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officers - The Black Vault

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(Mount Clipping in Space Below)<br />

No symp3:thy_ for<br />

I<br />

n an orange glow of streetlights· a<br />

policeman raises his baton and<br />

hits the lump of a man on the<br />

ground. <strong>The</strong> man writhes, barely.<br />

<strong>The</strong> baton comes down again.<br />

An.other cop takes a swing.<br />

He,llstop now. He,s not stopping. I<br />

can,t look ·any longer, but I can,t get<br />

L.A. police <strong>officers</strong> did this. One<br />

shot him with an electronic Taser gun,<br />

one beat him with a baton, one<br />

stomped on his face. Twelve fellow<br />

<strong>officers</strong> watched.<br />

Sixty blows to the man lying still on<br />

the ground.<br />

"I was scared," Rodney King said. "I<br />

was scared for my life. So I laid down<br />

real calmly and took it like a man."<br />

And all of L.A., and the nation, saw<br />

.it in rerun after rerun of a videotape<br />

.made by a shocked citizen from the<br />

balcony of his apartment Sunday.<br />

It was sick-to-the-stomach wrong,<br />

way past that line between Right and<br />

Wrong for a nation that George Bush<br />

just described as "caring and good and<br />

generous in all we do."<br />

So while we know all about<br />

innocent-until-proven-guilty, the fact<br />

is, this beating was on videotape.<br />

I saw it. <strong>The</strong> nation saw it.<br />

Paytheman ..<br />

My prediction is that Rodney King<br />

and his lawyers are about to be very<br />

rich. Though I might be judged crass<br />

to say so, my prediction is $6 million,<br />

.and this one won,t be dragged out in<br />

the courts forever, either.<br />

Ws not worth debating whether $6<br />

'million is the right amount, and<br />

:irrelevant that the victim was a<br />

:convicted armed robber. That,s the<br />

:ballpark of jury awards, and LAPD<br />

hardly qualifies for "first offense"<br />

leniency:<br />

• Four <strong>officers</strong> will stand trial this<br />

month on charges of criminal ·<br />

~br11:tal cop~<br />

I Patricia<br />

Burnett<br />

•(Indicate page, name of<br />

newspaper, city and state.)<br />

THE OUTLOOK<br />

Date: FRI • , ~1AR 8 , 19 91<br />

Edition: Front Section, Page 14<br />

Title: NO SYMPATHY FOR BRUTAL<br />

COPS<br />

Character: CIVIL RIGHTS<br />

or<br />

Classifteation: 44A-LA-119954 • 80-3:<br />

Submitting Office:<br />

'<br />

LOS ANGELES<br />

Indexing:<br />

~S~~RC~HE~O------~INO-~-E-0-----­<br />

SERIAUZED fllED·----1<br />

vandalism in the "39th and Dalton"<br />

street case, and the department faces a<br />

$10 million civil suit. In a raid on<br />

FBI - LOS ANGELES<br />

apartments in a black community,<br />

ax-wielding <strong>officers</strong> allegedly destroyed L---============:::!fol:!!:=fJ.<br />

furniture, appliances and walls.<br />

• Baseball all-star Joe Morgan, who<br />

is black, won a $540,000 federal jury<br />

award after being roughed up by an<br />

LAPD officer at the airport.<br />

• Basketball great Jamaal Wilkes,<br />

also black, has flied a complaint that<br />

he was pulled over and handcuffed by<br />

patrol <strong>officers</strong> because his automobile<br />

registration was about to expire.<br />

• And the police chief hiniself was<br />

held liable for $170,000 in damages in<br />

a brutality case involving a Hispanic<br />

man.<br />

<strong>The</strong> chief was not present when the<br />

man's nose was broken and his<br />

daughter was thrown to the ground,<br />

but his leadership was judged a factor.<br />

Whatever the pricetag on the<br />

Rodney King case, we are luckythat<br />

he lived. · ,.<br />

We will be luckier still if Los<br />

Angeles seizes the opportunity to<br />

change the leadership and the<br />

leadership's demands on the men 'JJ,<br />

women of the LAPD.<br />

e.t<br />

<strong>The</strong> cops on the street risk thrC'I!Q<br />

lives .for our safety. llll 1<br />

<strong>The</strong>y need all the support ar<br />

protection we can provide. ~·<br />

1 ·<br />

back-up, communications, WhRi, 1 !<br />

<strong>The</strong>y also need to know ....J~~~~<br />

absolutely - that bigotry a'!n....;~<br />

'<br />

MAl~ 2 0 1991<br />

FBI/00..1

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