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106-645: After the arrest of Rodney King and the subsequent riots , Gates retired from the LAPD. Much of the blame for the riots was attributed to him. According to one study, "scandalous racist violence... marked the LAPD under Gates's tempestuous leadership." Gates was born in Glendale, California, to a Mormon mother and a Catholic father on August 30, 1926; he was raised in his mother's faith. He grew up in Glendale and Highland Park , in

212-767: 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

318-524: A Ventura County jury in Simi Valley acquitted three white and one Hispanic Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King following a high-speed pursuit. Despite the announcement that the jury was preparing to deliver the verdict in the case, the LAPD day shift was sent home. After the riots broke out, Gates told reporters that the situation would soon be under control and left Parker Center to attend

424-402: 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

530-614: 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

636-539: 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,

742-555: 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

848-477: A former police commissioner of Boston and New York City , to head the department. On April 16, 2010, Gates died at his home in Dana Point, California , at the age of 83 due to complications from bladder cancer . Gates appeared as himself in season 7, episode 13 ("Fatal Obsession, Part 2") of the television show Hunter . Gates appears in an uncredited role at the end of the 1997 film L.A. Confidential as

954-536: 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

1060-436: A mandate that prohibits police officers from stopping people for the sole purpose of obtaining immigration status. The mandate was created in an effort to encourage residents to report crimes without the fear of intimidation or deportation. Like his mentor Parker, Gates publicly questioned the effectiveness of community policing , usually electing not to work with community activists and prominent persons in communities in which

1166-446: 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

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1272-478: A police officer congratulating Ed Exley, the main character. In the 1998 film American History X , he is mentioned in relation to the application of police brutality to Rodney King. Gene Hackman based his portrayal of Sheriff Daggett on Gates in the 1992 film Unforgiven . Clint Eastwood biographer Richard Schickel , who was on the set, wrote that Hackman referred to Daggett overseeing Ned Logan's torture as "my Rodney King scene". In 2004, he appeared in

1378-574: 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

1484-448: A previously scheduled political fundraising dinner. The fundraising event was part of an effort to fight a city charter amendment on the June 2 ballot that would limit the power and term of the police chief. These actions led to charges that Gates was out of touch. General command-and-control failings in the entire LAPD hierarchy during the riots led to criticisms that he was incapable of managing

1590-620: A specially trained and equipped unit to respond to and manage critical situations while minimizing police casualties. As an inspector, Gates approved this idea. He formed a small select group of volunteer officers. His first team was born LAPD SWAT, D-Platoon of the Metro Division. This unit initially comprised fifteen teams of four men each, for a total staff of sixty. These officers were given special status and benefits, but in return they had to attend monthly trainings and serve as security for police facilities during episodes of civil unrest. SWAT

1696-544: A stand-alone imprint within Random House; as of 2023, it continues to publish as the Bantam imprint, again grouped in a renamed Ballantine division within Random House. Bantam began as a mass market publisher, mostly of reprints of hardcover books, with some original paperbacks as well. It expanded into both trade paperback and hardcover books, including original works, often reprinted in house as mass-market editions. The company

1802-462: A verse that imagines that Gates is decapitated and fried like a chicken, and Body Count 's " Cop Killer ", which caused widespread controversy. Gates appears as a major character in James Ellroy 's novel The Enchanters . Rodney King Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 – June 17, 2012) was an African-American man who was a victim of police brutality . On March 3, 1991, he

1908-557: 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

2014-658: 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

2120-576: The Bantam Spectra science fiction imprint, the juvenile Skylark imprint, the Bantam Air & Space imprint, and editions of Shakespeare. The series was started in 1958. It reprints mostly public domain, unabridged classic books , intended to increase backlist sales and reintroduce the works to new audiences. More than a hundred books have been released in the series. Like competing editions, some Bantam Classics are printed with an introduction from

