Sergeant Charles Duke of the Rodney King Civil Rights case: Vehement Defender of Violence

      As my section was discussing Smith's Twilight, 1992 in section this Tuesday, while we were studying Where the Water Is starring Sergeant Duke, I performed a simple google search of his name. What I found was something expected, but also jaw dropping. This article depicts a scene from the Civil Rights court case for Rodney King in 1993. In this Civil Rights case two use of force experts are brought up from the defendants, LAPD and the prosecution. Where Sergeant Canta, the use of force expert for the prosecution describes for six hours the ways that the defending officers were being brutal and out of protocol, which the jury listened intently too. On the contrary when the man interviewed in Smith's novel takes the stand, Duke contradicts basically every point that Canta brings up, and retorts with his own argument that it is within the officers rights to "...beat a suspect into submission if that is what is required to take him into custody" (LA Times). Not only that, but that "...if it takes one blow... or if it takes 8000 blows to overcome resistance, then that's what it takes" (LA Times). He goes on to state that Rodney King, even if he was laying on the ground, was still attempting to resist the army of officers standing around him. It goes without saying that these claims are blatant civil and human rights violation. America is not a police state, officer's are not and never have been allowed to beat down a 'suspect' to no end. Let's say there is a situation where the officers being directly attacked and his safety is in danger, there may be an argument to using more force than in other situations, but in the case of Rodney King, there is video evidence of nothing of the sort. For the sake of length I'll let you consider the situation your self, but these articles do give a lot of material to discuss.

Signed, Logan Hickey



JIM NEWTON | TIMES STAFF WRITER. “Beating of Downed King Broke Policy, Expert Says...” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 4 Mar. 1993, articles.latimes.com/1993-03-04/local/me-324_1_police-policy.

“Sergeant Defends Officers Says Rodney King Was Still a Threat.” Tribunedigital-Baltimoresun, 23 Mar. 1993, articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-03-23/news/1993082219_1_sergeant-conta-duke.