Official Negligence : How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD

740 Pages·1998·44.78 MB·English

by  Lou Cannon

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How Rodney King
and the Riots
Changed Los Angeies
and the LAPD
DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY
tselling biographer of Ronald Reagan
FPT U.S.A. $35.i^O
Canada $49. j
Spring 1992, and the City of Angels was sudden ; a
modern hell. During five terrifying days, as i-
world watehed in horror, the deadliest urban riofjpv,
of the twentieth century laid waste to South C< i iU' il
Los Angeles. But there’s a hidden stor\- behirci tl'.
riots. Lou Cannon, the bestselling biographer O:
Ronald Reagan, who covered Los Angeles for The
Washington Post before, during, and after the vio­
lence, has exhaustively interviewed the suniv^ors
and learned the definitive story of just what hap­
pened and why. Ojficial Negligence takes us behind
the scenes at City Hall and at police headquarters,
inside jury rooms, onto the front lines of the vio­
lence in the streets, and into the hearts and minds
of unknown heroes and tells, for the first time, a riv­
eting tale of multiple injustices, mismanagements,
and misjudgments. Among them;
• Ihe videotape of the brutal heating of Rodney
King by white officers of the Los Angeles Police
Department played over and o\ er again on tele\i-
sion, creating an unprecedented national commu­
nity of ‘ e)ewitnesses” to the brutality. But few
realized that the tape had been provocatively
edited by a local T\^ station, leaving out crucial
scenes that led up to the beating. Those scenes
helped convince a jurv^ to acquit the officers,
sparking the explosion of black rage that tore the
city apart.
• Political leaders had virtually guaranteed that an
incident like the King beating would occur by
insisting that LAPD officers carrv^ bone-breaking
metal batons, despite clear evidence that they were
causing a mounting toll of serious injuries. Making
matters worse, the LAPD failed to train some offi­
cers adequately or to discipline problem cops.
• 1 he state trial of the officers who had beaten
Rodney King was moved—in a rare change of
venue—to one of the most pro-police communities
in America, raising from the very start serious
questions about its fairness.
• Despite repeated warnings, many from within
the ranks of the LAPD, city and police officials
were woelully unprepared fo. riots.
Residents of South Central widely ' 'd that
the police had not wanted to protect j • minor­
ity neighborhoods. 'The shocking truti ^ that
the l.,APD was unable to protect them.
{continued on hack flag.
ALSO BY LOU CANNON
President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
Reagan
Reporting: An Inside View
The McCloskey Challenge
Ronnie and Jesse: A Political Odyssey
o m t i A i
NECLICENCE
OFFICIAL
NECIIGENCE
How Rodney King
and die Riots
Changed Los Angeles
and the LAPD
lOll CANN0^
B OOK S
DOM HOUSE
Copyright © 1997 by Lou Cannon
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
Published in the United States by Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc.,
New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited,
Toronto.
Cannon, Lou.
Official negligence : how Rodney King and the riots changed Los
Angeles and the LAPD / Lou Cannon,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8129-2190-9
1. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Race relations. 2. Riots—California—
Los Angeles—History—20th century. 3. King, Rodney. 4. Los
Angeles (Calif.). Police Dept. 5. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Politics
and government. 6. Racism—California—Los Angeles—History—20th
century. 7. Afro-Americans—Civil rights—California—Los Angeles—
History—20th century. I. Title.
F869.L89N327 1997
973.4'93053—dc21 97-21982
Random House website address: www.randomhouse.com
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper.
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
First Edition
To Mary Shinkiuin Cannon,
my wife, collaborator, and bulwark,
and to
Jaxon Van Derbeken,
reporter and friend,
with appreciation

''It was the city that failed. ... It was police management, past
and present, that has failed. This has to be taken into account to
reflect a just and fair sentence. . . . There simply has to be some
allowance for the official negligence of the city which allowed this
to take place and which will take place again.''
—Attorney Ira Salzman at the sentencing of
Sergeant Stacey Koon, August 4, 1993