2226-594: The Christopher Commission report. Many commentators criticized Gates for Operation Hammer , a policing operation conducted by the LAPD in South Los Angeles . After eight people were murdered at a birthday party in a drive-by shooting in 1987, Gates responded with an extremely aggressive sweep of South Los Angeles that involved 1,000 officers at any given time. The operation lasted several years, with multiple sweeps, and resulted in over 25,000 arrests. This

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2332-692: The Rampart Division scandal of 1999 drew attention to abuses that threatened to undo hundreds of criminal convictions. Gates became LAPD chief a little over two months before the enactment of California's Proposition 13 , during a time of tremendous change in California politics. While the LAPD traditionally had been a "lean and mean" department compared with other American police forces (a point of pride for Parker), traffic congestion and continually decreasing officer-to-resident ratios (approximately 7,000 police officers for 3 million residents in 1978) diminished

2438-620: 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

2544-582: The University of Southern California . After his wife became pregnant, a friend suggested that he join the LAPD, which was conducting a recruitment drive among former servicemen; Gates initially declined, then decided it was a good opportunity. Gates later finished his degree at USC. Gates joined the LAPD on September 16, 1949. Among his roles as an officer, he was picked to be the chauffeur for Chief William H. Parker . Gates often remarked that he gained many administrative and professional insights from Parker during

2650-404: The 1988 film Colors . Allegations of false arrest and a general LAPD disdain for young black and Latino men were made. Gates himself became a byword among some for excessive use of force by anti-gang units and became a favorite lyrical target for gang-connected urban black rappers , notably Ice Cube . Nevertheless, CRASH's approach appeared successful and remained in widespread use until

2756-747: The Bantam Doubleday Dell publishing group. Bertelsmann purchased Random House in 1998, and in 1999 merged the Bantam and Dell imprints (amongst other mergers within the sprawling publishing house) to become the Bantam Dell publishing imprint. In 2010, the Bantam Dell division was consolidated with Ballantine Books (founded in 1952 by Bantam co-founders Ian and Betty Ballantine) to form the Ballantine Bantam Dell group within Random House. By no later than February 2015, Bantam Books had re-emerged as

2862-435: The LAPD , an autobiography, written with the assistance of Diane K. Shah (Bantam Books). The book has details about Gates's career and high-profile cases; the book went to press before the L.A. riots. After Bernard Parks was denied a second term as Chief of Police by Mayor James K. Hahn in 2002, Gates, aged 75, told CNN that he intended to apply for his old job as LAPD chief. Hahn ultimately appointed William J. Bratton ,

2968-412: 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

3074-642: The LAPD proved successful. The PDID was ordered to disband and did so in January 1983. In February 1984, an out-of-court settlement awarded $ 1.8 million to the named plaintiffs, individuals, and organizations who had sued the City of Los Angeles. In collaboration with the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, Gates founded DARE, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, designed to educate students and children about

3180-490: The LAPD to shift to a community policing strategy. Gates left the LAPD on June 28, 1992, and was replaced by Willie L. Williams , who had been named Gates's successor on April 16, 1992. A second commission, the Webster Commission, headed by former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster , was formed in the wake of the riots. Its report, released on October 21, 1992, was generally considered to be scathingly critical of

3286-509: The LAPD was conducting major anti-gang operations. At the time of the Rodney King beating, Gates was at a community policing conference. This tendency, a logical extension of the policies implemented by Parker that discouraged LAPD officers from becoming too enmeshed in the communities in which they served, did not serve him well politically: allegations of arrogance and racism plagued the department throughout his tenure, surfacing most strongly in

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3392-564: The LAPD's Public Disorder Intelligence Division (PDID) squad, even developing an international spying operation. The lawsuit CAPA v. Gates , with the Coalition Against Police Abuse (CAPA) as one of two dozen or so plaintiffs, later sued the LAPD on First Amendment grounds that exposed the unlawful harassment, surveillance, and infiltration of the progressive movement in Los Angeles by LAPD agents. The lawsuit against Gates and

