KGMI News
by Joe Teehan
BELLINGHAM, WASH. – Saturday marks 25 years since the acquittals were announced of four Los Angeles police officers in the video taped beating of black driver Rodney King, sparking days of deadly rioting.
The case caused a racial divide in the country, and about a year later the Federal government tried the officers again for violating King’s civil rights.
Bellingham resident Bob Almond lived in L.A. at the time and ended up as the foreman on the federal jury.
He says they watched a video tape of the beating over and over.
“They just continued to hit [King] and there was not much he could do to surrender. There are about three times in the tape where he obviously wanted to give up, and at the end he finally says, ‘please stop, please stop,'” Almond says.
Two officers were found guilty of violating King’s rights and were given prison terms while the jury found two others were innocent.
Almond has co-written a book about his experience titled “Moral Uncertainty: Inside the Rodney King Juries.”