King stayed in the car as his friends complied with the orders by the police to get out. When he finally emerged, he waved at the helicopter overhead. He grabbed his buttocks and Officer Melanie Singer interpreted the action as a reach for a weapon and therefore ordered him to lie on the ground as she pointed a pistol at him. Stacey Koon, one of the LAPD Sergeants, ordered the officers to hostler weapons. King resisted the swarm by the officers who attempted to hold him down for arrest.
King was hit by an electroshock weapon and was struck many times by use of metal batons. The four officers kicked him for several minutes before arrest while a helicopter hovered in the sky as it illuminated the incident by use of floodlights. Koon ordered the officers to grab all of King’s legs and arm but King was not compliant and threw them off (Stuart, 2011). They declared their presence and gave commands for him to surrender to the police. They tried to use the tasers on him, but he did not subdue like most people. He charged at Officer Powell and Koon thought that he was on the drug PCP. Koon then instructed two officers to inflict pain on King by use of batons. The beating continued until he complied.
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Results of the beating
The LAPD got a bad reputation from the footage filmed by George Holiday. The public perception of the force was that it entertains police brutality to minorities. Without the videotape recording, the event would not have captured much public attention. Most beatings or police brutality unlikely get media attention and the victim usually end up on the wrong side rather than the police (Martin, 2005).
When Holiday called the police station and attempted to report the beating, the officer was disinterested in filling a complaint as required by law. Holiday, therefore, offered the tape to KTLA, who then brought public attention to the events in the video. A grand jury started to look into the incidence after the screening of the videotape by Holiday and after that, the case involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The four officers faced interdiction as a result of these formal procedures that focus on the police use of force. Tom Owens, a former LAPD officer, involved himself in a series of intimidation and bribery techniques that reduced the number of witnesses that feared reprisals. The chief of police, Gates suffered harassments and threats during the investigation (Ogletree, 1995).
The Rodney King’s beating resulted in the investigation into the police misconduct that was rampant in the police force of the United States at the time. A concept[t that influenced the unawareness of the public was the code of silence that would oblige a police officer not to testify against another officer despite the consequences of his misconduct which might have led to serious injury or even death. None of the law-enforcement officers present at King’s beating reported the inappropriate behavior of their colleagues. In the trial of the four officers directly involved, none of the others was unwilling to give testimonies.
The federal government, through the representation by President George Bush, declared that the federal state would persecute the officers. This statement defused the raised concerns by human rights activists who organized public demonstrations. They influenced the juror’s verdict, and two officers were proclaimed guilty and sent to prison.
Conclusion
Most police misconduct takes place, as the police and the victim are the only witnesses. In case the victim wants to seek justice for the misconduct of police, there is usually no one to corroborate. The beating did not have pauses as required by official guidelines during the arrest that state that the officers need to take breaks between strikes to see if the criminal starts to comply with their commands. Koon reported that the event was brutal but followed recommended procedure. Initially, the court found the four officers not guilty because they blamed the system for the guidelines but widespread outcry reopened the case. Therefore, the officers got treatment as independent and fair participants in the incidence. The officers were indicted and when Chief Gates resigned, the public assumed that new policies get implemented
Recommendations
The officers considered the arrest as appropriate and tried to justify every assault on King in accordance to a model arrest with considered official procedures. If the officer had responded to Holiday’s call appropriately, he would have obtained it and even lost it. The scale of the backfire would reduce or even eliminated.
The deferent opinions on the case generated from the view of whether it was an outcome of the problems in the system or they isolated the incident as a particular case and use of excessive and unnecessary force. During the trial in such cases, the justice system needs to factor in the different perceptions that either criminalizes the victim or highlight internal problems in the justice system. The systematic issues of then police, in this case, include racism, use of excessive force, and rotten police culture during training and recruitment, unreliable complaint systems, bias and gaps in the administrative system for the police department.
King was perceived as innocent as a ‘black motorist’ by the media and the public, and therefore, the beating generated outrage. The police tried to emphasize on the shortcomings and misdeeds, but King’s unobserved devaluation did not match the officer’s misconduct that was evident. Police use of force was justified but highly questionable. The massive riots after the four police officers acquitted showed a lack of justice for the victim.
The media representation of the two officers jailed is a strategy to show a working system and therefore the media should be responsible for ensuring that the policies and reforms used in the justice system are appropriate and protect human rights.
In the trials, official channels should be used to reduce backfire if they can bring real change to the society. The government should always intervene in situations where the rights of a person are not prioritized in a state. This increases in the public’s faith in the government and the system.
Activists and reformers should come up with new ways of exposure of cases that involve abuse. The same type of abuse exists in most high-speed car chases, protests, and interrogations. To prevent backfires, the media should focus on whistleblowers and investigative journalisms to reduce cases of misguided interpretation of video tapes or manipulation of recorded data. Stakeholders of the justice system need to identify the techniques of devaluation that are based on minority groups such as race, poverty, and people with criminal backgrounds. Everyone deserves to be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect despite his or her background.
Social action such as demonstration and riots are evidently more efficient than conventional methods. Participation in protects is a real step that should push reforms (Gale, 1997). Mobilization of social concern influences better on official channels than the provision of evidence in court and the facts on the procedure in an achievement of justice. Immediate action is a venue to expose threats and intimidation thereby dealing with injustice.
References
Gale, D. (1997). Understanding Urban Unrest: From Reverend King to Rodney King. Capital & Class , 21 (2), 203-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/030981689706200121
King, R. & Spagnola, L. (2012). The riot within . New York: HarperOne.
Martin, B. (2005). The Beating of Rodney King: The Dynamics of Backfire. Crit Crim , 13 (3), 307-326. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10612-005-3186-x
Ogletree, C. (1995). Beyond the Rodney King story . Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Stuart, F. (2011). Constructing Police Abuse after Rodney King: How Skid Row Residents and the Los Angeles Police Department Contest Video Evidence. Law & Social Inquiry , 36 (2), 327-353. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2011.01234.x
