Misplaced Pages

#573426

102-602: Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950) is an American actress, playwright , and professor . She is known for her roles as National Security Advisor Dr. Nancy McNally in The West Wing (2000–06), hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime series Nurse Jackie (2009–15), and as U.S. District Court Clerk Tina Krissman on the ABC show For the People (2018–19). Smith

204-948: A Theatre World Award . Smith was one of the 1996 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship , often referred to as the "genius grant." She also won a 2006 Fletcher Foundation Fellowship for her contribution to civil rights issues, as well as a 2008 Matrix Award from the New York Women in Communications, Inc. In 2009, she won a Fellow Award in Theater Arts from United States Artists . She has received honorary degrees from Loyola Marymount University , Dartmouth College , Swarthmore College , University of Pennsylvania , Spelman College , Arcadia University , Bates College , Smith College , Skidmore College , St. Olaf College , Macalester College , Occidental College , Pratt Institute ,

306-767: A driving under the influence charge and the parole violation that could follow. King left the freeway near the Hansen Dam Recreation Area and the pursuit continued through residential streets at speeds ranging from 55 to 80 miles per hour (90 to 130 km/h), and through at least one red light. By this point, several police cars and a police helicopter had joined in the pursuit. After approximately 8 miles (13 km), officers cornered King in his car. The first five Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers to arrive were Stacey Koon , Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Rolando Solano. Officer Tim Singer ordered King and his two passengers to exit

408-475: A murder mystery play which is the longest-running West End show , it has by far the longest run of any play in the world, with its 29,500th performance having taken place as of February 2024. Contemporary playwrights in the United States are affected by recent declines in theatre attendance. No longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, theatrical productions must use ticket sales as

510-402: A broken right leg in a cast, his face badly cut and swollen, bruises on his body, and a burn area to his chest where he had been jolted with a stun gun . King described how he had knelt, spread his hands out, then slowly tried to move so as not to make any "stupid moves", before being hit across the face by a billy club , and shocked with a stun gun. King also said he was scared for his life when

612-661: A celebrity boxing match against Chester, Pennsylvania , police officer Simon Aouad on September 11, 2009, at the Ramada Philadelphia Airport in Essington . On September 9, 2010, it was confirmed that King was going to marry Cynthia Kelley, who had been a juror in the civil suit he brought against the City of Los Angeles . On March 3, 2011, the 20th anniversary of the beating, the LAPD stopped King for driving erratically and issued him

714-539: A citation for driving with an expired license. This arrest led to a February 2012 misdemeanor conviction for reckless driving. The BBC quoted King commenting on his legacy. "Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero. Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction like I'm a fool for believing in peace." In April 2012, King published his memoir, The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption . Co-authored by Lawrence J. Spagnola,

816-555: A daughter. King and Lyles eventually divorced. He later remarried and had a daughter with Crystal Waters. This marriage also ended in divorce. State charges: State charges: Early in the morning of Sunday, March 3, 1991, King, with his friends Bryant Allen and Freddie Helms, were driving a 1987 Hyundai Excel west on the Foothill Freeway (Interstate 210) in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. The three had spent

918-507: A form of playwright. Outside of the Western world there is Indian classical drama , with one of the oldest known playwrights being Śudraka , whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC. The Nāṭya Shāstra , a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings. In

1020-536: A four-year college education funded by the city of Los Angeles. King refused and sued the city, and was subsequently awarded $ 3.8 million. Bryant Allen, one of the passengers in King's car on the night of the incident, received $ 35,000 in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. The estate of Freddie Helms, the other passenger, settled for $ 20,000; Helms died in a car crash on June 29, 1991, age 20, in Pasadena . King invested

1122-641: A mentor in Anna Deavere Smith: A YoungArts Masterclass , part of the HBO documentary series Masterclass . In 2015, Smith appeared as a guest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., on the PBS television show Finding Your Roots . Her ancestry in America was revealed to her for the first time. She was descended from a long line of free people of color. The most striking facts were linked to her great-great-grandfather, Basil Biggs, who

SECTION 10

#1732869918574

1224-446: A negligence claim filed with the city, King alleged he had suffered "11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney failure [and] emotional and physical trauma." Blood and urine samples were taken from King five hours after his arrest. At this time, King's blood alcohol content was measured to be 0.075%. This indicated that King was intoxicated during the initial arrest as defined by California law, but with

