00:00it was one of the most gruesome displays ever that was actually captured on film
00:10the incident would trigger a chain reaction that left a major american state in utter chaos
00:16let's take a look back at the rodney king story and find out what actually happened
00:22on a saturday evening king and a few of his closest friends would come together to watch
00:28a lakers game on television like most sport gatherings drinks would be spread among the
00:34group after the game concluded the three men would make the poor decision to go for a drive
00:40while under the influence with king being the one opting to get behind the wheel after entering
00:46the los angeles 210 freeway rodney began to speed for miles the highway patrol spotted the group
00:53whizzing by going well over 70 miles per hour they attempted to pull the vehicle over for
00:59a traffic stop with the sirens on king who had a checkered past was currently on probation
01:05after serving time for a robbery of a convenience store he knew it would be a violation if the
01:11cops managed to pull him over instead of stopping on the shoulder of the freeway king decided to
01:16speed up even more and tried to evade the patrol unit he drove more than 100 miles per hour while
01:23fleeing then took an exit towards the main roads king continued to speed through the nearby residential
01:30areas hoping to escape the pursuit but more police units had arrived on the scene and even a
01:37helicopter was dispatched to offer some support after about 15 minutes of a high-speed chase
01:43they managed to corner king and force him to finally stop the vehicle the patrol officers
01:49ordered the passengers out of the car first and told them to lie on the ground face down
01:53they didn't put up much of a resistance to the lawful orders the intoxicated rodney on the other hand
02:01was not as compliant things proceeded to get quite intense once sergeant coon of the lapd took over the
02:08traffic stop a man who lived across the street would capture the graphic events that followed
02:14during the four minutes of footage multiple officers surrounded and beat the unarmed king
02:19they struck rodney over 50 times with their clubs tased him twice and kicked him repeatedly
02:26he then was taken into police custody and provided medical treatment for his severe wounds
02:32rodney had a fractured facial bone a broken right ankle multiple bruises and lacerations when it was
02:39all said and done the police downplayed the injuries and their relentless attack in their official reports
02:46but little did they know the brutal incident and their behavior had been recorded
02:51the videotape would make its way to the local news stations then shortly after it was aired nationwide
02:58police brutality in los angeles neither the police nor the suspect knew that a home video camera
03:05had captured the scene it began as a high-speed chase and ended early sunday morning with the
03:11motorist a black male being brutally beaten and kicked the victim was struck as many as 56 times and
03:16suffered several broken bones 56 times that's what the american public saw on videotape george holiday
03:26lives across the street he had his video camera out and recorded what happened as the suspect was being
03:32arrested for obvious reasons millions found the footage to be quite disturbing many viewers also
03:40claiming the ruthless attack was racially motivated
03:47do you have any idea at all how many times you were hit by a club
03:50what do you remember about that several times several times and then stomped and kicked pick up your
04:01this is something this is something
04:07what is that from that's from um uh some kind of device that they use they um shocked me
04:15they got a big kick out of that what makes you say they got a kick out of it because of how long they
04:23left it in me you know it was like they had a little toy and they wanted to see how it worked
04:29what kinds of things did you hear from the officers did you hear any kind of slurs at all
04:34what do you mean what slurs were there any kind of racial comments made at all oh racial no i didn't
04:42know i didn't hear you you can cut this from the tape if you want but rod's family has made it very
04:50clear that they're not looking to turn this into a racial crusade mr king doesn't want to make uh
04:57make it out as though they did this just because he was a black man they may have been incidental to
05:00it and there may be personal motives that these officers had we don't know about yet but at the
05:04present time it doesn't seem like that shortly after the surge in media coverage king was released
05:12from police custody with no charges filed against him the incident would invoke a widespread
05:18investigation their police chief reprimanded the four officers taking part in the assault
05:24and he too agreed they crossed the line when conducting the arrest
05:28the 15 surrounding officers that stood idly by watching the assault would be suspended as well
05:36the district attorney of los angeles sought to prosecute the four policemen for their actions
05:42all of them were charged with assault with a deadly weapon and excessive use of force by a police
05:47officer additionally two of them were also charged with filing a false police report
05:52the criminal trial would finally be underway several months later 10 of the 12 jurors selected were
06:00caucasian and this caused a great deal of concern for those that followed the unfolding story
06:06as coon testifies it becomes increasingly apparent that the defense is trying to use the tape for its own
06:13advantage surgeon coon at this point in time this incident has just gone on several seconds is that correct
06:20it's gone on seems like an attorney but it's gone on several seconds yes all right and mr king has been
06:26hit several times he's been hit a lot of times and at this point do you believe he's trying to get up
06:34yes i do and what did you think he was trying to get up to do that he was going to get up and arm himself
06:41and possibly uh attack officer wind here in the background officer pal officer brasino after seven
06:49days of deliberation the four officers were found not guilty of assault and three of the four were found
06:55not guilty of excessive force when the verdict was announced within hours unthinkable chaos would break
07:02out in california the rioters began to take over a wide area they looted businesses set fires to
07:10buildings assaulted innocent civilians and even homicides took place it was the most destruction the
07:16united states had ever encountered on its own soil in just three days since the riots had started
07:24more than 50 people were killed 2 000 were injured and nearly 1 billion dollars in property damage had
07:30occurred king would even be asked to appear on television to help calm the situation i just
07:36want to say you know can we can we all get along can we can we get along um can we stop making it
07:46making it horrible for for the for the older people and and the and the kids
07:52it's we'll we'll get our justice um they've won the battle but they haven't won the war
08:00we will have our day in court and that's all we want
08:07we've got to we've got to quit we've got to quit you know after all i mean
08:12i can understand the the first upset for the first two hours after the verdict but uh to go on to keep
08:20going on like like this and to see the security guard shot on the on the ground it um
08:30it's it's uh it's just not right the riots were too much for the local police to handle as the city
08:36had become a war zone both the mayor and the governor of california would request president
08:41bush to deploy the national guards and military in hopes to regain control over 10 000 armed forces
08:49would be sent to the area and only then did the riot crisis stop three months after their acquittals
08:56in criminal court the four officers that originally were found not guilty were then tried in a federal
09:02court for violating king's civil rights sergeant stacy coon and officer lawrence powell were
09:08both convicted and sentenced to nearly three years in prison officer powell was seen delivering the
09:14most club blows in the video coon as the supervising officer failed to control the situation and was
09:20held accountable for it the other two officers were acquitted as the footage suggests officer powell was
09:26the primary attacker the city of los angeles also agreed to pay king 3.8 million dollars for medical
09:33bills and for pain and suffering for the years that followed after the mainstream incident king continued
09:41to have issues with the law and deal with a substance abuse problem in 2012 king would be found floating
09:49lifeless in his backyard pool with alcohol cocaine and pcp in his system he was just 47 years
09:56old what do you think about this story do you think the incident was racially motivated
10:04or did the media blow it out of proportion leave a comment below and let me know
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