I watched the documentary, LA 92, on Netflix for this
assignment. It recalled first person videos and testimonies and clips from on
lookers, court videos, and news stations.
On of the moments in the documentary that bothered me was
the way the president at the time addressed the rioters. The night George HW
Bush gave his address to the union during the rioting, he claimed, “What we saw
last night and the night before in Los Angeles is not about civil rights. It’s
not a message of protest. It’s been the brutality of a mob, pure and simple…You
must understand that our system of justice provides for the peaceful, orderly
means of addressing this frustration. We respect that the process of law,
whether or not we agree with the outcome.” It’s ironic that the people who are
voicing their opinions about the unjust and racist system are the ones labeled
to be demonstrating “the brutality of a mob,” while the people who, spurred by
racist ideals, brutally attacked a man until he had eleven skull fractures and
brain and kidney damage are the ones we should respect and admire. In addition,
Bush saying that “our system of justice provides for the peaceful, orderly
means of addressing this frustration,” is ignoring all the frustration and
contempt people had and voiced before they began rioting and were therefore labeled
as “a mob.” People voiced their anger and claimed moving the trial to Simi
Valley, where most white cops from the LAPD lived, was unfair. People voiced
their anger when the 17 officers who stood by as King was beaten escaped
indictment. People voiced their anger when Sergeant Stacey C. Koon, Officer
Laurence M. Powell, Officer Theodore Briseno, and Officer Timothy Wind were all
found not guilty and only Officer Powell was found guilty of excessive force. People
voiced their anger when Judge Weisberg declared a mistrial on the one count of
excessive force. There were many chances to see what people were voicing their
opinions about and to stop the injustice, but Bush, along with others, chose
not to hear and see the anger and frustration that was already building up
before King was beat. He chose to attach a mob label to the people who had had
enough, who had voiced their opinions before and wanted justice.
Another thing that bothered me the most from the documentary
was Officer Laurence Powell’s testimony in court. When asked how he felt during
the brutal beating of Rodney King, Officer Laurence Powell stated with a straight
face, “I was completely in fear for my life, scared to death that if this guy
got back up he was gonna take my gun away from me, or there was gonna be a
shooting, and I was doing everything I could to keep him down on the ground.” At
the time of the brutal beating of Rodney King, Officer Powell was surrounded by
17 other Los Angeles Police Department officers and 4 California Highway Patrol
officers. One must question how could a man, backed by 21 of his own comrades,
armed with a baton and firearm, could possibly feel in fear for his life due to
a single, unarmed man? Obviously, it would be ridiculous to think that Officer
Powell would believe a staff of 21 officers was utterly incapable of keeping him
safe in the presence of one unarmed man. So, what could cause Officer Powell to
feel the need to say that he was in fear so he acted on that? The reason was
because he had to back up a lie about his impulsive, racist behavior. That
impulsive and racist behavior gave him a chance to beat a black man however he
wanted because he knew the corrupt system supported him and he could get away
with it. Being white and coming from a majority white law system allowed him to
do as he pleased. But when confronted about it, he claimed he did what had to
be done for self-defense cause there would be even more backlash if he did it
for openly racist reasons.
- Kimberly Carl
- Kimberly Carl
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