Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103070493
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/7 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
A bystander on a balcony captured Los Angeles police officers shocking the prone 25-year-old black man with a stun gun, then clubbing him at least 40 times with nightsticks, stomping on his head and kicking him.
"The videotape turned it into a national story in about a nanosecond," said Jennifer Siebens, CBS News' Los Angeles bureau chief. "It looked like something that came out of South Africa."
CNN and the big three networks have broadcast all or part of the black-and-white video - and thousands around the country have called Los Angeles city officials, police and civil rights organizations, outraged by the attack.
The tape also seems destined to become crucial evidence in whatever legal action comes out of the case.
Prosecutors so far have declined to charge King with battery on an officer and resisting arrest, saying police haven't backed up their case.
King's attorneys said Wednesday they were preparing to file a civil rights lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department, and lawyer Robert Rentzer said the videotape is essential to the case.
"But for the tape I'm not sure justice would have been done," Rentzer said.
California Highway Patrol and LAPD officers had stopped King's car after what they said was a chase at more than 100 mph. After King emerged from the car, witnesses said, at least 10 officers surrounded him.
Police reports said King resisted arrest. Witnesses disagreed.
George Holliday, who lives nearby, shot the tape. Los Angeles independent TV station KTLA broadcast it first, on Monday night.
News director Warren Cereghino said Holliday "called us because he's a loyal Channel 5 viewer. He wasn't sure what the tape's significance was."
Holliday said he sold the tape for $500. "I really didn't think it was going to turn out this way," he said.
Cereghino said he and Holliday agreed orally that KTLA would have exclusive rights to the tape's initial broadcast.
KTLA, a CNN subscriber, also sent a copy to the 24-hour cable network. CNN began showing it the next morning.
After that, the big three networks raced to obtain copies.
"We've all done stories on police brutality, but rarely do you have the goods to back it up," said Paul Friedman, executive producer of ABC's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings."
Videotapes broadcast on network news shows have played a part in two other Los Angeles-area law enforcement scandals.
A 1988 home video showed San Bernardino County sheriff's deputies swinging fists and batons at Hispanic partygoers after responding to complaints about noise. The tape became vital evidence in the resulting lawsuit, which ended with an settlement of $745,000 to five people.
A 1989 video shot by a hidden news camera showed two Long Beach police officers shoving the head of Don Jackson - a black activist and former policeman - through a plate glass window during a traffic stop. That case is now at trial.
by CNB