1326-419: A person who has "wrought" words, themes, and other elements into a dramatic form—a play. (The homophone with "write" is coincidental.) The first recorded use of the term "playwright" is from 1605, 73 years before the first written record of the term "dramatist". It appears to have been first used in a pejorative sense by Ben Jonson to suggest a mere tradesman fashioning works for the theatre. Jonson uses

1428-635: A playwright, winning awards for his play The Phoenix at both the New York International Fringe Festival in 1999 and the Route 66 American Playwriting Competition in 2000. Today, theatre companies have new play development programs meant to develop new American voices in playwriting. Many regional theatres have hired dramaturges and literary managers in an effort to showcase various festivals for new work, or bring in playwrights for residencies. Funding through national organizations, such as

1530-574: A portion of his settlement in a record label, Straight Alta-Pazz Records, hoping to employ minority employees, but it went out of business. With help from a ghostwriter, he later wrote and published a memoir. King was subject to further arrests and convictions for driving violations after the 1991 incident, as he struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction . In May 1991, King was arrested on suspicion of having tried to run down an undercover vice officer in Hollywood, but no charges were filed. In 1992, he

1632-449: A professor in the drama department at Stanford University and prior to that taught at Carnegie Mellon University . She also teaches at NYU School of Law . In 2000, Smith published her first book, Talk to Me: Travels in Media and Politics , through Random House . (It was published in paperback in 2001.) In 2006, she released Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in

1734-525: A source of income, which has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works being produced. For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002–03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973–74. Playwrights commonly encounter difficulties in getting their shows produced and often cannot earn a living through their plays alone, leading them to take up other jobs to supplement their incomes. Many playwrights are also film makers . For instance, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock began his career as

1836-558: A stricter interpretation of Aristotle, as this long-lost work came to light in the late 15th century. The neoclassical ideal, which was to reach its apogee in France during the 17th century, dwelled upon the unities , of action, place, and time. This meant that the playwright had to construct the play so that its "virtual" time would not exceed 24 hours, that it would be restricted to a single setting, and that there would be no subplots. Other terms, such as verisimilitude and decorum, circumscribed

1938-615: Is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However, farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–1580). Playwright William Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Most playwrights of

2040-793: Is a recipient of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2013). In 2015 she was selected as the Jefferson Lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities . In 2016, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Theatre Arts. She is the founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University . Smith was born in 1950 into an African-American family in Baltimore , Maryland,

2142-423: Is from Great Britain, with remote Scandinavian, Finnish, Russian, Italian, and Greek. In early 2017, Smith worked with Melissa McCarthy in the film Can You Ever Forgive Me? In New York City, they filmed one scene together in which their characters briefly reunite for the first time after the long-ago end of their relationship. Smith's character is a university professor of literature. In October 2018, this film

SECTION 20

#1732869918574

2244-557: Is knocked to the ground. Powell strikes King several more times with his baton. Briseno moves in, attempting to stop Powell from striking again, and Powell stands back. Koon reportedly said, "Stop! Stop! That's enough! That's enough!" King rises again, to his knees; Powell and Wind are seen hitting King with their batons. Koon acknowledged ordering the continued use of batons, directing Powell and Wind to strike King with "power strokes". According to Koon, Powell and Wind used "bursts of power strokes, then backed off". The officers beat King. In

2346-534: Is still useful to playwrights today is the " French scene ", which is a scene in a play where the beginning and end are marked by a change in the makeup of the group of characters onstage rather than by the lights going up or down or the set being changed. Notable playwrights: Greek theater was alive and flourishing on the island of Crete. During the Cretan Renaissance two notable Greek playwrights Georgios Chortatzis and Vitsentzos Kornaros were present in

2448-549: The 1992 Los Angeles riots after the acquittal of police officers who beat Rodney King , in events captured on tape. Both of these plays were constructed using material solely from interviews. Smith's plays House Arrest (2000) and Let Me Down Easy (2008) were also created in this style. Let Me Down Easy , which explored the resiliency and vulnerability of the human body, debuted at the Long Wharf Theatre in January 2008. It

2550-658: The African American and Korean American communities. The rioting lasted six days and killed 63 people, with 2,383 more injured; it ended only after the California Army National Guard , the Army , and the Marine Corps provided reinforcements to re-establish control. King advocated for a peaceful end to the conflict. The federal government prosecuted a separate civil rights case, obtaining grand jury indictments of

