[quote=KSMountain][quote=svelte]
…but once a person is in submission, the beating should not continue. Secure him and haul him in. End of story.[/quote]
King did not submit. Watch the tape (not to mention what you *can’t* see on the tape). They tell him to stay down and still so they can handcuff him and he *keeps* getting up, multiple times.
I don’t support police administering a beating for “contempt of cop” or due to their own adrenaline or lack of professionalism or ego or cruelty or bravado.
But what I recall seeing on the tape is that King does NOT follow their instructions.
Multiple taser strikes might have helped, but if King died due to that there would be those who would wail in outrage.
Bottom line, if King didn’t do what he did in the hours/minutes preceding the incident, the incident would not have occurred.[/quote]
Ah, but he WAS tased…and he kept coming after the cops, unaffected. Can you imagine being a cop in those circumstances?
That’s precisely the point: the cops DID try to subdue him and cuff him, but he was violently fighting back, and kept getting up after being tased and after being hit in ways that would have taken most people down. There was ample reason for the cops to believe he was on PCP, and his behavior would most certainly justify an escalation of force.
It’s also important to note that the two passengers in Rodney King’s car (also black) were not beaten at all…because they actually did what the cops told them to do.
