INFAMOUS: Rodney King
- Yasmin Sudarsanam
- Jun 4, 2024
- 4 min read
Trigger Warning: The following case includes depictions of graphic violence. Please read at your own discretion.
The case we are covering today is related to the story of George Floyd, which we covered a few weeks ago, in that both involve brutal attacks on African American men at the hands of a predominantly white police force, and both sparked riots which placed a spotlight on police misconduct and brutality resulting in calls for racial equality and greater police oversight and education. This is the story of Rodney King.
King was born on April 2, 1965 in Sacramento, California to Ronald and Odessa King. His parents raised him and his four siblings in Altadena, California where King attended John Muir High School and was particularly interested in the social sciences. King had several romantic relationships throughout his life including one with girlfriend, Carmen Simpson, with whom he shared a child, Denetta Lyles, and Crystal Waters, although his two marriages to Lyles and Waters ended in divorce.
King was only twenty-five years old at the time of his encounter with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). On March 3, 1991, King was pursued by LAPD cruisers and police helicopters for a nearly 8-mile high-speed chase. When he was finally stopped near Hansen Dam Park, officers pulled him and the two other occupants out of the car, ordering the three to lie flat on the ground, but King was slower to respond than his two companions. Several officers at the scene attempted to force King to the ground, upon which he resisted and the officers discharged an electric stun gun twice. The officers beat him brutally with a baton before stepping on his upper back, kicking his prone body, and finally handcuffing King. Of the many officers and officials present, only one individual attempted to intervene, raising his arm to slow a colleague down in his attack upon King to no significant effect. In the hospital King was discovered to have been struck over 56 times and suffered from a broken right ankle, multiple facial fractures, and countless bruises. The officers attempted to downplay the seriousness of their assault on King and his injuries, claiming that King’s injuries were “of a minor nature.”
However, in a turn of events, amateur cameraman George Holliday filmed the entire encounter from a balcony in an apartment complex across the street, and the truth behind the encounter would come to light through Holliday’s eighty-nine second video, which he sold to a local television station KTLA. From there, it was broadcasted and sold to the national Cable News Network, spreading horrific images of King’s attack across the nation like wildfire.
Ultimately, King was released without any charges being filed against him. However, four of the nine LAPD officers involved, Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Stacey Koon, were indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police officer. Powell and Koon were also charged with filing false reports for their role in attempting to cover up the severity of King’s injuries. The men’s defense attorneys argued in favor of moving the trial venue because of the case’s publicity, which would make finding a fair and unbiased jury difficult, so the trial moved to Simi Valley, a predominantly white suburb in the area. After a three-month trial, a predominantly white jury acquitted the officers despite loud protests to the fact that there were no African American jurors in this case.
The acquittals set off the LA race riots of 1992 just as Floyd’s death would cause riots across the nation nearly three decades later. These riots led to sixty-three deaths, more than 2,000 injuries, and over 9,500 arrests for rioting, looting, and arson. Eventually, the riots were quelled by military troops after President George Bush ordered federal officers to LA. On the third day of the trial, King famously pleaded for peace, stating, “People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? Can't we all get along?”
The United States Department of Justice later fined civil rights charges against the four officers, and in August of 1992, Koon and Powell, were found guilty of using unreasonable force under color of law although the other two were acquitted once again. In a separate civil trial, a judge awarded King $3.8 million for the physical injuries he sustained as a result of the encounter. King had sued on the grounds that he had suffered numerous skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken bones, kidney failure, and emotional trauma as a result of the city’s negligence.
The riots and violent aftermath of the trial resulted in the resignation of former LAPD Chief Darryl Gates, and he was replaced by an African American chief, Willie Williams, who proceeded to introduce the changes recommended by a commission charged with investigating the riots. In interviews decades after the incident, King spoke about his journey to emotional and physical recovery, including his forgiveness toward the officers who took part in the violent assault. Unfortunately, he continued to face challenges throughout his life, including alcoholism and several encounters with the law. King pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of psychoactive drugs in 2004, was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence in 2005, and was found intoxicated and bleeding from non-fatal gunshot wounds in 2007, likely also due to a domestic dispute. He shared his story through his memoir published in 2012 titled The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. King was found deceased in his swimming pool in Rialto, California on June 17, 2012 at the age of 42 by his fiancee, Cynthia Kelley, who was one of the jurors in a later suit filed by King; a medical examiner determined his cause of death to be drowning and noted no signs of foul play.
Truly, Rodney King’s encounter with the LAPD and the subsequent riots across Los Angeles highlighted the racial biases and overuse of force by the department and marked yet another step on the journey to racial equality in the eyes of law enforcement in the United States.
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