Editing Rodney King (section)

===Charges against police officers and trial===
At a press conference, announcing the four officers involved would be disciplined, and three would face criminal charges, Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates said: "We believe the officers used excessive force taking him into custody. In our review, we find that officers struck him with batons between fifty-three and fifty-six times." The LAPD initially charged King with "felony evading", but later dropped the charge.<ref name=Stevenson2015/>

The Los Angeles County District Attorney subsequently charged four police officers, including one sergeant, with assault and use of excessive force.<ref name="NYT_19920306">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/06/us/police-beating-trial-opens-with-replay-of-videotape.html |title=Police Beating Trial Opens With Replay of Videotape |work=The New York Times |date=March 6, 1992 |first=Seth |last=Mydans |access-date=April 20, 2010}}</ref> Due to the extensive media coverage of the arrest, the trial received a [[change of venue]] from [[Los Angeles County]] to [[Simi Valley]] in neighboring [[Ventura County, California|Ventura County]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-simi-valley-20170507-story.html|title=An aggravating anniversary for Simi Valley, where a not-guilty verdict sparked the '92 L.A. riots|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|first=Robin |last=Abcarian|date= May 7, 2017|access-date=May 7, 2017}}</ref> The jury was composed of ten white jurors, one biracial male,<ref name="laist_20120428">{{cite news |url=http://laist.com/2012/04/28/rodney_king_juror_talks_for_the_fir.php |title=Rodney King Juror Talks About His Black Father and Family For the First Time |work=laist |date=April 28, 2012 |access-date=March 8, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504013335/http://laist.com/2012/04/28/rodney_king_juror_talks_for_the_fir.php |archive-date=May 4, 2012 }}</ref> one Latino, and one [[Asian American]].<!-- surely not only one person's gender was identified --><ref name="NYT_19920506">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/06/us/after-the-riots-a-juror-describes-the-ordeal-of-deliberations.html |title=After the riots; A Juror Describes the Ordeal of Deliberations |work=The New York Times |date=May 6, 1992 |access-date=March 4, 2011}}</ref> The prosecutor, Terry L. White, was black.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/trials24.htm |title=Jurist&nbsp;– The Rodney King Beating Trials |publisher=Jurist.law.pitt.edu |access-date=August 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100826053233/http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/trials24.htm |archive-date=August 26, 2010 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/white.jpg Law.umkc.edu] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070417235534/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/white.jpg |date=April 17, 2007 }}</ref> Mr. White was a Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County with eight years of experience. The District Attorney's office denied that race was taken into account when selecting the prosecutor, and multiple trial attorneys from Los Angeles agreed that race likely played no role.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Perez-Pena |first1=Richard |title=Prosecutor in Taped Beating Case Has Twin Aims |work=The New York Times |date=March 25, 1992 |ref=NYT-1992-03-25}}</ref>

On April 29, 1992, the seventh day of jury deliberations, the jury acquitted all four officers of assault and acquitted three of the four of using excessive force. The jury [[hung jury|could not agree on a verdict]] for the fourth officer charged with using excessive force.<ref name="NYT_19920506"/> The verdicts were based in part on the first three seconds of a blurry, 13-second segment of the videotape that, according to journalist [[Lou Cannon]], had not been aired by television news stations in their broadcasts.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/authors_corner/jan-june98/cannon_4-7.html |title=Online NewsHour Forum: Authors' Corner with Lou Cannon&nbsp;– April&nbsp;7, 1998 |publisher=Pbs.org |access-date=August 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100812192824/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/authors_corner/jan-june98/cannon_4-7.html |archive-date=August 12, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=All 4 Acquitted in King Beating : Verdict Stirs Outrage; Bradley Calls It Senseless: Trial: Ventura County jury rejects charges of excessive force in episode captured on videotape. A mistrial is declared on one count against Officer Powell. |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-30-mn-1942-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=April 30, 1992|access-date = November 11, 2015 |issn=0458-3035 |language=en-US |first=Richard A. |last=Serrano}}</ref>

The first two seconds of videotape,<ref>{{cite web |author=Linder, D. |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/kingvideo.html |title=videotape |publisher=Law.umkc.edu |access-date=August 11, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100823001955/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/kingvideo.html |archive-date=August 23, 2010 }}</ref><!-- do NOT remove that citation please, it shows the complete video --> contrary to the claims made by the accused officers, show King attempting to flee past Laurence Powell. During the next one minute and 19 seconds, King is beaten continuously by the officers. The officers testified that they tried to physically restrain King before the starting point of the videotape, but King was able to throw them off physically.<ref>The American edition of the [[National Geographic Channel]] aired the program "The Final Report: The LA Riots" on October 4, 2006, 10&nbsp;pm [[Eastern Daylight Time|EDT]], approximately 27 minutes into the hour (including commercial breaks).</ref>

Afterward, the prosecution suggested that the jurors may have acquitted the officers because of becoming desensitized to the violence of the beating, as the defense played the videotape repeatedly in slow motion, breaking it down until its emotional impact was lost.<ref>Cannon, L. (2002). ''Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD''. Basic Books. {{ISBN|0-8133-3725-9}}</ref>

Outside the Simi Valley courthouse where the acquittals were delivered, county sheriff's deputies protected Stacey Koon from angry protesters on the way to his car. Movie director [[John Singleton]], who was in the crowd at the courthouse, predicted, "By having this verdict, what these people did, they lit the fuse to a bomb."<ref>CNN Documentary ''Race + Rage: The Beating of Rodney King'', aired originally on March 5, 2011; approximately 14 minutes into the hour (not including commercial breaks).</ref>

Following a hung jury in Officer Laurence Powell's initial state court trial for assault, a retrial was postponed by Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg, pending the federal grand jury trial of Powell for violating King's civil rights. Judge Weisberg stated "I don't think that's in anyone's best interest, to have three trials on the same subject matter involving the same defendant."<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/08/us/judge-delays-officer-s-retrial-in-los-angeles-taped-beating.html | title=Judge Delays Officer's Retrial in Los Angeles Taped Beating | work=The New York Times | date=August 8, 1992 }}</ref> Subsequent to his trial by the federal grand jury, the assault charge against Officer Laurence Powell was dismissed in state court.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/04/28/Judge-dismisses-remaining-King-beating-charge/5362735969600/ | title=Judge dismisses remaining King beating charge - UPI Archives }}</ref>