High Speed Chase Leads to Severe Beating

Rodney King was an African American man who is known around the world as a man who was publicly beaten by four officers in Los Angeles. He was beaten after a high speed chase on a California highway. After King finally stopped the car, officers pulled him out of the car and began beating him with their police baton (Mydans,Seth). The beating was recorded by a bystander. The officers of this case were acquitted on all charges. The account on which they were acquitted under were self-defense accounts. The officers claimed they felt their safety was in question because they thought King was dangerous since he led them on a car chase for eight miles (Mydans, Seth). My issue with this is that at the time when he was pulled out of the car, how could he have possibly still have been a threat? Why couldn't they just have hand cuffed him, arrested him and file charges against him. In addition, another issue that I have is how could four officers who were recorded beating a man violently have their safety in question. I don't believe it took multiple hits and bruises to King's body for the officers to realize that he was not dangerous.

The devastating part about this case was that it had no changes in the legal system and there were many cases to follow after this. This case shows how the legal system failed Rodney King and his supporters in the 1990's .

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