Lessons from the Rodney King riots
Force went from the nadir of public trust in 1992 to being praised for improvements
Four cops were acquitted in the beating Rodney King — an act of aggression against a black man that’s been called a “lynching on video” — and by dusk that day in April 1992, Los Angeles was burning.
The infamous verdict on unlawful-force charges set off six days of rioting on the streets of Los Angeles and neighbouring cities. Windows were smashed, shops were looted, cars and buildings were set ablaze, dozens were killed and thousands were injured before the military came in to stop the violence.
The episode is now regarded as perhaps the nadir of public trust in police — and the apex of rage and antipathy toward the law — in modern North American history.
And yet, almost 24 years later, many have high praise for how the Los Angeles Police Department has climbed out of that hole toward accountability and fairness. It may even serve as an example for how police departments plagued with bitter public relations and broken practices can turn the corner and get better.
“The ’92 riots were against the humiliation of the police. That’s what the riots were against. People burned down their neighbourhoods just to make the LAPD know: ‘We hate you,’ ” said Connie Rice, co-creator of the Urban Peace Institute in L.A., and a civil rights lawyer who has worked for years with the LAPD to institute policing reforms.
“It was an outlaw force. They were highly militarized, highly efficient, brutal and racist,” Rice said.
“Now, without question, the LAPD have made strides. They’re not done. It’s a long process. But they’ve begun.”
Joe Domanick has chronicled the transformation in his book, Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing. He told the Star in an interview that, in the 1980s, the Los Angeles police were “essentially out of control.” The policing model was based on arrest numbers and the force was pervaded by a culture where the concerns of residents, especially in poorer, mostly black neighbourhoods in the south end of the city, were overlooked.
“They acted like an occupying force in these neighbourhoods. They didn’t take what anybody wanted into account,” he said. Momentum for change started gathering after the Rodney King beating, in March 1991. A commission was struck to examine the practices of the LAPD and returned with a long list of recommendations. The most important that were acted upon, according to Domanick, were the introduction of term limits and a contract renewal process for the police chief, and the advent of a civilian oversight office that would review the LAPD’s internal discipline processes. The force’s reputation was tarnished again in the late ’90s, when a scandal broke involving 70 antigang police officers who were found to be dealing drugs, planting evidence and carrying out unprovoked shootings and beatings. The U.S. Department of Justice came in to temporarily oversee LAPD operations, and William Bratten took over as LAPD police chief in 2002.
He was successful in reducing crime and changing the policing culture as New York City police commissioner during the ’90s, and was brought in do the same on the West Coast, Domanick said.
Under Bratten, the force revamped how it dealt with civil rights and use-of-force complaints, Domanick said. LAPD cops started “stop and frisks” — similar to “carding” in Toronto — whereby cops would approach people on the street and take down information about them.
Domanick said that, while controversial for fears that such programs can lead to racial profiling, the LAPD has managed to carry out “stop and frisks” without the same “reactionary anger” as other places, such as New York in recent years.
The last reform was an emphasis on “community policing.” As Rice explained, this meant that officers in the newly formed Community Safety Partnership Program would focus on building relationships with residents, and focus less on making arrests and more on positive dialogue with people in troubled areas. Cops would do things such as help kids with homework, Rice said.
She said it will take a long time for an entire institution’s culture to change. LAPD police shootings in 2015 were twice as high as the year before and allegations of unlawful force still come up. But Rice said she’s heartened by examples of LAPD cops who have worked hard to transform the style of policing from aggressive and arrest-focused, to relationship-building and supportive.