2652-487: The Ancient Greeks . William Shakespeare is amongst the most famous playwrights in literature, both in England and across the world. The word "play" is from Middle English pleye , from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsperson or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright ). The words combine to indicate

2754-406: The Ancient Greeks . These early plays were for annual Athenian competitions among play writers held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as Aeschylus , Sophocles , Euripides , and Aristophanes established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides . The origins of Athenian tragedy remain obscure, though by

2856-586: The College of the Holy Cross , Haverford College , Wesleyan University , School of Visual Arts , Northwestern University , Colgate University , California State University Sacramento , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Wheelock College , Williams College , Yale University , and the Cooper Union . The United Solo Theatre Festival board honored her with the award for outstanding solo performer during

2958-493: The National Endowment for the Arts and the Theatre Communications Group , encouraged the partnerships of professional theatre companies and emerging playwrights. Playwrights will often have a cold reading of a script in an informal sitdown setting, which allows them to evaluate their own plays and the actors performing them. Cold reading means that the actors haven't rehearsed the work, or may be seeing it for

3060-764: The Riverside Shakespeare Company , produced by Joseph Papp and the New York Shakespeare Festival . This production was set in New Orleans in post- Civil War America. For the role, Smith transformed herself into a "Cajun voodoo woman." She used her ability to take on other characters in her future work. From being in a variety of situations and in a kind of outsider status, she was a close observer of people and their language. She later told Henry Louis Gates Jr. , when appearing on his show Finding Your Roots , that she had difficulty getting jobs at

3162-620: The US Supreme Court . Both Koon and Powell were released from prison while they appealed to the Ninth Circuit's ruling, having served their original 30-month sentences with time off for good behavior. On June 14, 1996, the high court partially reversed the lower court in a ruling, unanimous in its most important aspects, which gave a strong endorsement to judicial discretion, even under sentencing guidelines intended to produce uniformity. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley offered King $ 200,000 and

Anna Deavere Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue

3264-751: The humanities , delivering a lecture entitled "On the Road: A Search for American Character". She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. In spring 2024, Smith delivered the 74th A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts at the National Gallery of Art . The title of the series of four programs was "Chasing That Which Is Not Me / Chasing That Which Is Me." Playwright The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

3366-449: The 4th century BCE, Aristotle wrote his Poetics , in which he analyzed the principle of action or praxis as the basis for tragedy. He then considered elements of drama: plot ( μύθος mythos ), character ( ἔθος ethos ), thought ( dianoia ), diction ( lexis ), music ( melodia ), and spectacle ( opsis ). Since the myths on which Greek tragedy were based were widely known, plot had to do with

3468-536: The 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions ( agon ) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility ). As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. For

3570-537: The Arts – For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind . As a dramatist, Smith was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for Fires in the Mirror , which won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show. She was nominated for two Tony Awards in 1994 for Twilight : one for Best Actress and another for Best Play. The play won her a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance and

3672-463: The Cockayne Fund, Smith wrote and performed the play, On Grace , based on interviews relating to the meaning of God's grace. The performances were accompanied by American cellist Joshua Roman . Smith has appeared in several films, including Philadelphia (1993), Dave (1993), The American President (1995), Rent (2005), and Rachel Getting Married (2008). She had recurring roles in

3774-412: The LAPD for their roles in the beating. During the three-hour sentencing hearing, US District Judge John G. Davies accepted much of the defense version of the beating. He strongly criticized King, who, he said, provoked the officers' initial actions. Davies said that only the final six or so baton blows by Powell were unlawful. The first 55 seconds of the videotaped portion of the incident, during which

3876-550: The Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily excretions. The best known playwright of farces

3978-605: The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and the end of the 17th century, classical ideas were in vogue. As a result, critics of the time mostly rated Shakespeare below John Fletcher and Ben Jonson. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn . As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but capable of being led astray. The Italian Renaissance brought about

4080-520: The TV series The Practice (2000) and as Dr. Nancy McNally on The West Wing (2000–06). Smith also appeared as hospital administrator Gloria Akalitus in the Showtime dark comedy series Nurse Jackie , which premiered in June 2009. Early in her television career, she appeared on the long-running soap opera All My Children in the recurring role of "Hazel the shampoo girl". In February 2014, Smith appeared as

