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1. Hard to believe, but today marks the 28th anniversary of LAPD officers beating Rodney King. On March 3, 1991, officers used tasers and batons to subdue King after ordering him out of his car. KTLA soon release video shot by civilian George Holliday, sparking national outrage.
2. The beating appeared so severe—and went on so long—that many believed the officers involved would be convicted of brutality. But, on April 29, 1992, four officers were acquitted leading to the Los Angeles uprising that killed 63 and injured thousands.
3. It’s been startling to me how easily our national conversation seems to have forgotten this cornerstone of American race relations with police. It was not the first time police violence led to civil unrest. But it was literally the first viral video of police brutality.
4. Before Michael Brown, Jr. in Ferguson, there was Rodney King in LA. And it is difficult to overstate the cultural shockwaves of the incident.
5. The violent response to the officers’ acquittal was the necessary context for the OJ Simpson trial, with pundits expressing concern for the city’s safety if a Black man were convicted of murder when a bigoted White officer was involved in the investigation.
6. The events in Los Angeles led President Clinton to create the Office of Community Oriented Police Services (COPS Office) at DOJ, which led to an explosion in community oriented police reform and still supports research and reform efforts around community ownership of police.*
7. *at least it did until the current administration. Also, the rest of the bill that established the COPS Office, the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act...did not age well.
8. It also literally ended an era in Black representation. The acquittal of four LAPD officers was handed down the day before the final episode of the Cosby show.
9. On the original airing of that show, Cosby himself—at the time a towering figure embodying Black respectability—pleaded for folks in LA to “stay inside and watch the Cosby Show” rather than turn to violence. The contrast between Cosby and the nightly news was a chasm.
10. Now, 28 years on, the idea that filming the police is necessary for accountability is canon. The sense that there won’t be accountability for excessive force is widespread among Black communities. But it’s crucial to remember: none of this is new.
11. As we approach the 2020 election cycle, police accountability will be an issue. The recommendations that followed the King incident closely mirrored the recommendations of Obama’s 21st Century Task Force report...which closely mirrored the Kerner Commission Report of 1968.
12. But the actions the nation has taken are far far short of the recommendations we have given ourselves for the better part of a half-century. Maybe that’s because we seem to forget that we do this to ourselves every 20 years or so...
