officers - The Black Vault

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lOS ANGELES TIMES
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I Dashing the Po-s~s-i b-il-i-ty-----l~:n: =g· sE6fig~~ 2 PAGE 5
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·Rodney · Kfrig"r""Had "Wey·
read-and dismissed-the
computer transcripts P.escriping
we black people as ani-
mals (specifically gorillas)?:
Until there are great
changes in the LAPD,
people of color can
hardly tell their children Could they ignore the testi- 1
·mony of emergency room
that police are friends. · personnel about -one officer's ,
By KAREN GRIGSBY BATES
'Growing up in the 1950s, most
elementary school children of all
races were taught to respect authority,
to salute the flag Vfhen it was
presented to us, and to always know that
if we found ourselves in trouble, if there
was an emergency, "the policeman is
your friend."
Policemen, in the '50s, at least in my
Connecticut hometown, were presented
as benign, avuncular figures; they were
guys who shepherded lost dogs home,
patted little kids on the head and
cheerfully told you which way to go to
·get to the public library. ··
I don't know many black people who
stop policemen and ask for directions
anymore. Mostly they give a wide berth,
and, after yesterday's verdict in the
Rodney King trial, that berth will get
1 wider still.
· I watched the verdict come in as I
bounced my 8-month-old son on my .
knee. My mouth tightened in grim
disbelief as verdict after "not guilty"
verdict from a jury with no African-Americans
came back. My mind's eye
flashed back to tales of trials in the
segregated Deep South, trials wherewhen
they occurred at all-smirking
white defendants who had assaulted or
'killed black people walked away, ac­
~ quitted by a jury of what was indeed
their peers.
Listening to the television's drone,
one part of me grunted in resignationsame
ol' same ol' -and the other part
just couldn't grasp it. The verdicts defied
_logic. Had not the jury seen the same
tape I did, the one that showed the
, officers in question pounding away at
menacing jocularity as King !
lay bleeding from the injuries :
administered by the same of-:
ficer? Obviously, they could and did. So I ·
learned some things from the King trial: .
-Southern California needn't be so'
smug about how far it's come in race.
relations. Simi Valley is thousands of~
physical miles away from Johannesburg.:
But some similarities are disturb-j
'There's a considerable
distance between collaring
criminals and the practice of
harassing citizens because
they happen to be black and
male and thus automatically
suspect.'
ingly familiar, and the suburban hostility
directed toward Los Angeles, with its
multiracial population .and its urban·
challenges, would look right at home on
"World News Tonight."
-The policeman, at least . for the
moment, is not my friend. Many people
'eel the Simi Valley jury's verdict has
handed the LAPD an open season, a
license to hunt its minority citizenry.
African-Americans and Latinos felt beleaguered
enough by the .police before
Rodney King. It doesn't take a rocket
scientist to envision a worst-case see- :
nario: angry young men of color who
will do anything to keep from being
stopped because ~hey don't want to turn
into another notch on some cop's baton.
As I write this; elected officials, civic
leaders ~~~ les, t~~olice dep~~~~t
Title:
DASHING 1HE POSSIBILITY
OF TRUST
Character: 44Aor
Classification: 80-33B
Submitting Office:
LOS ANGELFS
Indexing:,__ __________ _.,
SEARCHED • INDfXED _--=-fr
SERIALIZEO. _ _.! IS;/r....... ILEOV'~-..:::~::;;....-
MAY 0 5 1992
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