Verdict shocks Cops, Lawyers

Verdict shocks Cops, Lawyers

Police brutality--United States

A recent verdict has acquitted four Los Angeles police officers for using excessive force on a black motorist. This verdict has drawn a mixed reaction from local police and attorneys.

Brown, Julian P.

Vermont Standard

HIST 298, University of Mary Washington

1992-05-07

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English

Florida

A jury's recent verdict acquitting four Los Angeles police officers of using excessive force on a black motorist has drawn a mixed reaction from local police and attorneys.

All those interviewed agreed that if one were to judge the men by the infamous videotape, then they were guilty.

But some of those interviewed said they did not know what other evidence was presented court, and believed that the jury system should be supported.

I'll was not sitting on a jury for seven weeks. All I saw was 83 seconds of a tape," Woodstock Police Chief Byron Kelly said.
But, judging from the videotape, Kelly said, "I would have thought they were guilty."

Woodstock Attorney Tom Zonay agreed. A former police officer, Zonay believes the officers used excessive force against Rodney King.

On the other hand, Zonay said that from the perspective of an attorney, he was obliged to respect the jury's decision.

"I am a believer that you have to respect the system and the system sometimes makes decisions that many people are not pleased with," Zonay said.

Slate Police Lt, Bruce Lang said this week that "All of us are shocked at the verdict" Lang said the verdict "sends a signal to the public that police officers can get away with that activity. There was no excuse for that."

An all-white jury last week acquitted the officers of beating King in March 1991 following a high-speed chase. An amateur videotape of the beating was shown on television stations across the nation, creating an outcry over the tactics police used to subdue King.

The verdict led to an orgy of rioting and looting in Los Angeles last week, resulting in the deaths of 58 people.

Demonstrations were held in other cities across the United States. These demonstrations sometimes turned into in riots. Locally, a demonstration was staged by students at Dartmouth College.

Michael Mello, a criminal law professor at the Vermont Law School, said the verdict was the result of the trial's location being moved from Los Angeles to Simi Valley.

While Mello agreed with changing the trial's location, he said Simi Valley was' a poor choice because of its overwhelmingly white population. He said the jury should have been picked from an ethnically diverse area.

Mello said the population of Simi was comprised of middle class whites who had fled Los Angeles. The jurors, according to Mello, were more inclined to believe a police officer than a victim of police brutality.

Mello cases with the media. In this instance, however, Mello said "This verdict sickened me as a lawyer and as a citizen."
Lang, said he too, was surprised that an all-white jury had been picked to decide the case. "I just don't understand that, especially in an area like Southern California," Lang said.

Lang has been a police officer in Vermont for 15 years. In that time, he said he has never seen a single case of police using excessive force against anyone. As commander of the Bethel Barracks for the past five years, Lang has only received one complaint about an officer using excessive force to apprehend a suspect.

Lang said the person who made the complaint was not the defendant in the case. Lang investigated the complaint and found that the officer was justified in using his nightstick to apprehend the suspect.

Lang added that Vermont Slate troopers are taught never to strike defendants above the shoulders.

U.S. Rep. Bernard Sanders criticized the 11-year Reagan- Bush presidential "reign" as the underlying cause behind the riots that resulted from the verdict.

"During the same period as' the rich were getting richer, lower-income black workers saw their wages drop by 50 percent. The percentage of qualified his statements, saying that besides the videotape, he did not know what other evidence was presented to the jurors.

For this reason, Mello said, he usually declines to discuss African-American fathers who did not earn enough at their jobs to keep their families out of poverty jumped from 25 to 40 percent,” Sanders said. He called for a “fundamental change in national priorities.

Newspaper

Williams, Megan