4182-512: The United States to safeguard against police abuse, including an umbrella group, October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality. In 1992, these clips were added in the opening credits of Malcolm X . On September 19, 2021, Holliday died from complications of COVID-19. King was taken to Pacifica Hospital after his arrest, where he was found to have suffered a fractured facial bone , a broken right ankle, and multiple bruises and lacerations. In

Anna Deavere Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue

4284-509: The United States, where they had often complained of police abuse against their communities. The officers' jury consisted of Ventura County residents: ten white, one Latino, one Asian. Lead prosecutor Terry White was black. On April 29, 1992, the jury acquitted three of the officers but could not agree on one of the charges against Powell. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said, "The jury's verdict will not blind us to what we saw on that videotape. The men who beat Rodney King do not deserve to wear

4386-697: The acquittal in Los Angeles as well as a local police killing of a Black man in Toronto two days prior. During the riots, on May 1, 1992, King made a television appearance pleading for an end to the riots: I just want to say – you know – can we, can we all get along? Can we, can we get along? Can we stop making it horrible for the older people and the kids? And ... I mean we've got enough smog in Los Angeles let alone to deal with setting these fires and things ... It's just not right. It's not right, and it's not going to change anything. We'll get our justice. They've won

4488-544: The acquittals and the riots, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) sought indictments of the police officers for violations of King's civil rights. On May 7, federal prosecutors began presenting evidence to the federal grand jury in Los Angeles. On August 4, the grand jury returned indictments against the three officers for "willfully and intentionally using unreasonable force" and against Sergeant Koon for "willfully permitting and failing to take action to stop

4590-420: The ancient Greeks, playwriting involved poïesis , "the act of making". This is the source of the English word poet . Despite Chinese Theatre having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with You Meng , their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered

4692-404: The arrangement and selection of existing material. Character was determined by choice and by action. Tragedy is mimesis —"the imitation of an action that is serious". He developed his notion of hamartia , or tragic flaw, an error in judgment by the main character or protagonist , which provides the basis for the "conflict-driven" play. There were also a number of secular performances staged in

4794-400: The battle, but they haven't won the war. We'll get our day in court, and that's all we want. And, just, uh, I love – I'm neutral. I love every – I love people of color. I'm not like they're making me out to be. We've got to quit. We've got to quit; I mean, after all, I could understand the first – upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see

4896-492: The beginning of her acting career because people did not know how to categorize her in terms of ethnicity for casting. Smith is best known as a playwright and actress for her " documentary theatre " style, also called verbatim theatre , in plays such as Fires in the Mirror (1992) and Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (1993). Both featured Smith as the sole performer of multiple and diverse characters, based on interviews she had conducted with numerous residents and commentators in

4998-523: The book describes King's turbulent youth as well as his personal account of the arrest, the trials, and the aftermath. On Father's Day, June 17, 2012, King's partner, Cynthia Kelley, found him dead underwater at the bottom of his swimming pool. King died 28 years to the day after his father, Ronald King, was found dead in his bathtub in 1984. Police in Rialto received a 911 call from Kelley at about 5:25 a.m. PDT . Responding officers removed King from

5100-465: The charge. The Los Angeles County District Attorney subsequently charged four police officers, including one sergeant, with assault and use of excessive force. Due to the extensive media coverage of the arrest, the trial received a change of venue from Los Angeles County to Simi Valley in neighboring Ventura County . The jury was composed of ten white jurors, one biracial male, one Latino, and one Asian American . The prosecutor, Terry L. White,

5202-426: The city for damages, and a jury awarded him $ 3.8 million, as well as $ 1.7 million in attorney's fees. The city did not pursue charges against King for driving while intoxicated and evading arrest. District Attorney Ira Reiner believed there was insufficient evidence for prosecution. His successor Gil Garcetti thought that by December 1992, too much time had passed to charge King with evading arrest; he also noted that

SECTION 50

#1732869918574

5304-413: The claims made by the accused officers, show King attempting to flee past Laurence Powell. During the next one minute and 19 seconds, King is beaten continuously by the officers. The officers testified that they tried to physically restrain King before the starting point of the videotape, but King was able to throw them off physically. Afterward, the prosecution suggested that the jurors may have acquitted

