The nine minutes of grainy video footage George Holliday captured of Los Angeles police beating Rodney King 20 years ago helped to spur dramatic reforms in a department that many felt operated with impunity.
(George Holliday)
Citizen Camera
Twenty years ago today a citizen with a conscience and a camera videotaped a handful of LA Police Department officers battering Rodney King with their clubs while King lay prostrate on the ground, helpless, unarmed and nonthreatening. The next day, the footage aired on a local news broadcast and then spread with alacrity to national TV. At once, millions of Americans saw what many African American males and their families already knew: Black males were targets of police brutality.
It would be useful to see if conditions have improved, gotten worse or reached an untenable plateau, but the Department of Justice website does not report current and historic data on police brutality. So, we’re left with the memory of King’s beat down.
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