On March 3, 1991, bystander
George Holliday
videotaped
nine minutes of King's arrest
at the end of a vehicle pursuit initiated by the
California Highway Patrol
. Four officers were tried and acquitted of the beating, which triggered rioting in Los Angeles in 1992 that resulted in 55 deaths and massive property damage.
For the 20-year anniversary of the Rodney King incident, POLICE Magazine has prepared several perspectives and collected others that paint a fuller picture of the incident's impact on law enforcement.
First, aggregated news items show a greater awareness by officers of
citizen video
from cellphones and other recording devices, as well as the news that
King was stopped by Arcadia police
on Wednesday for running a stop sign in Arcadia, Calif.
Also, former LAPD Capt. Greg Meyer, who worked in the agency at the time, gives you his perspective on the
lessons agencies can learn
from the incident.
POLICE Associate Editor Dean Scoville, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy who was on duty at the time, gives you his
reaction to the rioting
and tells you what he was doing at the time.