5406-492: The daughter of Anna Rosalind ( née Young), an elementary school principal, and Deaver Young Smith Jr., a coffee merchant. She has four younger siblings. She started attending school shortly after the city had started integrating the public schools, and attended both majority-black and majority-white schools during her lower years. Smith is an alumna of the historic Western High School , an all-girls school. Smith studied acting at Beaver College (now Arcadia University ), where she

5508-406: The facility, showed concern for King's life and said he would die unless his addictions were treated. King also appeared on Sober House , a Celebrity Rehab spin-off focusing on a sober living environment . During his time on Celebrity Rehab and Sober House , King worked on his addiction and what he said was lingering trauma of the beating. King and Pinsky physically retraced King's path from

5610-535: The first time, and usually, the technical requirements are minimal. The O'Neill Festival offers summer retreats for young playwrights to develop their work with directors and actors. Playwriting collectives like 13P and Orbiter 3 gather members together to produce, rather than develop, new works. The idea of the playwriting collective is in response to plays being stuck in the development process and never advancing to production. Rodney King Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012)

5712-406: The four of using excessive force. The jury could not agree on a verdict for the fourth officer charged with using excessive force. The verdicts were based in part on the first three seconds of a blurry, 13-second segment of the videotape that, according to journalist Lou Cannon , had not been aired by television news stations in their broadcasts. The first two seconds of videotape, contrary to

5814-567: The four officers for violations of King's civil rights. Their trial in a federal district court ended in April 1993, with two of the officers being found guilty and sentenced to serve prison terms. The other two were acquitted of the charges. In a separate civil lawsuit in 1994, a jury found the City of Los Angeles liable and awarded King $ 3.8 million in damages. King was born in Sacramento, California , in 1965,

5916-452: The ground during a fight. King had previously been arrested twice on suspicion of abusing her. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run. On August 27, 2003, King was arrested again for speeding and running a red light while under the influence of alcohol. He failed to yield to police officers and slammed his vehicle into a house, breaking his pelvis. On November 29, 2007, while riding home on his bicycle, King

6018-586: The inaugural edition in November 2010. Smith won The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize (2013), one of the richest prizes in the American arts with a remuneration of $ 300,000. In 2013, she received the 2012 National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama . In 2015 the National Endowment for the Humanities selected her for the Jefferson Lecture , the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in

6120-486: The latter part of the 16th century. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , Friedrich Schiller , and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as guides to moral behavior and were part of the German romanticism movement. Aleksandr Ostrovsky was Russia's first professional playwright). Author and playwright Agatha Christie wrote The Moustrap ,

6222-685: The law," was commissioned by Bruce Ferguson, director of Future Arts Research (F.A.R.), a new artist-driven research program at Arizona State University in Phoenix. In 2009, Smith was an artist-in-residence with the Center for American Progress . In Spring 2012, Smith was the first artist-in-residence at Grace Cathedral , San Francisco, a program founded by the Very Rev Jane Shaw , Dean of Grace Cathedral, who shared Smith's vision of "bringing together art and religion". Commissioned by Grace Cathedral and

SECTION 60

#1732869918574

6324-535: The night of his beating, eventually reaching the spot where it happened, the site of the Children's Museum of Los Angeles , which is now Discovery Cube Los Angeles. In 2009, King and other Celebrity Rehab alumni appeared as panel speakers to a new group of addicts at the Pasadena Recovery Center, marking 11 months of sobriety for him. His appearance was aired in the third-season episode "Triggers." King won

6426-491: The night watching basketball and drinking at a friend's house in Los Angeles. At 12:30 a.m., officers Tim and Melanie Singer, husband and wife members of the California Highway Patrol , noticed King's car speeding on the freeway. They pursued King with lights and sirens, and the pursuit reached 117 mph (188 km/h), while King refused to pull over. King would later say he fled the police hoping to avoid

6528-453: The officers because of becoming desensitized to the violence of the beating, as the defense played the videotape repeatedly in slow motion, breaking it down until its emotional impact was lost. Outside the Simi Valley courthouse where the acquittals were delivered, county sheriff's deputies protected Stacey Koon from angry protesters on the way to his car. Movie director John Singleton , who

6630-420: The officers drew their guns on him. Four officers were eventually tried on charges of use of excessive force. Of these, three were acquitted; the jury failed to reach a verdict on one charge for the fourth. Within hours of the acquittals, the 1992 Los Angeles riots started, sparked by outrage among racial minorities over the trial's verdict and related, longstanding social issues, overlaid with tensions between