3498-461: The LAPD, working with Sierra to create the computer game Police Quest: Open Season , an adventure game set in Los Angeles where gamers play the role of a Robbery/Homicide detective trying to solve a series of brutal murders. He appears in the game as Chief of Police and can be found on one of the top floors of Parker Center . In addition, Gates had been the principal consultant for Sierra's SWAT series, appearing in them as well. In 1993, Gates

3604-458: The Olympic games by reviving old, anti-syndicalist laws, to jail predominantly black and Latino youth, even though the overwhelming numbers of people arrested were never charged. As a vast majority of those arrested were never charged, Operation Hammer was roundly criticized as a harassment operation whose chief goal was to intimidate young black and Hispanic men. In a PBS interview, when asked whether

3710-533: The Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin Jr. , Sidney B. Kramer, and Ian and Betty Ballantine , with funding from Grosset & Dunlap and Curtis Publishing Company . It has since been purchased several times by companies including National General , Carl Lindner 's American Financial and, most recently, Bertelsmann , which in 1986 purchased what had grown to become

3816-482: The Random House publishing group in 2008. Ballantine Books was merged with Bantam Dell in 2010. In 2013, Random House merged with Penguin to form Penguin Random House . Bantam has published the entire original run of the " Choose Your Own Adventure " series of children's books , as well as the first original novels based upon the Star Trek franchise, publishing about a dozen such books between 1970 and 1982, when

3922-512: 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

4028-509: 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

4134-643: 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

4240-544: 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

4346-458: The aftermath of the arrest; Mayor Tom Bradley also called for Gates to resign, but he refused, leading to a stand-off between Gates and the mayor. The Christopher Commission report, issued July 10, 1991, identified a police culture of excessive force and poor supervision, and recommended numerous reforms, as well as Gates's removal. Gates announced his intention to resign on July 13, 1991. The 1992 Los Angeles riots on April 29, 1992, began when

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4452-400: 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

4558-523: 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

4664-465: 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,

4770-426: 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

4876-413: 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

4982-640: The commission's blacklisting practice constituted an unlawful prior restraint on free expression in violation of the First Amendment. The Court held that any system of prior censorship on publications "strikes at the very foundation of freedom of expression" and cannot be enforced unless regulated by precise rules with procedural safeguards. This was an influential decision reinforcing First Amendment protections against government censorship of published materials. In 1964, Grosset & Dunlap acquired full ownership of Bantam from Curtis. In 1968, Grosset & Dunlap

5088-413: The dangers of drug abuse. DARE has become a worldwide organization, with programs in schools across the globe. However, despite the program's wide use, peer-reviewed government-sponsored scientific research has discredited DARE's claimed effectiveness in reducing alcohol or drug use, and the program has seen a 73% reduction in taxpayer funding as a result. Gates's appointment as chief roughly coincided with

5194-427: The department (as well as other government agencies) and was especially critical of Gates' management of it. In 1992, the satiric Ig Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Daryl Gates "for his uniquely compelling methods of bringing people together ." Gates earned notoriety for his controversial rhetoric on many occasions. Some of the most notable examples of this were: Gates remained professionally active after leaving

5300-429: The effectiveness of LAPD's prized mobility. Gates was eager to take more recruits, particularly for CRASH units, when the city made funds available. Gates later claimed that many officers recruited in the 1980s—a period in which the LAPD was subject to a consent decree which set minimum quotas for hiring of women and minorities—were substandard, remarking: ... [I]f you don't have all of those quotas, you can't hire all

5406-406: 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

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5512-499: The force. It took the arrival of 10,000 California Army National Guard forces, 3,500 federal troops , and 1,000 federal law enforcement officers to end the unrest over the next six days. In the aftermath of the riots, local and national media printed and aired dozens of reports deeply critical of the LAPD under Gates, painting it as an army of racist beat cops accountable only to an arrogant leadership. The paramilitary approach that Gates represented resulted in criticism and calls for

