The Rodney King case started in 1991, after a high-speed chase involving King and two of
his friends. After King ran a red light, he finally stops the car as three cop cars and a
helicopter arrive at the scene (Linder, 2001). Allen and Helms, King’s two friends, obeyed
officers’ order, but King remained in the car until Singer shouted for him to get out of the
car. Once King was on the ground, Sergeant Koon told Singer that “we’ll handle this”
(Linder, 2001). Koon had suspicions about King being an ex-con, which was true, was just
a hunch at the time and shouldn’t have had excess force used on him at the time of his
arrest.
After George Holliday released the video of King’s beating, many viewers made a riot for
the justice for King. If it wasn’t for this video, the four officers would not have been held
accountable for any of their actions. This trail was sent to another district so there wasn’t
bad publicity for the LAPD. By holding trail in a predominantly white suburb called Simi
Valley, the jury was made up of ten whites, one Mexican, and one Asian, in which wasn’t a
fair jury. In April of 1992, two officers were found guilty of use of assault with a deadly
weapon while the other two were acquitted.
In result of the two officers’ acquittal, riots occurred daily. There were more than 50 people
killed along with 2,000 people injured from this catastrophe. There were 9,500 people