Can This Be Called Justice? : Reform, not violence, is the answer

“This is the way our system works,” commented a somber Terry White in reacting Wednesday to the astonishing jury judgment in the Rodney King beating case: one not guilty verdict after another. Like many people in Southern California, Deputy Dist. Atty. White, the lead prosecutor, was stunned, disappointed and pained. For the average person, seeing that infamous 81-second videotape over and over on TV--and reviewing it over and over in the mind--it was obvious that something very bad happened March 3, 1991, that somebody had done something very wrong and somebody needed to be called to account. And so Wednesday’s verdict--by a jury with no blacks--left many people with that awful feeling in the pit of the stomach that justice hadn’t been done. For the four defendants, of course, the verdict came as a great relief. They had faced the full force of the district attorney’s office and had been judged not guilty of terrible crimes.

But in truth there is no vindication for anybody in this. Los Angeles has been through a bad period in its history and, whatever the jury verdict, that videotape will live in infamy. There is certainly no vindication for the Los Angeles Police Department. Since March 3, 1991, this police force has not been the same, and never will it be. Nor should it be.

It’s true that whatever a jury decides, society--in the absence of any proof of jury tampering or other malfeasance--must accept. A jury’s judgment is the law. But the Rodney King case gets a judgment of a different kind--the judgment of history. That verdict is unlikely to be “not guilty.” The judgment of the Christopher Commission has already left an imprint. Its careful review of the LAPD, in the wake of the King beating, found the department to be plagued with problems of racism and excessive use of force. A wise commission report laid out the path to reform. A new chief--Willie L. Williams--is coming to town. And the voters have the opportunity to crown that reform by passing Charter Amendment F on June 2.

Wednesday was difficult for all involved. For the accused officers, it was the end of an ordeal, although civil suits and a possible federal civil rights probe loom. For many Angelenos, especially African-Americans--aware that not long ago an L.A. woman was sentenced to little more than community service for fatally shooting a black teen-ager in the back of the head--a deep sadness, and anger, will be hard to avoid. Is this the Deep South--and are we back to the ‘60s? To the 12 jurors, this may not seem like a fair question. But it’s a question a lot of people--wrongly or rightly--will be asking. Even so, whatever form anger takes, violence is no answer. Instead let reason and reform prevail--as, in time, they must, and will.