The Unpeaceful Kingdom…, by Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture | @MDWorld

June 21, 2012 Whitney Farmer 8 Comments

Whitney runs a rock music venue on the beach in L.A.. She has an MBA, and just turned four dozen years old.

On June 17th – Father’s Day and my birthday – Rodney King drowned in his pool in Rialto outside of L.A..

The woman living next door reported hearing a man crying in the backyard from between 3:30 and 5:30 a.m. before hearing a splash. She thought little of it because her quiet and kind neighbor had a habit of swimming in the dead of night. There were no sounds of distress, but shortly after that paramedics arrived. Apparently his fiancé had called 911 after seeing him motionless in the water.

Toxicology tests will be conducted, as is typical in cases such as this. Additionally, the coroner will investigate if he suffered an incident such as a seizure related to the beatdown he underwent at the hands of LAPD police officers on March 3, 1991. The brutality set the stage for what would erupt into the worst rioting in U.S. history on April 29, 1992 following the acquittal of the officers who had perpetrated the assault.

All of the officers who were acquitted in the trial have since been fired or quit LAPD. One officer who had been a key witness for the prosecution – Susan Clemmer – committed suicide in 2009 in an L.A. County Sheriff station.

It is unwise to take the edges off of either side of this case. Doing so makes one side or the other look more good or bad. The truth is that Rodney King was beat up by law enforcement. He also had a felony history. The truth is that officers had joked about the beating to hospital personnel. The truth is that the system as it was during that time allowed for a change of venue and their ultimate exoneration. The truth is that the system protected them and not Rodney King.

I can understand being a knucklehead and fighting back if I’m getting beaten up if holding still didn’t stop the blows. I think that self-preservation would unconsciously rise up and make arms rise up, and that it might look like an attack rather than shielding vital organs and the head. Flawed people inhabit both sides of the badge. I can also imagine being battle-weary and going too far. But afterwards, a conscience should rise up and cause a head to hang low rather than allow me to brag in the ER about perpetrating violence.

We are being called back again to testify before LAPD Internal Affairs against the officer who assaulted our server almost two years ago. The criminal case was already decided against him almost a year ago, but getting a badge and gun away is apparently more complicated than private citizens could imagine. The defense attorney is trying to wear us out by having us subpoenaed to sit in a room for an entire day without being called in, and then doing it all over again. The latest re-schedule request would have put us there at 9:30 on a Friday morning before a weekend of shows. The prosecuting IA officer protested successfully because it would have meant that we would have been working the club on no sleep. Once, I drove two hours and picked up Bone who had also been called to testify, only to get a call as we were arriving that the officer under investigation had called in sick and that we would be required to re-schedule.

From time to time, people connected with law enforcement unofficially ask us if we are being careful, if we are taking precautions for safety against retaliation. We’ve all decided that the best thing that can be done is to make sure that the story gets out. If anything happens to us or our circle, the first place to look will be at the officer who became a perpetrator and then threatened us.

I wish we had video like Rodney King had. And I wish things wouldn’t have come to that.

Quote of the Blog, from Martin Luther King, Jr.:“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…”

Image courtesy of LAPD.