*Although 60% of Los Angeles' population of 3.4 million are non-white, white officers make up 61% of the city's 8,300 member police force. The radical imbalance, coupled with a climate of racism among white officers, creates problems. The Southern California branch of the American Civil Liberties Union reports up to 55 police-related complaints per week from black and lation citizens.
Four police officers carried out the beating of the unarmed and helpless Rodney King on March 3, 1991, Sergeant Stacey Koon, 40, and officers Laurence M. Powell, 28, Timothy E. Wind, 30, and Theodore J. Briseno, 38. These men had on other occasions displayed racist behaviour and used unnecessary force in the line of duty. During the beating, eyewitnesses heard them laughing as King begged them to stop. At 1:12 a.m., minutes after the event, dispatch received a message for the car of Officers Powell and Wind. The message read, "Oops." "Oops what?" asked an unidentified officer. "I haven't beaten anyone this bad in a long time." Koon wrote in his report that he gravely injured King only suffered only "severe facial cuts... of a minor nature. A split upper lip." Nurses at Pacifica hospital, where King was taken by police, reported that the abuse continued verbally. One officer joked, "We played a little hardball tonight and you lost." Another referred to the beating as a "home run."
L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates, 40, was also well-known for making racist remarks. As the videotape of the beating aired nationwide and an enraged city called for his resignation, Gates at first refused to condemn the policemen, but under pressure he eventually asked the district attorney to prosecute them. *Source: Card Back