Rodney King
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Rodney Glen King (born April 2, 1965 in Sacramento, California) is an African-American taxicab driver who, in 1991 was stopped by Los Angeles Police Department officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Sergeant Stacey Koon) after being chased for speeding. A bystander, George Holliday, videotaped much of the event. Part of the video was broadcast around the world and shows four LA police officers restraining and repeatedly striking a black man, while four to six other officers stand by. There is no part of the tape that shows Mr. King attacking the officers, as some have claimed.
The resulting public outrage raised tensions between the black community and the LAPD, and increased anger over police brutality and issues such as unemployment, racial tension, and poverty in the black community of South Central Los Angeles. The four officers were tried in a state court for using excessive force, but were acquitted. This sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