6732-444: The officers were already in the act of beating King. The footage as a whole became an instant media sensation. Portions were aired numerous times, and it "turned what would otherwise have been a violent, but soon forgotten, encounter between the Los Angeles police and an uncooperative suspect into one of the most widely watched and discussed incidents of its kind". Several " copwatch " organizations subsequently were started throughout

6834-410: The officers' version of events. He concluded that Officer Powell never intentionally struck King in the head, and "Powell's baton blow that broke King's leg was not illegal because King was still resisting and rolling around on the ground, and breaking bones in resistant suspects is permissible under police policy." Mitigation cited by the judge in determining the length of the prison sentence included

6936-524: The official report, LAPD Sergeant Koon ordered the four other LAPD officers at the scene—Briseno, Powell, Solano and Wind—to subdue and handcuff King using a technique called a "swarm", where multiple officers grab a suspect with empty hands, to overcome potential resistance quickly. The four officers claim King resisted attempts to restrain him when he stood up to remove Officers Powell and Briseno from his back. Both King and witnesses dispute that claim. The officers would also testify later that they believed King

7038-407: The period typically collaborated with others at some point, as critics agree Shakespeare did, mostly early and late in his career. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. In England, after the interregnum , and Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, there was a move toward neoclassical dramaturgy. Between

7140-408: The police department know that he had a videotape of the incident. Still, he could not find anyone interested in seeing the video. He went to KTLA , a local television station, with his recording. KTLA's Warren Wilson was the first reporter to take on the story, interviewing King inside his jail ward. Holliday, whose video camera was in another part of his residence, was unable to retrieve it until

7242-477: The police helicopter overhead. King grabbed his buttocks, which Officer Melanie Singer took to mean King was reaching for a weapon, though he was later found to be unarmed. She drew her pistol and pointed it at King, ordering him to lie on the ground. Singer approached, gun drawn, preparing to arrest him. At this point, Koon, the ranking officer at the scene, told Singer that the LAPD was taking command and ordered all officers to holster their weapons. According to

7344-762: The pool and performed CPR on him. Still unresponsive, King was then transferred to an advanced life support ambulance where paramedics attempted to revive him. King was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton , California, and was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:11 a.m. at the age of 47. The Rialto Police Department began a standard drowning investigation and said there did not appear to be any foul play. On August 23, 2012, King's autopsy results were released, stating that he died of accidental drowning. The combination of alcohol, cocaine, and PCP found in his system were contributing factors, as were cardiomegaly and focal myocardial fibrosis . The conclusion of

7446-651: The same subject matter involving the same defendant." Subsequent to his trial by the federal grand jury, the assault charge against Officer Laurence Powell was dismissed in state court. Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley created the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, also known as the Christopher Commission , in April 1991. Led by attorney Warren Christopher , it was created to conduct "a full and fair examination of

7548-404: The samples taken after a five hour delay, were then below the legal limit of 0.08%. The tests also showed traces of marijuana (26 ng/ml). Pacifica Hospital nurses reported that the officers who accompanied King (including Wind) openly joked and bragged about the number of times they had hit King. Officers obtained King's identification from his clothes pockets at that time. King later sued

7650-522: The security guard shot on the ground – it's just not right. It's just not right, because those people will never go home to their families again. And uh, I mean, please, we can, we can get along here. We all can get along. We just gotta. We gotta. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let's, you know, let's try to work it out. Let's try to beat it, you know. Let's try to work it out. The widely quoted line has been often paraphrased as, "Can we all just get along?" or " Can't we all just get along?" After

7752-565: The son of Ronald and Odessa King. He and his four siblings grew up in Altadena, California . King attended John Muir High School and often talked about being inspired by his social science teacher, Robert E. Jones. King's father died in 1984 at the age of 42. On November 3, 1989, King robbed a store in Monterey Park, California . He threatened the Korean store owner with an iron bar. King then hit

7854-469: The statute of limitations on drunk driving had passed. At a press conference, announcing the four officers involved would be disciplined, and three would face criminal charges, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates said: "We believe the officers used excessive force taking him into custody. In our review, we find that officers struck him with batons between fifty-three and fifty-six times." The LAPD initially charged King with "felony evading", but later dropped

