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Rodney King Book Report

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Willie Hurst

A: Plan of Investigation

To what extent did the trail and riots for Rodney King bring exposure to Police brutality and racial tensions in the United States?

On March 3, 1991 Rodney King was involved in a high-speed chase from the police department. Kings car was spotted due to reckless driving along with the high speeds he was traveling along the highway at. After being forced to pull over, King was beaten by the Los Angeles Police Department. King was taken to Pacifica Hospital where he maintained facial fractures along with a broken ankle and many bruises and lacerations along his body. During the beating a local witness filmed the incident and sent the footage to the local news. The tape shows four policemen surrounding …show more content…
(1997). Official negligence: How Rodney King and the riots changed Los Angeles and the LAPD. New York: Times Books.

This first source comes from Lou Cannon. Lou Cannon, a veteran journalist, was state bureau chief for the San Jose Mercury News in the late 1960s and later senior White House correspondent of the Washington Post during the Ronald Reagan administration. This source is put together very nice and coherent. Cannon uses simple terms and straightforward organization of main points throughout the book. Cannon has done useful research and analysis of evidence that had compiled to form his opinions and explanations through the book. Cannon combines extensive research with interviews from hundreds of rioters, offering the only definitive story behind what happened and why Official Negligence takes a hard look at the circumstances leading up to the riots. Cannon reveals how the videotape of the brutal beating of Rodney King had been sensationally edited by a local TV station, how political leaders required LAPD officers to carry metal batons despite evidence linking them to the rising toll of serious injury in the community, and how poorly prepared the city was for the violence that

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