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Rodney King reluctant symbol of police brutality

1991 Amateur videotape showed police officers beating King after a car chase

In this story: 'Never chose to be an icon' Opportunities lost to fight racism Scandals of LAPD Problem of racial profiling RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

LOS ANGELES, California -- Rodney King became a reluctant symbol of police brutality a decade ago when amateur photographer George Holliday provided evidence that was hard to ignore.

The videotape Holliday shot showed several white Los Angeles police officers using their batons to beat King, who had led them on a car chase after they tried to stop him for speeding, was broadcast around the world.

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But a Los Angeles jury seemed to ignore the video evidence. And when the four policemen charged with the beating were acquitted, it set off the worst riot in U.S. history.

Milton Grimes, who became King's attorney, said he brushed off reports of the March 3, 1991 incident until he saw the video.

"When I first heard it from the person who called me, I'm going, 'I don't have time, I'm busy. Yeah, another brother got his butt whipped and what am I going to do about it?'" Grimes recalled.

"Until I saw the video, until we saw it on video, I didn't believe it to that degree," he told CNN'S Greta Van Susteren.

Former Los Angeles prosecutor Christopher Darden also remembers when he saw the shocking images.

"I was in district attorney's office when the video was played for the first time and we were all astounded," he told CNN. "We had a very, very poor record of filing cases against police officers and routinely we found a way not to file cases against police officers. But to see that video that day, we all came to a realization that perhaps we'd been wrong."

'Never chose to be an icon'

The officers accused in the beating said King appeared to be high on something and charged at them.

When the four officers were acquitted a year after the beating, the city erupted in riots in the hours following the jury's verdict. In the four days of violence in South Central Los Angeles, 55 people were killed, 2,383 others injured and more than 8,000 arrested. Damage to property was $1 billion.

Two of the officers were found guilty 1993 in federal court of violating King's civil rights. They served 30 months in federal prison.

In the years since he uttered his famous plea -- "Can we all get along?" in an effort to help bring an end to the riots -- King has seldom spoken in public, even though he has repeatedly found himself in the spotlight.

At the time of the beating, King was a one-time Dodgers Stadium usher who had been convicted of robbery and was on probation.

His life since has been marked by run-ins with the law and squabbles with attorneys over the $3.8 million settlement in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles.

Two months after the beating, King was arrested on suspicion of trying to run down an officer after police in Hollywood allegedly saw him pick up a transvestite prostitute. No charges were filed.

He has been pulled over by police and convicted of drunken driving. He was convicted of hit-and-run driving for an incident involving his wife and later pleaded guilty to spousal abuse in a separate incident. He is on probation until 2003.

Professionally, King flirted with a music career and started a rap label but quickly abandoned it. He earned his high school equivalency degree, went to work for his brother's construction company and practiced his surfing.

"Rodney never chose to be an icon," said Renford Reese, a political science professor at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona who has counseled King and invited him to address his classes. "He got beat one night, and all of a sudden he becomes a symbol for racial reconciliation and police reform. But he was never trained to be a change agent."

Opportunities lost to fight racism

King, now 35, declined to be interviewed for this story.

The acquittal of four officers involved in King's beating sparked riots and outrage

Renee L. Campbell, one of his attorneys, said the memory of what happened on March 3, 1991, still sparks flashbacks and is too painful to revisit.

"Rodney is an ordinary guy, he has the same kind of typical problems that everyone has, normal family problems, what have you," Campbell said. "To his misfortune, because of his celebrity, whatever happens to him, be it an argument or a shouting match, it can get escalated and turned into something completely different than what it was."

Over the years, King handed out gift certificates on Martin Luther King Day and explored plans for a book and a youth foundation. He lives in Pasadena, spending time with his three daughters. King lost about half his settlement money in disputes over legal bills.

Those who hoped he would emerge as a civil rights figure or a force behind police reform have been disappointed.

"I've thought about what an opportunity lost," said Grimes, who was King's attorney from 1992 to 1994 and sued him over legal bills.

"Racism and police brutality was captured on a $300 video camera. We've spent millions of dollars trying to prove it exists, and here we've captured it on tape. Had it been someone more worldly, more articulate, more insightful, the public might have benefited from it."

Scandals of LAPD

After King's 1991 beating, a commission headed by former Secretary of State Warren Christopher released a report on the Los Angeles Police Department. The panel concluded that racism and sexism were widespread and said more should be done to combat the problem of officers using excessive force. Some of the commission's reforms were implemented, some were not.

Christopher said recently that the report had significant results in strengthening the city's civilian police commission, limiting the police chief's term and creating the office of inspector general.

But he said there is still a need for better training, regular psychological testing of officers and a system of tracking citizen complaints.

The report also said Police Chief Daryl Gates should resign, which he eventually did.

The King beating was followed by criticism of how police handled the 1992 riots and later the O.J. Simpson murder case. And now, the department is struggling with a corruption scandal in its Rampart Division that has led to charges against five officers, dismissal of more than 30 others and more than 100 convictions being overturned.

"Rodney King was about police abuse, O.J. was about police incompetence, and Rampart is about police corruption. That's a pretty grim picture for the LAPD," said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola University Law School professor. "What Rodney King taught us is you can't ignore the problems and hope they will go away."

The latest scandal began in September of 1999, when officer Rafael Perez pleaded guilty to stealing eight pounds of cocaine from a police evidence locker. He also told authorities that officers in Rampart Division beat and framed innocent people for crimes they never committed.

Five officers have been charged. One was acquitted, the convictions of three were overturned, and the fifth is awaiting trial on attempted murder charges.

"The King incident was a spontaneous reaction to a middle-of-the-night situation. I think Rampart is worse," said Lou Cannon, author of the book "Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD."

"What went on in Rampart was a lot more cold-blooded," Cannon said. "There was an element of malevolence, of premeditation and planning."

Problem of racial profiling

Recently the city agreed to federal oversight of the LAPD to try to end racial profiling and brutality. The new district attorney has also reinstated a program in which a prosecutor and investigator rush to the scene of any officer-involved shooting to see if charges are warranted.

King shows his injuries from the beating

LAPD Chief Bernard Parks believes racism is now less of a problem than it was at the time of the King beating incident.

He also cited a Department of Justice report that indicated 85 percent approval rate for the police and a large community demonstration in support of police officers.

However, Grimes said racial profiling is still a problem.

"I think if you're not a victim of it, it's hard for you to understand it," said Grimes. "I don't think white America really gets the inconvenience and the humiliation and the harm and abuse of racial profiling."

Parks said some government officials have promised studies of racial profiling, but he is doubtful that will help because there is no protocol to assess the raw data. The chief believes citizen complaints are the best way to indentify and handle the problem.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Five years later, wounds from L.A. riots still sting
April 29, 1997
Rodney King case returns to court
February 20, 1996

Los Angeles Police Department Web site
Justice Department Civil Rights Division
Los Angeles County District Attorney

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