Black History Month Day 6: Rodney King

February 6, 2017

For the African-American community, police brutality isn’t a new issue. 

On March 3, 1991 Rodney King and two friends, Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms were involved in a high speed chase beginning with two members of the California Highway Patrol. When the chase ended, 5 LAPD officers arrived on the scene telling the three men to lie face down on the ground. Bryant Allen was then manhandled, kicked, stomped, taunted, and threatened, and Freddie Helms was hit in the head. King was tasered twice and repeatedly struck with a police wand. At the hospital, King was found to have a broken right ankle, multiple bruises and lacerations, and a fractured facial bone. Hospital nurses reported overhearing officers bragging about the number of times King had been beaten.

As we all know, all 5 officers were acquitted which led to the LA riots of 1992. These riots caused 53 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damage to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $1 billion in financial losses.

Now, did King break the law? Yes. Did he resist arrest? Yes. Did he try to escape the cops in the high speed chase because he was breaking parole? Yes. 

Did ANY of these things give cops the right to beat him to a pulp? NO.

If police officers can somehow manage not to beat or kill a white man with a gun, they can certainly restrain themselves from killing an unarmed Black man, woman, or child. 

Now, yet again for those in the back that don’t seem to hear me: STOP KILLING US. BLACK LIVES MATTER. NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.