7956-425: The store owner with a pole before fleeing the scene. King stole two hundred dollars in cash during the robbery. He was convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. He was released on December 27, 1990, after serving one year in prison. King had a daughter with his girlfriend, Carmen Simpson. He later married Denetta Lyles (cousin of hate crime victim James Byrd Jr. and also cousin of rapper Mack 10 ) and had

8058-455: The structure and operation of the LAPD", including its recruitment and training practices, internal disciplinary system, and citizen complaint system. Though few people at first considered race an essential factor in the case, including Rodney King's attorney, Steven Lerman, the Holliday videotape was at the time stirring deep resentment among black people in Los Angeles and other major cities in

8160-553: The subject matter significantly. For example, verisimilitude limits of the unities. Decorum fitted proper protocols for behavior and language on stage. In France, contained too many events and actions, thus, violating the 24-hour restriction of the unity of time. Neoclassicism never had as much traction in England, and Shakespeare 's plays are directly opposed to these models, while in Italy, improvised and bawdy commedia dell'arte and opera were more popular forms. One structural unit that

8262-440: The suffering the officers had undergone because of the extensive publicity their case had received, high legal bills that were still unpaid, the impending loss of their careers as police officers, their higher risks of abuse while in prison, and their undergoing two trials. The judge acknowledged that the two trials did not legally constitute double jeopardy, but raised "the specter of unfairness". These mitigations were critical to

8364-555: The swarm. King is placed in handcuffs and cord cuffs, restraining his arms and legs. King is dragged on his abdomen to the side of the road to await the arrival of emergency medical rescue. Plumbing salesman and amateur videographer George Holliday's videotape of the beating was shot on his camcorder from his apartment near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street in Lake View Terrace . Two days later (March 5), Holliday called LAPD headquarters at Parker Center to let

8466-457: The two cities where riots took place. For these works, she won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show two years in a row. She interviewed more than 100 people as part of her creation of Fires in the Mirror , which dealt with the 1991 Crown Heights riot . In 1992, she interviewed some 300 people as part of her research for creating Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 , which dealt with

8568-413: The uniform of the LAPD." President George H. W. Bush said, "Viewed from outside the trial, it was hard to understand how the verdict could possibly square with the video. Those civil rights leaders with whom I met were stunned. And so was I, and so was Barbara , and so were my kids." Within hours of the acquittals, the 1992 Los Angeles riots began, lasting six days. African-Americans were outraged by

8670-726: The unlawful assault" on King. Based on these indictments, a trial of the four officers in the United States District Court for the Central District of California began on February 25, 1993. The federal trial focused more on the incident. On March 9 of the 1993 trial, King took the witness stand and described to the jury the events as he remembered them. The jury found Officer Laurence Powell and Sergeant Stacey Koon guilty, and they were subsequently sentenced to 30 months in prison. Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno were acquitted of all charges, but both were soon dismissed by

8772-463: The validity of the sentences imposed because federal sentencing guidelines called for much longer prison terms in the range of 70 to 87 months. The low sentences were controversial and were appealed by the prosecution. In a 1994 ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected all the grounds cited by Judge Davies and extended the terms. The defense appealed the case to

8874-445: The vast majority of the blows were delivered, was within the law because the officers were attempting to subdue a suspect who was resisting efforts to take him into custody. Davies found that King's provocative behavior began with his "remarkable consumption of alcoholic beverage" and continued through a high-speed chase, refusal to submit to police orders and an aggressive charge toward Powell. Davies made several findings in support of

8976-404: The vehicle and to lie face down on the ground. Allen claims that he was manhandled, kicked, stomped, taunted and threatened. Helms was hit on the head while lying on the ground; he was treated for a laceration on the top of his head. His bloody baseball cap was turned over to police. King remained in the car. When he emerged, King was reported to have giggled, to have patted the ground and waved to

9078-786: The verdicts and began rioting in the streets along with the Latino communities. By the time law enforcement, the California Army National Guard , the United States Army , and the United States Marine Corps restored order, the riots had resulted in 63 deaths, 2,383 injuries, more than 7,000 fires, damage to 3,100 businesses, and nearly $ 1 billion in financial losses. Smaller riots occurred in other U.S. cities such as San Francisco, Las Vegas , Seattle, and as far east as Atlanta and New York City. A civil disturbance occurred on Yonge Street in Toronto, Canada when Canadians gathered to protest

