The Rodney King 1992 riots. What exactly happend!

Hey, I'm surprised noone answered you on this. I've been away from MyLot for quite a while, but came back and this was sitting on my home page, so I figured I'd weigh in.

First, I don't think you can make a judgment about whether the jury was racist based only on seeing the tape. The jury was exposed to information that none of us will ever know. Maybe the jury was racist. Or maybe Rodney King took the stand and said "yeah, I tried to run them over, and I'd do it again!" It is every bit as dangerous and immoral to make assumptions about the jury without complete information as it is to make assumptions about a person's intent or character based solely on the color of their skin.

Second, I don't know if the complete tape was ever released. But the segment that was shown on the news over and over night after night was two and a half or three seconds of tape edited together in a loop showing a single blow over and over and over again. Most people did not notice this, and it absolutely influenced public opinion.

Anyway, the bottom line is that the tendency of the justice system (when it works correctly) to consider only proven facts, and in the face of uncertainly to do nothing, may seem anywhere from lame to grossly unjust depending on where you sit, it still beats the heck out of the alternative.