officers - The Black Vault

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D-350 (Rev. 6-!·8"1}
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Blacks Not
Surprised
by Leak in
King Case
• Judiciary: Community leaders
· have been suspicious of the
i
system's treatment of
African-Americans. Still, they
are incensed that a strategy
memo on the trial ended up in a
defense attorney's hands.
••
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LA TIMES
LOS ANGELES, CA
oce: SUN. ll-22-92
Eci!IOn: METRO
PG Bl
'nile:
BLACKS NOT SURPRISED BY
LEAK IN KING CASE
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FBI- LOS ANGELES
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By MARC LACEY
TIMES STAFF WRITER
Nothing is surprising anymore, say those
in the black community who have followed
the Rodney G. King beating case through
the not guilty verdicts, the worst civil
unrest in modern U.S. history and reports
last week that a confidential Justice Department
memo was leaked to the defense.
"The worst thing about the leak, the
thing that makes it so sad, is that it didn't
really surprise me," said Ralph Sutton, a
member of the Brotherhood Crusade. "The
justice system continuously seems to be
taking black people for granted."
Celes King, state chairman of the Congress
of Racial Equality, said: "It's almost
as if this whole affair has become a sitcom.
What could possibly happen next?"
When the federal government announced
the indictments of the four Los
Angeles police officers on civil rights
charges in August, many who had been
jaded by the not guilty verdicts in the state
trial were elated.
"I think that this action," Mayor Tom
Bradley said at the time, "is going to help
bring about a sense of confidence on the
part of the people that this system is now
working."
But the leak of the secret strategy
document has only reinforced widespread
suspicions among many about the fairness
of the judiciary. Although the ramifications
of the unauthorized release remain unclear,
the credibility of the government's effort
toolc a maior blow.
"There. was already little comfort in the
justice system," said Councilman Mark
Ridley-Thomas. "Anything that further
diminishes the integrity of the judiciary
... foments cynicism, despair and ultimately
lawlessness and anarchy."
It was outrage over the verdicts, Ridley­
Thomas said, that led to the outbreak of
rioting on April 29 amid cries of "No
Justice, No Peace." Also fresh in everyone's
mind, he said, was the controversial
case in which Korean-born grocer Soon Ja
Du was given probation for fatally shooting
black teen-ager Latasha Harlins.
The internal Justice Department memo,
which outlined the prosecution's case and
questioned the credibility of King and
others as witnesses, was apparently mailed
to Michael P. Stone, the attorney for officer
Laurence M. Powell. After word of the leak
got out last week, an~y members of
Congress called for a swift inquiry into who
was responsible.
Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood
Crusade, said he is convinced that
race is a factor in all the twists and turns of
the case.