A speeding black motorist was pulled over and senselessly beaten by an entourage of three officers while twelve other officers spectated. The event was taped in full by a resident awakened by the disturbance outside his window, and has been widely circulated amongst news media. The publicity surrounding the beating has caused calls by many public officials for Chief of Los Angelos Police Daryl Gates to resign from his long-held post. These indignant calls have been answered in only by curt refusal by the Chief.
The victim of the beating, Rodney “Glen” King, sustained innumerable injuries to his entire body from the beating, in which the police tased King twice, and beat him over 50 times with metal batons. He now walks with a cane, and his mental stability is in question. Weeks after the incident, police pulled King over again for illegally tinted windows and found him in the company of a transvestite prostitute. In a separate incident, King notified authorities that he believed two undercover officers were about to kill him. Furthermore, King’s testimony regarding the event has been largely contradictory, both to himself and to the video record.
A study commissioned by the city of Los Angelos has concluded that race was a determining factor in the incident. The study cites that members of the LAPD “repetitively use excessive force against the public and persistently ignore the written guidelines of the department regarding force.” The report spells further condemnation for Chief Gates, who has greeted it by calling it old news.
The results of the ongoing trial seem inevitable in face of irrefutable evidence of the video and the harsh indictment of the report.
No comments:
Post a Comment