It’s strategy on the part of the officers. They shout overlapping and contradictory commands. “Hands behind your back!”,“Lie down on the ground!”, “Get on your knees!”, “Hands behind your head!”, all the while they’re tuning you up with nightsticks and flashlights, with a few kicks thrown in for variety. No matter what you do, including lying absolutely quiescent, you’ve resisted.
You’re probably right. I’ve never heard of the LAPD being accused of professionalism.
Having been injured in similar ways (not due to beating, but rather to what nature dished out) probably not much more than “hobbled off to lick his wounds”. They were whacking knees and elbows in ways that make you not want to use those joints to do more than get away from what’s injuring you.
ETA: And, of course, they could have shot him if he didn’t react that way once he was up. They were all armed with deadly weapons capable of doing so.
It is good to see that we have such a wide array of experts on the use of force in subduing an aggressive suspect, and who would, one presumes, happily subject themselves to a close quarters confrontation witha large and aggressive suspect who has demonstrated the ability to lift and throw multiple peace officers and function after recieving shock from a Taser. :rolleyes:
There is no question that at some point the actions of the officers went from subduing a violent, erratic, and dangerous suspect to punitation for King’s unnecessary and violent resistance. It was also clear that under the training standards of the time (which have since been upgraded) the officers were not adequately versed in the correct use of the PR-24 control baton. But it should also be noted that King was offered numerable opportunities to submit peacefully and instead responded with extreme and potentially life-threatening violence toward the officers. The fear and anger of the officers that led to the beating is understandable if not acceptible from professional law enforcement, and that the tools and training that the officers had at the scene were inadequate for them to follow the first directive: “Go home alive and unhurt at the end of your shift.”
What should they have done instead? Playing the Monday morning quarterback is always an exercise in hindsight, and the Taser didn’t work, I would updrade to bean bag rounds in the riot gun (which were not standard issue for the LAPD in 1993). If that doesn’t work, it’s time to stop footing around and call in the Marines, unless Al Pacino is available to come down and recreate pertinant scenes from Heat. In no way would I risk injury or death trying to disable an unreasonably aggressive and large suspect going into close quarters, nor would I expect a peace officer to do so.
Stranger
It’s amazing how the narrative always starts with the beating, as though this was some routine stop. King, on parole, was driving extremely intoxicated, caught speeding, and then tried to evade police by driving at high speed through residential areas. When finally stopped he refused to comply with orders and when police officers tried to cuff him he resisted. King was a piece of shit that endangered himself, the passengers in his car, other drivers, pedestrians, and the police. Think of all the ways it could have ended. If it hadn’t been for the riots it would have been pretty much the ideal outcome. No one died, a scumbag got the shit kicked out of him, and police were reminded that the public is watching them. The real tragedy is the riots.
Several posters have made reference to the fact that King was driving drunk. Very drunk, I think. But that - or the fact that he wasn’t fully compliant - doesn’t mean the cops have free reign to beat the crap out of him because he got on their nerves. The cops are out there to enforce the law, arrest people, and investigate crimes, not decide who needs a beatdown. The cops’ job was to arrest him; the courts were supposed to decide if he’d been driving drunk and what kind of punishment he deserved.
If he was “extremely intoxicated”, shouldn’t he have been easier to subdue?
Which of course was what they were trying to do. You post pretty much proves my point:
That would be a great comment if the police had indeed decided to drag him out of the car and beat him. Instead they gave him multiple chances to submit to an arrest so that he could be tried in court.
You’ve never meet an angry drunk have you?
Not one that I didn’t think could be handcuffed by 7 trained police officers.
And what does that have to do with “easier”? And I suspect him being drunk or high or whatever was part of his continued dumbassery right up until he got the crap beat out of him.
IMO he is like those two women that jumped the McDonalds counter to attack that cashier about 8 months back. Yeah, they probably did not DESERVE to have the shit beat out of em but if you behave badly I’m not going to feel much sympathy for you when the people you attack for no damn good reason decide playing it safe for themselves is more important than absolutely minimizing the amount of damage to you while they get your ass under control.
