradley, a former
cop, has strongly
condemned the violence
and the improper use of the batons. He has also.
· called for additional training for officers and
asked the department to determine if there is a
pattern of excessive use of force against minorities.
· · -
So far Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F .
. Gates,'however, has tempered his remarks with
a caution against a quick judgment until a
high-priority internal investigation is completed.
Fair enough, perhaps; the chief is upholding
liis obligation to respect the rights of his
officers. But what about his obligation to
reassure the citizens of this city? Where was his
outrage over the patently inappropriate use of
force by his officers? ·
: Obviously the chief does not endorse· police
• ·brutality. But through ·his occasional shoot-
'i'rom-the-hip, insensitive remarks over the
years ( chokeholds and blacks versus "normal"
From Ocorse Holliday video
Videotape shows LA: police officer about
to beat suspect while others watch.
~people; Latino officers who were "lazy," and
other such comments}, has Chief Gates unwit­
: tingly sent the wrong message to his troops?
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I macho cops to use whatever they can get away
with in their "war" against crime?
Because the victim was black, the incident
inevitably raises questions about police and race
relations in Los Angeles. Is there a disparity
between the treatment of minority men, blacks
particularly, and others? Is there a link between
the r~ent official state findings of discrimination
against b~ack and Latino officers within the
department and the treatment of black and
Latino men who are stopped by police?
Businessman and former Lakers basketball
player Jamaal Wilkes complained recently that
LAPD officers stoppe:d him, ordered him out of
FBI 'OOJ