As the official representative of the L.A.P.D, I would like to apologize to the people because of our actions that led to a problematic event. As an officer I understand that our job is to protect our communities and it is our duty to keep that promise; however, due to this event it might seem like we failed you. The way in which the officers them being P.O Wind, P.O. Powell, and P.O Briseno, handled the situation wasn’t the correct way to do it; this situation could’ve been handled in a different manner.
Rodney King is an African American who have had different encounters with the police, some of them leading to arrest. In July 27, 1987, King had beat his wife while she was sleeping, he was then charged with battery and pleaded “no contest”. He was placed on probation and ordered to obtain counseling. In November 3, 1989, Rodney King had robbed a store in Monterey Park, in which it was known that he threatened to hurt the owner. King was sent to jail and there released a year early on parole. In march 3, 1991, which was the day of the incident, Rodney King was being followed by our three officers for approximately eight miles as he was speeding within city limits and trying to evade the police while he was intoxicated. King led them on a chase at speeds estimated at up to 110mph to 115mph. King refused to pull over and instead tried to outrun our officers due to the fact that he was scared about going back to prison. As he finally pulled over and exited his car, he was refusing arrest. According to officer Singer, King appeared to be armed while refusing to comply. The officers then decided to use tasers and pepper spray, as well as they used their batons hitting him about 56 times. It is known that the officers used extreme force to handle the arrest. An individual who lived nearby the scene of the event filmed the incident between King and the officers. However, the recording does not show when the encounter started. What the public has seen was King on the ground getting hit by our police officers; however, they did not see when King was under the influence resisting arrest and pushing off our officers who tried to arrest him. With this in mind, it does not make it right; however, this is the reason why officers acted the way they did. These officers were arrested for assault and are now paying they’re wrongful actions.
As the representative of the L.A.P.D I promise that we will do our best to avoid incidents such as Rodney King’s. Our police officers would be better trained in ways that would prevent them from using excessive force and know how to handle certain situations in which their life or anybody’s life feels threatened. We will try to incorporate rigid qualifications such as no race biases, emphasize on integrity and discipline. Our goal is to have better communication with our communities and a better relationship in which we all cooperate with each other and we can have our people’s trust. We will do our best to make sure that there would be no more police brutality and no corruption within our department. Overall, we apologize to everyone including Rodney King for the treatment that was presented on March 3, 1991. As part of the L.A.P.D, we will work as a team to make our officers better qualified and trained for the benefit of our society which comes first.
As a criminal justice student, I believe that both race and lack of training played a part in this horrific incident. With better training these officers would’ve known how to handle the situation in a different way. I believe that officers should have a large amount of training on how to solve problems, and how different situations can be handled no matter the case, this training should be done before they go on the job. I think that many of our police officers are not well prepared which leads to police brutality and this kind of incidents such as the Rodney king beating.
