Over twenty years ago, Rodney Glen King watched as the city of Los Angeles went into an instant frenzy shortly after four law enforcement officers beat him to a living pulp. No one knew that this situation would be known as the most violent incident that the United States has ever witnessed. King’s story would be one of many that brought on the attention from the media as a result of unlawful police brutality. It is a situation that has never been truly handled and has definitely been underestimated and is seen as something that “is not that serious” or something “does not happen as often as you would think”. As a result of the violence, there is evidence of dislike or hatred between Whites, Blacks, Latino’s, and Asians. Needless to say, police …show more content…
There have been many stories of racial profiling and police brutality. After that incident in 1991, America just was not the same. Activists say that news outlets report on the stories of more notable cases of police brutality but fail to bring attention to the everyday abuse of police power (Maynard). It has also been said that they perceive whites as the victims but in reality, people of color are the ones that often have run-ins that turn violent with the law. As a result of this, they are usually portrayed as the aggressors (Maynard). Activists tend to focus solely on the victim’s background and less on law enforcement for information. It is unfortunate because news outlets always seem to find a way to create an idea of what kind of person that they were. People rely on the technology of today to get news. So we as people, we only get what the news outlets report. We are ignorant to the underlying pieces of the story simply because we do not do our own research. We hear what is said and on the news and run with that. It is not a secret that we always know that the victim had alcohol in their system and came from a broken home, but not that they were only reaching for their wallet at the time of their shooting, beating, etc. For example, news outlets did not neglect that fact that Rodney King was on probation and had had different run-ins with the law before his beating. Even after his attack, King was being perceived as a person that was a troublemaker that cannot stay out of trouble. Even if he was a troublemaker, it does not justify the brutal beating he received that day in