Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Creative Commons
I remember seeing the footage of the 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles by four uniformed police officers. Their acquittal on charges of using excessive force in King’s arrest sparked the LA riots of 1992, a precursor to the Black Lives Matter movement and protests in response to the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others in 2020.
I have never seen the footage of Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd. I have heard the audio and read accounts. I don’t need to watch it to be painfully reminded of how we are treated by law enforcement.
I was asked to leave my vehicle and sit in the passenger seat of the officer’s vehicle as he ran a check on my license and insurance. I thought this was unusual but complied; my non-driver passenger was afraid for me and herself.
In the more than 30 years since King’s beating, not much has changed in terms of how the Los Angeles Police Department is perceived by people of color. A phone poll conducted in late September and early October by USA Today/Suffolk University (Political Research Center) of Los Angeles confirms that.
Nearly one-third of all who were polled said relationships between the police and the community had worsened since the King beating; only 29% felt they had improved.
I am a retired 64-year-old Black lesbian mother of two Black children, an 18-year-old son and a 20-year-old daughter, who is now pregnant with my grandchild. So far, in 2021 alone, I have had two encounters with police — one in the state of Oklahoma and another in California. Both were highway patrol officers. I was in a vehicle, pulled over, and not arrested or beaten. In both cases, I was not alone and had a non-driver in the passenger seat.
In Oklahoma, I was asked to leave my vehicle and sit in the passenger seat of the officer’s vehicle as he ran a check on my license and insurance. I thought this was unusual but complied; my non-driver passenger was afraid for me and herself.
I was given a written warning and released on both occasions.
Every time I see an officer, my heart rate accelerates. My son is afraid to go out alone for fear he will be killed by the police.
Of those surveyed, 32% agreed with the statement: “The LA police are racist in the way they treat people, even if some of them try to do a good job.”
And when asked writ large in society, “Are you treated better or worse because of your race?”Among Black respondents, 87% said they were treated worse, as did 63% of Latinx people and 44% of Asians, compared to only 13% of white folks. Thus, the fight continues.
“The children and grandchildren of those who witnessed the Rodney King beating in 1991 have made a powerful statement about the nature of policing, use of force, and defunding the police,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “Younger Angelenos are far more likely to see evidence of systemic racism in how their city is policed.”
The one bright spot, if you can call it that, is that 63% of the respondents felt that the officers who beat King would be more likely to be convicted today. (The officers who beat King were all acquitted in the criminal case; two of the four were later convicted on federal charges of violating Rodney King’s civil rights.)
Derek Chauvin was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in April 2020.
We need more education to eliminate racism in all walks of life and especially in law enforcement. We can’t wait another 30 years for things to improve.
This column was produced for The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.