[quote=pri_dk][quote=CA renter]The first jury did NOT convict them. The second jury did — and that trial came about as a result of the riots. Blacks all across LA were threatening to riot again if the jury didn’t convict. You think that was a fair trial?[/quote]
Your wikipedia reference offers no evidence whatsoever that the trial, or the verdict “came about as a result of the riots.”
Show me where the prosecuting federal attorney said “we are going to put these guys on trial because of the riots.”
Did the jury convict because of the fear of riots? Nope. Actually most of them wanted the cops to be sentenced to MORE jail time:
[…]complaints from five jurors that Officer Laurence M. Powell and Sgt. Stacey C. Koon should have received longer prison sentences than the 2 1/2-year terms handed down Wednesday.
Wanna know why the two trials had different outcomes? It’s real simple:
Unlike the Simi Valley jury, the federal jury was racially mixed. Although the defense made a considerable effort to exclude African-Americans, two blacks were seated as jurors.
There are a lot of Americans that believe in civil rights and due process of law. We don’t accept that police can do whatever they want to anybody for any reason.
But somehow I’m not at all surprised that you would make up your own version of reality so that you could side with racist criminal thugs.[/quote]
Unlike you, I was there. I personally saw the tension building and watched, as every other Angelino did, as the blacks threatened to riot:
“No Justice, No Peace”
It very clearly meant that if the cops were not convicted, they were going to riot. There was no question about what happened, or why it happened, to those who were actually there.
It’s sickening to note that you think the officers were acquitted because “white people are racist” and incapable of determining whether or not a crime has occurred.
And the only one who’s ever “made anything up,” either on this thread or others, is you.
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“When the rioting finally ended five days later, fifty-four people (mostly Koreans and Latinos) were dead–the greatest death toll in any American civil disturbance since the 1863 Draft Riots in New York City. Hundreds of people (including sixty firefighters) were injured. Looting and fires had resulted in more than one billion dollars in property damage. Whole neighborhoods in south central Los Angeles, such as Koreatown, looked like war zones. Over 7,000 persons were arrested.
Even as the rioting continued, President George Bush and Attorney General William Barr began the process of bringing federal charges against the four LAPD officers accused in the King case. On the day after the Simi Valley verdict, Bush issued a statement declaring that the verdict “has left us all with a deep sense of personal frustration and anguish.” In a May 1 televised address to the nation, Bush all but promised a federal prosecution of the officers.
Prosecuting the officers on the federal charge of violating King’s civil rights accomplished two Bush Administration goals. The first goal was to control the rage that had developed in black communities. The second was to reduce demands from some in the civil rights community for sweeping investigations into police misconduct.
On May 7, federal prosecutors began presenting evidence to a Los Angeles grand jury. On August 4, the grand jury returned indictments against the three officers for “willfully and intentionally using unreasonable force” and against Koon for “willfully permitting and failing to take action to stop the unlawful assault.” on King.
