Riots break out after Rodney King Verdict

I did not follow this trial real closely. I did think that the cops who beat Rodney King would be found guilty of something.

I was away from home on army evaluation when I heard the news of the "no guilty" verdict. I then remember watching a motel TV showing the rioting in LA that followed. There was fellow walking out of a electronics story with a TV in his arms. A reporter stuck a microphone in his face and asked him "why are you stealing the television". The thief replied, "I'm not stealing anyting. This TV is free".

When I got back to Mill Valley, I remember my sons going on a protest march from Tam High School to the Golden Gate Bridge.

This event was also major news in the Korean community, because many of the stores that were burned down belonged to Korean immigrants.

Hear news of the riots follow the trial of Rodney King.

On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was the driver of a car in Los Angeles, California, and Bryant Allen was a passenger in the back seat. The driver didn't stop when signaled by a police car behind him, but increased his speed. One estimate said that King drove at 100 miles per hour for 7.8 miles.

When police finally stopped the car, they delivered 56 baton blows and six kicks to King, in a period of two minutes, producing 11 skull fractures, brain damage, and kidney damage.

A man named George Holliday, standing on the balcony of a nearby building, videotaped the incident. The next day, March 4, he gave his 81-second tape to Los Angeles TV channel 5. By the end of the day, March 4, the video was being broadcast by TV stations worldwide.

Unaware that the incident had been videotaped, the police officers filed inaccurate reports, not mentioning the fact that Rodney King was left with any head wounds.

On March 15, 1991, four police officers were arraigned on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and use of excessive force. The four police officers charged were Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, Ofc. Laurence M. Powell (Larry Powell), Ofc. Theodore Briseno, and Ofc. Timothy Wind. On March 26, they pleaded not guilty.

The trial of the police officers was relocated from Los Angeles to the suburb of Simi Valley, in Ventura County, despite objections of the prosecution that the two communities have "different demographics." The jury was selected from a neighborhood in which many people have friends or family members who are police officers, but the likelihood of pro-police bias was not viewed by the court as a prejudice to dismiss prospective jurors.

Almost a year passed between indictment and the start of the trial. Testimony began March 5, 1992.

On April 29, the jury acquitted the four defendants.

Summary: Four white police officers had been acquitted by a white jury selected from the suburbs of assaulting a black man in the city.

Thousands of people in South Central Los Angeles responded to the verdict with several days of rioting. The violence spread to other parts of Los Angeles County. Federal troops and the California National Guard were mobilized to quell the riots. In six days of rioting, 54 people were killed, 2,383 were known to have been injured, and 13,212 people were arrested. There was an estimated $700 million in property damage in Los Angeles County. [Figures are from the book Fires and Furies : The L.A. Riots -- What Really Happened , by James D. Delk (1985) [Click here for information about buying the book] ]

The first person to be arrested in Los Angeles (on April 30, the second night of rioting) was Donald Coleman, accused of throwing a molotov cocktail into a 7-Eleven store. (He was convicted later in 1992, and sentenced to 19 years and 8 months in prison.)

The rioting spread to a lesser extent to several other cities. 300 people were arrested in Atlanta, Georgia.

On May 2, the U.S. Justice Department announced that a federal grand jury had been empaneled to investigate civil rights violations by the four police officers.

Reuters news bulletin: "June 26, 1992 - Amnesty International accuses Los Angeles police of widespread use of excessive force, sometimes amounting to torture."

The officers were arraigned on federal charges on August 5, 1992. On April 17, two of the four defendants were convicted.