officers - The Black Vault

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.---------_..:... __ _;_;__;:;___;.. __ __;.. ________ ---ioate:LOS ANGELES TIMES
Edition:SUN, APRIL 14, 1991
FRONT SECTION, PAGE 1
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Has Police Beating of King .
Ta~en the Luster Off L.A.?
• City: Videotaped brutality fflises questions of how far
'the new Ellis Island' has come fron.t racism of the past.
By FRANK CLIFFORD
·:riMES URBAN AffAIRS WRITER
century -old form of government is
up to solving the problems of a
modern multicultural society.
Ironically, the crisis comes at a
heaqy time in the city'!! history and
challenges the city's modern sense
J;..ike Selma, Ala., during the civil
rights movement of the 1960s or
Boston during the school busing
crisis a decade later, Los Angeles
finds itself in the aftermath of the . I NEWS ANALYSIS )
. Rodney G. King beating the princi- ...._____:...;..;.........;;.......:..;.;:______.
p;U player in a nationa1 morality of itself as the "Capital of the
play.
Pacific Rim" or "the new Ellis
The specter of institutional rae- Island."
ism has been raised in a city that "Los Angeles is enacting the
prides itself in its ethnic diversity. drama of the '90s," said author
People from all over the world are Kevin Starr, who is writing a
asking whether the nation's new multivolume history of Southern
melting pot has become a caldron California. "People are looking at
of racial hostility. As official efforts L.A. and asking if local governto
resolve the crisis seemingly go ment, if traditional institutions can ·
nowhere, concerns are being handle the pressure-the crime
voiced about whether the city'~ . and poverty, the cultural ancfenvi--
rbnmental tensions-that accomp~ny
the kind of social change
Southern California is experienc- ·
• i~g."
T'
he
images ofwhite Los Angel-
, es police officers beating a
black motorist raises a vexing
question. Is Los Ang~les really all
tp.at changed? Or did George Holli­
~ay's
now infamous home movie
capture the ghosts of the Zoot-Suit
riots, the Sleepy Lagoon frame-up
a,'nd other horrors from a racially
troubled past the city would prefer
to forget? .
--+There have been videotaped police
beatings in at least a half-doz­
ElJ;t other cities. But none .caught the
eye of the world like the King
"incident.
; "People tend to look to Los
4,ngeles," said the black m~yor of
~no~her city, who asked to remain
anonymous. "L.A., · or Southern
California, has always been seen as
t.):le laboratory for the nation, as the
tale place where ideas and trends
. are tried out first. .
i "So, if you have an experiment
go awry, it's bound to make a big
itnpression."
· Los Angeles City .councilman
Robert Farrell, who is black, said
Title:HAS POLICE BEATING OF KING
TAKEN THE LUSTER OFF L.A.?
Character: CIVIL RIGHTS
or
Classification: 80-3 3 B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELES
APR 17 1991
FBI -
LOS ANGELES p
the King videotape stood out in the
tpinds of people· because it repres.ented
something frighteningly
American.
: "It fit an American stereotype, a
l~gacy of slavery-a gang of w:hite
inen brutalizing a helpless black,"
Farrell said. ··
i Halford Fairchild, a black psy-
4hologist practicing in Los 'Angeles,
agreed. "What was unmasked
; bY. .this incident was the dark side
of America."
; For Los Angeles, the fallout
·f;rom "the King beating is acutely
embarrassing because the city has
~orked so hard in recent years to
promote itself as a haven for people
Qf all colors and creeds. .
: "The incident is painful because
it forces us to look at the difference
l:letween what we are as a society
~nd what we would like to be,'' said
Richard Weinstein, dean of
UCLA's School of Architecture and
Urban Affairs.
: Added Sharp James, the mayor
of Newark, N.J.: "I think it has
hurt Los Angeles because it contradicts
the city's image of a melt­
~ng pot. You think of Los Angeles
as this advanced, open society and
all of a sudden it's behaving like
some Southern backwater.
: "I saw people W!'ltching that
videotape who cried. You can't
have a reaction like that without
changing your view of the city.''
: People. were shocked to see it
J;lappen m Los Angeles because
'·'they have such a benign view of
the city,'' said Xavier Hermosillo,. a
FBI/OOJ