Kolb 02

Police brutally and police management
The 1991 beating of Rodney King highlights abuse as one of the most pressing civil rights issues in the United States. It demonstrates that racism is still very real and that people continue to be treated based on the color of their skin. It was one of "the most visible uses of force by police in this country’s history" and put the issue of police brutality on the national agenda (Mydans 1). The King beating set off a chain of events that enflamed racial, ethnic, and social tensions in Los Angeles. It caused six days of riots and rebellion, calls for structural reforms of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. It also caused the resignations of the mayor of Los Angeles, the chief of police, and the Los Angeles County district attorney. This event shows how one officers actions can effect how police officers and police mangers are see by the public. This Civil liability is something that all police mangers will have to deal with at some point in their career weather it be a real case or someone putting a false case in.
On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was driving a car in Los Angeles, California, with a passenger, Bryant Allen in the back seat. When King was signaled by police car behind him, but he did not stop, and increased his speed. One estimate stated that King drove one hundred miles per hour for about eight miles, while being chased by police officer Melanie Singer of the California Highway Patrol. When King finally pulled over Officer Singer instructed King to move away from the vehicle and to assume a prone position on the ground. However, other officers soon arrived and took over (Garcia 1). A bystander captured the events that unfolded next on videotape. As the videotape begins, it shows that King rose from the ground and charged toward Officer Powell. Powell took a step and used his baton to strike King on the side of his head. King fell to the ground. For the next few seconds of the videotape, King attempted to rise, but Powell and another officer each struck him with their batons to prevent him from doing so. Then, Powell administered repeated blows to King’s lower extremities; one of the blows fractured King’s leg. Then, Powell struck King on the chest, and King rolled over and lay prone. At that point, the officers stepped back and observed King for about ten seconds then began to reach for their handcuffs. After watching him, Officer Briseno stomped on King’s upper back and neck. King’s body writhed in response.After this, Powell and Wind started to strike King again with a series of baton blows, and Wind kicked him in the upper thoracic about six times. Finally, King put his hands behind his back and was handcuffed (Garcia 3).
On the witness stand, Koon and Powell explained that they beat Rodney King because he failed to follow instructions.Even though King did lie facedown on the ground, as the officers instructed him to, but he ignored their orders to keep his arms straight out to the sides. He had his elbows bent, with his hands closer to his shoulders. Police described this as "a push-up position"(Lepore 3) and interpreted it as an indication that King was preparing to try to get up off the ground. Therefore, Koon and Powell insisted they were not permitted by the rulebook to handcuff King at that time. They said they were required by regulations to continue to beat King with their batons, and shock him with the taser, until such time as his arms were straight, and only then, could they handcuff him.The number of police on the scene when King was beaten included twenty-one officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and four officers from the California Highway Patrol. With twenty-five officers present, it would have been possible to handcuff King at any time. Nevertheless, Koon and Powell testified that formal police procedure forbade them to handcuff the suspect until he complied with their orders to straighten his arms out.On the witness stand, Koon said Rodney was "an aggressive, combative suspect." In an allusion to the huge comic book character, the Hulk, Koon called King a "monster" with "Hulk-like strength". Koon said his actions were based in part on his assumption that King was "probably an ex-con" and "probably on PCP" (Lepore 4). These are perfect examples of racial profiling; the only reason that Koon would have thought those things is because the suspect, Rodney King, was African-American. There is no way to look at a person and know if they have been to jail or prison before. The only reason that Koon would have entertained these thoughts is the fact that King had a different skin color than his own. Regardless of potential background, even ex-con’s have the same rights as everybody else, they have paid their debt to society, and thinking someone is an ex-con does not give a police officer the right to beat them.On March 15, 1991, four Los Angeles police officers: Sergeant Stacey Koon, and Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno, were charged in state court with felony assault related charges from the King beating. On April 29, 1992, the Simi Valley jury found the four police officers not guilty of committing any crimes against Rodney King, with the exception of one count of excessive force against Officer Laurence Powell. The judge declared a mistrial on that count (Garcia 6).
This is when "all hell" broke lose. When the verdict was announced riots and rebellion ripped through Los Angeles.The police were captured on videotape abandoning the neighborhood around Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles, which became a haven for the riots and rebellion. Reginald Denny, an Anglo truck driver, was pulled from his truck and beaten at the intersection. A news helicopter captured the beating on videotape. Fidel Lopez, a contractor and a Guatemalan immigrant, was beaten on videotape near his home near the same intersection. Choi Sai-Choi, an immigrant from Hong Kong, was dragged from his car, beaten and robbed on videotape. these incidents were further examples of people acting based on racism. Earlier the policemen attacked a drunk driver because he was not white. Now there were cases where African-Americans were attacking people because they are not African-American. This just demonstrates that there still exists a significant problem with racism today. The problem is not limited to the authorities, because the people the police are paid to protect are acting with the similar bias. People from Guatemala or Hong Kong did not attack Rodney King, but rioters view these people as a different race than their own, and were attacked.In Los Angeles, fifty-six people died during the violence
Now that the background on this case is covered one might wonder what kind of impact this has on the police and the police mangers who hold the responsibility for this. First before this took place politicians (not police leaders) took away the carotid control hold from LAPD officers, and the baton became a first resort when a suspect resisted arrest. The carotid control was believed to be killing people even though the carotid remains a very effective tactic that is still widely used by many agencies. Everyone wants to blame the police instead of the drugs or other mental/medical conditions of the suspect that lead to the bizarre behavior that must be controlled. The baton should never be the first thing a police officer goes for when fighting with a suspect. The LAPD management was not watching the reports that were coming in about excessive force. They turned a blind eye to it. One stat found, Of the approximately 3,600 reported uses of force per year (during over 300,000 arrests), more than 1,000 of the cases involved baton use. That is just the ones that reported that number could be much higher. Management recoiled in horror after the King video. A couple of years later, the top assistant chief was on a radio talk show and literally stated, "We didn't know, we just didn't know," when asked about the policy and training and why the baton was used so much. That's management negligence. They had literally over 3,000 reports of police using to much force when making a arrest.