5618-406: 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

5724-520: 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,

5830-452: 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

5936-421: The holding Bantam Doubleday Dell . In 1998, Bertelsmann acquired Random House from Advance Publications ; Random House became the name of the overall holding company of the various publishing imprints. In 1999, Bertelsmann merged some of the many publishing units it held in Random House, including a merger of Bantam with Dell Publishing , forming the Bantam Dell publishing imprint. Bantam Dell became part of

6042-450: The hours they spent together each day. Gates worked hard to prepare for his promotional exams, scoring first in the sergeant 's exam and in every promotional exam thereafter. On his promotion to lieutenant , he rejoined Chief Parker as Parker's executive officer. He was promoted to captain , responsible for intelligence. By the time of the Watts riots in 1965 he was an inspector (overseeing

6148-499: The intensification of the War on Drugs . A drug-related issue that had also come to the forefront at the time was gang violence, which paralyzed many of the neighborhoods (primarily impoverished and black or Hispanic) in which gangs held sway. In response, the LAPD set up specialist gang units which gathered intelligence on and ran operations against gangs. These units were called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH), depicted in

6254-1005: The investigations of, among other crimes, the Manson Family murders and the Hillside Strangler case). By the time of the 1975 special investigation into the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy he was Assistant Chief of the department. On March 28, 1978, Gates became the 49th chief of the department. Gates established the specialized unit that became known as SWAT (originally, "Special Weapons Attack Team" but changed to "...And Tactics" for optics) in order to deal with hostage rescue and extreme situations involving armed and dangerous suspects. Ordinary street officers, with light armament, limited weapons training and little instruction on group fighting techniques, had shown to be ineffective in dealing with snipers, bank robberies carried out by heavily armed persons, and other high-intensity situations. In 1965, Officer John Nelson came up with an idea to form

6360-454: The license was taken over by Pocket Books . Bantam also published a dozen volumes of short story adaptations of scripts from Star Trek: The Original Series . Bantam was the former American paperback publisher of The Guinness Book of Records . Another series was "Bantam War Book" from the 1970s to the 1990s, with the majority of books from World War II, but also from Vietnam, Korea and other conflicts. Other series include Bantam Classics,

6466-399: The local people in the minority areas expressed thanks to the police for their actions, Gates responded: Sure. The good people did all the time. But the community activists? No. Absolutely not. We were out there oppressing whatever the community had to be, whether it was blacks, or Hispanics. We were oppressing them. Nonsense. We're out there trying to save their communities, trying to upgrade

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6572-535: 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

6678-491: 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

6784-442: The northeastern part of Los Angeles . The Great Depression affected his early life: his father was an alcoholic , and frequently ended up in the custody of the Glendale police. (Later in life, Gates often remarked on the taunts and harassment he received from schoolmates because of his father's behavior.) Gates later wrote that he had a low opinion of the police due to their rough treatment of his father, and at age 16 Gates himself

6890-453: 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

6996-420: 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

7102-444: 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

7208-410: 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

7314-524: 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

7420-483: The people you need. So, you've got to make all of those quotas. And when that happens, you get somebody who is on the borderline, you'd say "Yes, he's black, or he's Hispanic, or it's a female, but we want to bring in these additional people when we have the opportunity. So, we'll err on the side of, 'We'll take them and hope it works out. ' " And we made some mistakes. No question about it, we have made some mistakes. In 1979 Gates helped craft and implement Special Order 40,

7526-408: 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

7632-477: 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

7738-762: 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

7844-472: The quality of life of people... A similar operation was conducted in 1988 after a drive-by shooting took the life of a civilian in Westwood Village. On March 3, 1991, Rodney King was arrested, repeatedly struck with batons and kicked, and taken into custody by LAPD officers after a car chase. A bystander, George Holliday, recorded the event on videotape. Gates and his department faced strong criticism in

