The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 was an extremely controversial time in American history and also a great stepping stone for civil rights. Rodney King, a parolee under the influence of alcohol, although it had been assumed that he was under the influence of narcotics at the time of the arrest, had run red lights and stop signs and was chased down and detained in South Central Los Angeles on March 3rd, 1991 in the Lake View Terrace district. During his arrest, a local resident caught video of a violent beating on Rodney King by four members of the Los Angeles Police Department. This became a rallying cry for activists in and around Los Angeles and other places in the United States. The video that was captured shows four white police officers clubbing and kicking Rodney King repeatedly.
Alicia Mahadeo SOC. 122/EXTRA CREDITS June 23, 2012 THE RODNEY KING BEATING AND THE LOS ANGELES RIOTS Those of the minority community have been subjected, for many decades, to violence by those in law enforcement in the United States. This type of violence is a direct depiction of police brutality, which often leads to death. Police brutality has been an issue for many years, and it remains a major concern for those of the minority community. Over the past five centuries, black people have endured violence in many different ways.
Police Brutality Steven O’Neal Period 5 There is something that has been on the rise ever since 9/11 and not many Americans know what this is, a sad, but true fact. This is police brutality, where cops abuse their power given to them by law, and mistreat/break rules and regulations. Skateboarders, to wood carvers in Seattle, police around the country have mistreated their power. As many of you know, last year the police officer Ian berk knowingly shot a Native American wood carver named john t. Williams. But what most of you probably don’t know, is that this cop got away with murder, the shooting of john Williams was declared unjustified, and a normal citizen with this charge would do anywhere from 25 years to life in prison.
or a real life experience, at some point in time everybody has heard a police officer read a suspect their rights. The Miranda warning is given by police officers to inform you of your rights. But where did the Miranda warning get its start, and what rights does it actually protect? In 1963 Phoenix, Arizona resident, Ernesto Miranda, was arrested on charges of rape, kidnap, and burglary. During a grueling two hour-long interrogation, Miranda allegedly confessed to these crimes (McBride, 2006).
The riots came about due to racial tensions sparked by the acquittal of three officers accused of police brutality against Rodney King following a high speed chase on March 3, 1991. It would be easy to suggest that the Rodney King trial and verdict was the cause of the rioting, considering the immediate reaction to the news. However, although the acquittal of the police officers was the immediate precipitant, the Los Angeles riots of 1992 were the result of many underlying macro social conditions - specifically racism, social Injustice, and poverty. The living conditions in South Central Los Angeles in the years prior to the riots were below average. The per capita income was less than half that of Los Angeles as a whole, and poverty and unemployment rates were more than twice as high.
A lot of police officer in the racial profiling like the KKK was going on in the past as is with the present time. Being a police officer doesn’t sound very easy to be they accused of too much like beating the opposite race or sex. Like the beating of Rodney King in L.A. that happen on March 3, 1991 there were 17 officers standing by watching the beating without helping Rodney King at all. This whole thing started because Rodney didn’t stop on a traffic stop so it
Racism, a big part of police misconduct, has become a major problem in the police force. Police officers have a tendency to harass the homeless, young persons, and minorities, among with many other groups of people. Every law enforcement officer or other government official, whether federal, state, county, city, municipal, or otherwise, takes an oath of office and promises to serve and to protect. Unfortunately, over the years we have witnessed such abominations as the Rodney King beating, a graphically disturbing atrocity caught on videotape, or the Nathaniel Jones beating in Cincinnati. We read or hear stories about Amidou Diallo, an unarmed man, being shot forty-one times by the NYPD.
Here are the statics: “Since 1989 when the first DNA exoneration occurred, 328 defendants have been exonerated in the United States after being convicted of serious crimes such as rape and murder. The exonerated were 316 men and 12 women; 145 of them were cleared by DNA identification and 183 by other kinds of evidence” (http://www.ur.umich.edu/0304/May10_04/25.shtml). What went wrong? * Eyewitness Misidentification * Improper Forensic Science * False Confessions * Overzealousness/Public Pressure Eyewitness Misidentification Imagine being a victim so frighten and traumatized after such a hideous unimaginable experience. It can be hard, almost impossible to accurately describe the assailant.
The Criminal Justice System locks up innocent people and yet innocent people are still getting killed. Eyewitness misidentification has proven to be the leading cause for wrongful convictions, according to The Innocence Project. The Innocence Project was founded in 1992, for the purpose of assisting prisoners to be proven innocent through DNA evidence. To date, 300 people in the United States have been exonerated through DNA testing. The Innocence Project's attorneys and Cardozo clinic students have assisted in the majority of these cases.
However, alcohol is a different story. Alcohol crime rate is always on the rise every year from driving under the influence of alcohol, domestic violence and murders. An issue on alcohol is people can drink until they vomit. Minorities in high school to adults in college suffer alcohol poisoning and commit crimes such as robberies, domestic violence, drunk driving, public intoxication, assault charges, and other crimes. According to former Seattle Washington Police Chief Norm Stamper PhD, “From beat cop to police chief, I saw ample evidence of the harm caused by