ROLE OF THE COURTS

Role of the Courts



Rodney King Incident & the Role of Court

It seemed like an open-and-shut case. The George Holliday video, played on television so often that an executive at CNN called it "wallpaper," showed three Los Angeles police officers--as their supervisor watched-- kicking, stomping on, and beating with metal batons a seemingly defenseless African-American named Rodney King. Initially, few people considered race an issue in the King beating. Even King's own attorney, Steven Lerman, agreed with that assessment . But revelations concerning Powell's "Gorillas in the Mist" message changed things. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley declared, ...