7950-408: The report stated: "The effects of the drugs and alcohol, combined with the subject's heart condition, probably precipitated a cardiac arrhythmia , and the subject, incapacitated in the water, was unable to save himself." Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House , a subsidiary of Penguin Random House ; it is an imprint of

8056-587: 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

8162-404: 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

8268-502: The second season of Da Ali G Show in the episode "Respek". Gates is portrayed by actor Josh Pence in the 2013 film Gangster Squad . In the film, Gates is in his younger years, still a chauffeur for LAPD Police Chief Bill Parker (played by Nick Nolte ). Gates was mentioned in a large number of rap and metal songs in the aftermath of the LA riots. Some of the more notable include Ice Cube 's "The Wrong Nigga to Fuck With", which includes

8374-522: 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

8480-565: 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

8586-469: 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

8692-425: 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

8798-455: 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

8904-440: 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

9010-555: 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

9116-413: 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

9222-726: 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

9328-463: 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

9434-445: 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

9540-404: 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

9646-786: 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

9752-403: 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

9858-515: Was a talk show host on KFI , replacing Tom Leykis . His tenure was short lived, but he remained a frequent guest on talk radio, especially in regard to policing issues. Gates was President/CEO of Global ePoint, a security and homeland defense company dealing primarily in digital surveillance and security technology. He also served on the Advisory Board of PropertyRoom.com , a website for police auctions . In 1992 he published Chief: My Life in

9964-455: Was acquired by conglomerate National General , run by Gene Klein . National General was acquired by American Financial Group in 1973. American Financial sold Bantam to the Italian firm IFI in 1974. Bertelsmann acquired half of Bantam in 1977 and assumed full ownership in 1980. IN 1986, Bantam began publishing audiobooks. In 1986, Bertelsmann acquired Doubleday & Company and created

10070-613: Was arrested after punching an officer who manhandled his brother during a parking dispute (Gates apologized and the charges were dropped). Gates graduated from Franklin High School in Highland Park and joined the U.S. Navy in time to see action in the Pacific Theater during World War II . After leaving the U.S. Navy, he attended Pasadena City College and married his first wife, Wanda Hawkins. He went on to take pre-law classes at

10176-437: 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

10282-428: 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

10388-441: Was copied almost immediately by many US police departments and is now used by law enforcement agencies throughout the world. In Gates' autobiography, Chief: My Life in the LAPD ( Bantam Books , 1992), he explained that he developed neither SWAT tactics nor its distinctive equipment. He wrote that he supported the concept, tried to empower his people to develop the concept, and lent them moral support. Gates made substantial use of

10494-444: 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:

10600-481: Was failing when Oscar Dystel , who had previously worked at Esquire and as editor on Coronet magazine was hired in 1954 to manage it. By the end of the next year the company was profitable. Dystel retired as chairman in 1980. By that time Bantam was the largest publisher of paperbacks , had over 15% of the market, and exceeded US$ 100 million in sales. The company was involved in an important Supreme Court case, Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan in 1963. Bantam Books

10706-526: 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

10812-456: Was not unprecedented: during the run-up to the 1984 Olympic Games , Mayor Tom Bradley empowered Gates to take all of the city's gang members—known and suspected—into custody, where they remained until shortly after the Games' conclusion. In the years after the Olympic games Gates, Mayor Bradley and city council officials found a way to continue the sweeping policies initially meant for the duration of

10918-823: Was prevented from distributing some of its publications in Rhode Island by a state commission called the Rhode Island Commission to Encourage Morality in Youth. The commission, headed by the Rhode Island Attorney General, would essentially blacklist books and magazines it deemed "objectionable" for sale, threatening distributors with publicity and reputational harm. Bantam Books sued, arguing this commission violated freedom of press protections and amounted to illegal censorship without due process. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Bantam Books, deciding that

11024-524: 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

11130-534: 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

11236-431: 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

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