officers - The Black Vault

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0·350 (Rev. 5·8·81)
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p. .L
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
iF~B~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~West Covina, California
ently ha~dcuffed King on t~e
Probes ground w1th three officers striking
him repeatedly with their
., ng of b~tons. A_t one point, one officer
kicked Kmg.
beat King, who was treated at a
• ~earb~ h~spital, was booked for
mves_tlgatio~ of a fe~ony count of
evadmg pollee officers. He re·
motorist mained in custody Tuesday at
From taff d
the County-USC Medical Center
s an w 1 re reports jail ward on a "no bail" hold.
· LOS ANGELES Officer Don Lawrence, a
·and the District Atto Th~ Fgf.I spo~esman for the Lo~ Angeles
fi b . . ~ey s - Pollee Department, said he had
:Jce . egan an mvestlgatlon Tues- no information about King's con·
~ ay mto. what. appeare.d to be a dition.
-brutal mghtstlc~ beatmg of an However King's brother Ron
~tade 1 l!a
motonst by ·Los Ange- told television station KCAL
. po Ice, an assault that was Chann 19 th t 1' h db k
;captured on videotape by a near- . e , a po Ice a ro en
by re_sident and described as hi~, brothers leg.
;shockmg by Los Angeles Mayor · W?Y would they beat some­
.Tom Bradley.
one h~e that? They beat him and
"This is something we cannot ·beat hrm and beat him," he told
an? will not tolerate," Bradley KCAL.. .
said after viewing the video Officials With both the Alta­
The videotape sliows an appar- OaEdlttlone: : 3 1 6 1 91
:showing a group of police offi- dena and Pasadena chapters of
'cers clubbing and kicking 2S- the ~AACP S!lid. they would in-
;Year-old Rodney Glenn King as vestlgate the mCident. .
:he lay on the ground. "I am as "My blood's boiling," said
·shocked and outraged as any- Altadena NAACP Presi'dent
'o. ne."
l A .copy of the videotape, shot
.by a Lake View Terrace man
.early Sunday, was turned over
to the Police Department's Internal
Affairs Division for an investigation
of whether officers used
.excessive force, Deputy Police
Chief William Booth said. ·
, FBI agents also entered the
;prob.e Tu~s~a~ to investigate
;poss1ble civil-nghts violations
fF~I spokesman Fred Reagan
:said. .
. The incident started about
:1 a.m. Sunday when California
;Highway Patrol officers tried to
stop a·car traveling in excess of
~00 mph near the intersection of
.the Foothill and Simi Valley
,Freeways, said police Capt.
Thomas McBride, commander of
the department's Foothill Divi-
~ion. ·
~ At the request of CHP officers,
.Los Angeles police joined the
;chase, and the motorist was pull­
;ed over on Foothill Boulevard in
iLake View T~rrace. . ·-
Tony Stewart. "It's . terrible to
think this kind of thing can happen
in America."
The videotape drew outrage
from black groups and civil lib­
·ertarians. ·
"The time has come to take a
very deep look at what the de·
partment does," said Ramona
Ripston, executive director of
the Los Angeles chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
The police chief "must be held
responsible for this kind of brutal
response." .
Ripston claimed police brutality
is copunon in the city.
"The difference this time is we
have the .. ptobf. We have it on
tape," she ·said.
Altadena community activist
Ralph McKnight, who was elect-
ed this weekend as co-chairman
of the Rainbow Coalition state
caucus along with state Sen.
Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles,
called for Gates' resignation and
the dismissal of the officers involved.
.
nue:
Daily
FBI PROBES BEATING OF
MOTORIST
Character:
ot
Classification:
Submitting Office:
Civil Rights
8 0 ~ ~ R
1;'0-s- An g e 1 e s
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"rm so' furious about this
thing I can barely think or talk
cordially," McKnight said. "The
most tragic part of this whole
thing is we don't know how
many of these types of incidents
go on .all the time." ,
The beating was recorded by·
George Holliday, 31, who said he
videotaped the incident from his
apartment balcony. His tape was:
broadcast repeatedly Tuesday
night on national news networks
and local television stations .
MAR 2 0 199·1
f'BIIOOJ