Former Seattle police chief says progress made since Rodney King beating
Jun 18, 2012, 10:00 AM | Updated: 11:46 am
The day after Rodney King was found dead at his Rialto,
Calif. home, former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper
recalled the beating of King as the “most
brutal and cowardly act of policing” he’s ever seen.
Stamper told Seattle’s Morning News the videotaped beating
20 years ago that sparked the L.A. riots has changed
policing, but he says officers will always be somewhat
defensive about how they respond to threats against them.
“I think there’s a tendency to forget that violence in the
community and threats to police officers’ safety and their
survival are going to be met with defensiveness on the
part of police officers. They want to make it home at the
end of every shift.”
Stamper says it’s important to remember that the cops who
beat King were not out of control. He says they
systematically beat a defenseless man and other officers
stood by and did nothing to stop it.
There has been progress since King’s beating, but it has
varied greatly across all the country’s 18,000 police
departments. Stamper said some departments have embedded
into their policies that officers are expected to stop any
witnessed inappropriate behavior. Others have simply
educated their officers about what is unacceptable
behavior.
As for Seattle, Stamper believes the police department is
healthy, but the system itself needs some help.
“Predictably, year after year, generation after
generation, you’ll find especially young black men and
other young people of color will talk about the treatment
that they have been subjected to by their local agency. I
don’t know of a black community anywhere in the country
that has a strong bond with its police department.”
King’s death at age 47 is being treated as an apparent
drowning and there are no signs of foul play, but police
said autopsy results would be needed to determine whether
drugs or alcohol were a factor.
The autopsy is set for Monday.
KIRO Radio reporter Tim Haeck and the Associated Press
contributed to this report.
