officers - The Black Vault

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. REA~ON
Augusttsepterber 1992
BffiER FED T AN DEAD
Why make police brutal1ty a federal case?
BYOIRKROG1
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he video images of Los Angeles police officers beating ec tion. Some wondered why the Depanmem of ' Juslice hadn't
Rodney King shocked the nmion. American.• rarely have ac d sooner. Others. including some libertnrion.o;, asked why a
an opportunity to view. much less contemplate, the excessive fec!f:ral prosecution did not constitute double jeopardy. .
u~e of state power by the police. Reactions ro the officers' (:IJic(tJ:o Triblme columnist Stephen Chnpman. for insrance.
acqu iual ranged from surprise to visceral anger, from calls the federal prosecution ··a trial mounted for political ends.''
stunned disbelief to lhe pyrotechnic. . Is ,his second trial taking pluce only because. as Chapman
I personally experienced !he anger. By chance, I drove ar~res, George Bush "wants to look responsive to the black
through South-Central Los Angeles seve_ral hours after the coTmunity"? Are we retrying rhe four officers because the jury
verdict. My car wao; attacked and badly damaged. Even as I didp't get It right the first time'?
escaped unharmed. I appreciated the irony of my predica- ~e Constitution indeed proteC[S the LAPD officers from
ment: I had spenl th~ past five years prosecuting police-bru- do~~le jeopardy ..Sul rhe tederal governmenl can independently
tality cases for the Department of Justice. J Y~ns as p!'iecute a police·brutality c~. even ufter an acquitlnl in a
disappointed as any at the jury's verdict. !StD. courr. for good rettSon. Residents of the Uniled States are
. Despite the department's pending inve!itigation of the Rod· ex ected to obey bmh federal laws und the laws of the state in
ney King beating. only after the state acquittal did the press and whfch they reside: the laws themselves. and the level of punish·
public become aware that the officers still faced federal p~os- m_ept meted out for ~reaking £hem. ~un differ. _ ~·---·- _,
3Sreason
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JUL 20 ' 92 1 3: 15