Yes, and he was too drunk to do the smart thing. And then five cops clubbed and kicked the shit out of him until they were satisfied they’d taught him a lesson (or their arms got tired, I don’t know). I’m offering the radical proposal that maybe there was a solution somewhere in between, and that perhaps they might’ve needed to use some force to get him cuffed but didn’t need to continue pounding him to the absurd extent they did.
I think that it’s generally accepted that someone that “extremely drunk” would have greatly diminished coordination. That would make it easier for 7 trained police officers to handcuff him.
[QUOTE=billfish678]
IMO he is like those two women that jumped the McDonalds counter to attack that cashier about 8 months back. Yeah, they probably did not DESERVE to have the shit beat out of em but if you behave badly I’m not going to feel much sympathy for you when the people you attack for no damn good reason decide playing it safe for themselves is more important than absolutely minimizing the amount of damage to you while they get your ass under control.
[/QUOTE]
I have no idea what you’re talking about but generally I expect armed law enforcement to act in manner different than the general population.
Sure, there were lots of other solutions:
[ul]
[li]Don’t drive drunk[/li][li]Pull over when the police ask you too[/li][li]If you do evade the police and then get stopped anyway, lie down on the ground when asked too[/li][li]If you decide not to do that, let them cuff you when they approach you[/li][/ul]
Until the last moment, when the police started using their batons, King could have peacefully resolved the situation
No one (that I’m aware of) is trying to say that what RK did was the right, smart or correct move. He fucked up. However, that doesn’t mean you should get the crap beaten out of you, especially in such an obviously over the top and gratuitous manner. You simply don’t need to go to that level of beating to subdue someone.
-XT
You’re dodging the issue, but that speaks for itself. King is responsible for driving drunk (on parole, no less) and resisting arrest. The cops chose to use a shockingly gratuitous amount of force in arresting him even though he deserved to be arrested. It wouldn’t have happened if King weren’t driving drunk, but then again it also wouldn’t have happened if the cops hadn’t gotten club-happy or if Henry Ford hadn’t invented the car.
How many police officers and clubbings does it take to subdue Rodney King?
WTF?
Watch the video and start counting.
THAT’S how many.
I agree with that, it’s just that I’m not as outraged at what the police did as I am at King speeding through residential neighborhoods while on parole, extremely intoxicated, with passengers in the car, and then resisting arrest.
If they had yanked him from the car and beat him I’d be with you, but they were trying to arrest him up until the moment they went over the top. I just don’t feel any sympathy at all for him.
That just means they can’t perform complicated ninja moves. It doesnt turn them into kryptonite exposed weaklings. Booze or other shit often turns people into pretty fracking strong people that are downright stubborn and rather immune to both pain and logic which makes em pretty damn dangerous. I guess you missed the part where he threw off 4 sober cops a bit larger than Barney Fife in the first round. That sure doesn’t sound like he was so drunk he was a pushover to me. And therefore your first observation is meaningless.
[QUOTE=fumster]
If they had yanked him from the car and beat him I’d be with you, but they were trying to arrest him up until the moment they went over the top. I just don’t feel any sympathy at all for him.
[/QUOTE]
The problem is they DID go completely over the top. If they hadn’t then this whole sorry mess wouldn’t have ever happened. I don’t feel any particular sympathy for RK, but that’s not how our justice system works (i.e. cops beating the fuck out of someone because they fucked up). They could have subdued him without the over the top beating part, and then put his ass in jail, then put him on trial and sentenced him to do some time for what he did. THAT is the punishment he deserved, and what the cops should have done.
Granted, attitudes as well as training were different in the past…but, ironically, they are different BECAUSE of this incident and the changes it mandated not just in LA but throughout the country. In that regard, RK actually accomplished something with his life that was worthwhile…he got the crap beat out of him so that, perhaps, others wouldn’t have the same thing happen to them (I’m not exactly sanguine about this last part, mind, but it’s a good thought).
-XT