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

740 Pages·1998·44.78 MB·English
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0 0 14 D O : =o a : uar 1991 0 0 0 3 2 5 : 0 7 = : How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeies and the LAPD DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY tselling biographer of Ronald Reagan FPT U.S.A. $35.i^O Canada $49. j Spring 1992, and the City of Angels was sudden ; a modern hell. During five terrifying days, as i- world watehed in horror, the deadliest urban riofjpv, of the twentieth century laid waste to South C< i iU' il Los Angeles. But there’s a hidden stor\- behirci tl'. riots. Lou Cannon, the bestselling biographer O: Ronald Reagan, who covered Los Angeles for The Washington Post before, during, and after the vio­ lence, has exhaustively interviewed the suniv^ors and learned the definitive story of just what hap­ pened and why. Ojficial Negligence takes us behind the scenes at City Hall and at police headquarters, inside jury rooms, onto the front lines of the vio­ lence in the streets, and into the hearts and minds of unknown heroes and tells, for the first time, a riv­ eting tale of multiple injustices, mismanagements, and misjudgments. Among them; • Ihe videotape of the brutal heating of Rodney King by white officers of the Los Angeles Police Department played over and o\ er again on tele\i- sion, creating an unprecedented national commu­ nity of ‘ e)ewitnesses” to the brutality. But few realized that the tape had been provocatively edited by a local T\^ station, leaving out crucial scenes that led up to the beating. Those scenes helped convince a jurv^ to acquit the officers, sparking the explosion of black rage that tore the city apart. • Political leaders had virtually guaranteed that an incident like the King beating would occur by insisting that LAPD officers carrv^ bone-breaking metal batons, despite clear evidence that they were causing a mounting toll of serious injuries. Making matters worse, the LAPD failed to train some offi­ cers adequately or to discipline problem cops. • 1 he state trial of the officers who had beaten Rodney King was moved—in a rare change of venue—to one of the most pro-police communities in America, raising from the very start serious questions about its fairness. • Despite repeated warnings, many from within the ranks of the LAPD, city and police officials were woelully unprepared fo. riots. Residents of South Central widely ' 'd that the police had not wanted to protect j • minor­ ity neighborhoods. 'The shocking truti ^ that the l.,APD was unable to protect them. {continued on hack flag. ALSO BY LOU CANNON President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime Reagan Reporting: An Inside View The McCloskey Challenge Ronnie and Jesse: A Political Odyssey o m t i A i NECLICENCE OFFICIAL NECIIGENCE How Rodney King and die Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD lOll CANN0^ B OOK S DOM HOUSE Copyright © 1997 by Lou Cannon All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Cannon, Lou. Official negligence : how Rodney King and the riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD / Lou Cannon, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8129-2190-9 1. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Race relations. 2. Riots—California— Los Angeles—History—20th century. 3. King, Rodney. 4. Los Angeles (Calif.). Police Dept. 5. Los Angeles (Calif.)—Politics and government. 6. Racism—California—Los Angeles—History—20th century. 7. Afro-Americans—Civil rights—California—Los Angeles— History—20th century. I. Title. F869.L89N327 1997 973.4'93053—dc21 97-21982 Random House website address: www.randomhouse.com Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 First Edition To Mary Shinkiuin Cannon, my wife, collaborator, and bulwark, and to Jaxon Van Derbeken, reporter and friend, with appreciation ''It was the city that failed. ... It was police management, past and present, that has failed. This has to be taken into account to reflect a just and fair sentence. . . . There simply has to be some allowance for the official negligence of the city which allowed this to take place and which will take place again.'' —Attorney Ira Salzman at the sentencing of Sergeant Stacey Koon, August 4, 1993

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In a startling and powerful examination of race, politics, and the media, the bestselling biographer of Ronald Reagan probes the events and characters surrounding the deadliest urban riots of the century. 25 photos.
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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.