Rodney King-LA Window on Police Brutality

Somehow Rodney King survived after a beating by Los Angelo's Police officers captured on videotape on March 6, 1991. The videotape captured the level of brutality that LA police would render to an African-American male traveling in a vehicle in the wee hours of the early morning.

Not only did the videotape show the viciousness of the beating but a picture of King's battered face three days later, revealed the degree in which a group of law enforcers would batter another human being,collectively,especially if the person was a young African-American male.

The officers responsible for this heinous crime would surely spend time behind bars. Instead, A year later, in April 1992, a jury in the predominantly white suburb of Simi Valley acquitted three of the officers of assault and excessive force charges. A mistrial was declared for the fourth officer..But, LA was not so lucky,the moment the street got the news of the police officers' acquittal, LA would experience the worse riot in America's history. Six days of rioting until King appeared and requested the people to rethink the need for revene on hi behalf. The four officers, Stacey Koon, Theodore Briseno, Timothy Wind and Laurence Powell were indicted in the summer of 1992 on federal civil rights charges. Only Koon and Powell were given time in prison. But police relations still remains an issue within the American American community.

For more on Rodney King read this great article:http://hiphopandpolitics.com/2011/03/02/rap-riots-and-rodney-how-rodney-king-changed-hip-hop/