9180-403: The videotape, King continues to try to stand again. Koon orders the officers to "hit his joints, hit the wrists, hit his elbows, hit his knees, hit his ankles". Officers Wind, Briseno, and Powell attempted numerous baton strikes on King, resulting in some misses but with 33 blows hitting King, plus seven kicks. The officers again "swarm" King, but this time a total of eight officers are involved in

9282-441: The word in his Epigram 49, which is thought to refer to John Marston or Thomas Dekker : Jonson described himself as a poet, not a playwright, since plays during that time were written in meter and so were regarded as the province of poets. This view was held as late as the early 19th century. The term "playwright" later again lost this negative connotation. The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are

9384-744: Was also performed at the American Repertory Theater in September and October 2008. A revised version of the show had its New York City premiere Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre in October 2009. It enjoyed favorable reviews and an extension into January 2010. It was a featured program as part of PBS 's Great Performances series on January 13, 2012. Smith debuted her one-woman play The Arizona Project in Phoenix, Arizona , in November 2008. The piece, which explored "women's relationships to justice and

9486-613: Was an African-American man who was a victim of police brutality . On March 3, 1991, he was severely beaten by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during his arrest after a high speed pursuit for driving while intoxicated on the I-210 . An uninvolved resident, George Holliday, saw and filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage, which showed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest, to local news station KTLA . The incident

9588-437: Was arrested for injuring his wife, Crystal King. Crystal ultimately declined to file a complaint. On August 21, 1993, King crashed his car into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles. He was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, fined, and entered a rehabilitation program, after which he was placed on probation. In July 1995, King was arrested by Alhambra police after hitting Crystal with his car and knocking her to

9690-428: Was black. Mr. White was a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County with eight years of experience. The District Attorney's office denied that race was taken into account when selecting the prosecutor, and multiple trial attorneys from Los Angeles agreed that race likely played no role. On April 29, 1992, the seventh day of jury deliberations, the jury acquitted all four officers of assault and acquitted three of

9792-630: Was born in 1820 in Maryland. He and his wife Mary were listed in the 1850 U.S. census to be free. His occupation was listed as veterinarian. In 1858, he moved his wife and four children to Pennsylvania, and chose to settle in Gettysburg. Another newsworthy article was found in The Cleveland Gazette (1892), which referred to Basil Biggs as the "wealthiest Afro-American in Gettysburg," mentioning his great home on 120 acres. 41% of Smith's European ancestry

9894-444: Was covered by news media around the world and caused a public uproar. At a press conference, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates announced that the four officers involved would be disciplined for use of excessive force and that three would face criminal charges. The LAPD initially charged King with "felony evading", but later dropped the charge. On his release, King spoke to reporters from his wheelchair, with his injuries evident:

9996-609: Was distributed to cinemas by Fox Searchlight Pictures . In 2022, Smith played the supporting role of Maud in the Netflix series Inventing Anna . Smith teaches in the Department of Art & Public Policy at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University . In 1986, she joined the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Dramatic Arts. From 1990 to 2000, she was

10098-526: Was in the crowd at the courthouse, predicted, "By having this verdict, what these people did, they lit the fuse to a bomb." Following a hung jury in Officer Laurence Powell's initial state court trial for assault, a retrial was postponed by Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg, pending the federal grand jury trial of Powell for violating King's civil rights. Judge Weisberg stated "I don't think that's in anyone's best interest, to have three trials on

10200-734: Was one of seven African-American women in her class, graduating in 1971. During her college career, she started to identify as Black. Later she went to the West Coast for graduate work, receiving an M.F.A. in Acting from the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, California . At the beginning of her career, Smith appeared in a wide range of stage productions, including the role of Mistress Quickly in an Off-Broadway production of Shakespeare 's The Merry Wives of Windsor with

10302-484: Was shot in the face, arms, and back with pellets from a shotgun. He reported that the attackers were a man and a woman who demanded his bicycle and shot King when he rode away. Police described the wounds as looking as if they came from birdshot . In May 2008, King checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California , where he filmed as a cast member of Season 2 of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew , which premiered in October 2008. Dr. Drew Pinsky , who runs

10404-431: Was under the influence of phencyclidine (PCP), although King's toxicology tested negative for the drug. At this point, Holliday's video recording shows King on the ground after being tasered by Koon. He rises and rushes toward Powell—as argued in court, either to attack Powell or to flee—and King and Powell collided in a rush. Taser wire can be seen on King's body. Officer Powell strikes King with his baton , and King

#573426