Does it matter? It might not have been excessive force, but it was undeniably force used against passive resistance. I am not sure the officer behaved inappropriately, but I am not sure he did not. It was below the level of firehoses and German Shepherds and above the level of carrying them out bodily (but then, that was why they linked arms, not the most provocative or belligerent act in history.)

What is beyond dispute is that he used force against people who were simply sitting there presenting no threat of any kind to anyone. That video required no "editing" to make him look bad, and no "context" would make him look better. Fortunately, the court of public opinion means so much that even most of the people complaining about it at the time probably remember that video no more than I did until you mentioned it. If the officer HAD done something for which he was facing a court trial, a video record of it would be invaluable. As one of the officers in the article notes, it might well have been valuable for his DEFENCE.


Yeah, nice try; I am not talking about cases of cops using force against VIOLENT people or those who STRIKE for no reason. Now, if they are using force against that soccer mom without provocation, or even the drug trafficker if he they have not established him to be one, we have a problem. Getting fair fights may not be what police are trained to do, but any police LOOKING for fights need to attend more conflict resolution classes.

I know cops walk into even routine traffic stops expecting anything and everything. You have seen me say that point blank often enough YOU know I need no remeinder. The issue is not that the LAPD hit Rodney King with batons after he rushed them, but that they CONTINUED hitting him long after he was lying motionless on the ground. When the suspect stops moving, he is no longer a threat; you can stop clubbing him and put the cuffs on now.


If it is in public in the line of public duty as public servants I still fail to see the problem. I have worked at a number of places where there was a camera on me from the moment I punched in till the moment I punched out (and even after at my last job, where I was on camera until I left the premises.) Of course, I did not have a gun on my hip or the power to take people to jail and trial at any of them.

Frankly, I do not get. It has been firmly established—by no less than the police themselves—that people have no expectation of privacy in a public area. Cops have searched peoples cars in their driveways on that basis; if that is permissible I do not see how taping a cop making an arrest is so much more invasive.

EDIT: King was not beaten unconscious "only" while motionless; my mistake.