I think my mask of sanity              is about to slip

2002 Crack Committee Objectives:
1. 94 Wins and NL East Title by the Mets this year 2. Hate the Braves with a passion
3. All 5 Starters have winning records this year 4. Mets win World Series

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On March 3, 1991, four Los Angeles police officers beat and arrested Rodney Glen King while some twenty others stood by and did nothing. George Holiday captured the beating on videotape from his apartment house across the street and delivered the tape to a local television station on March 4. The tape was broadcast around the world, galvanizing international attention on police brutality in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney dismissed all charges against King four days later. On March 15, four Los Angeles police officers -- Sergeant Stacey Koon and Officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind and Theodore Briseno -- were charged in state court with felony assault and related charges arising from the King beating. The four remained free on bail pending trial. Police chief Daryl Gates fired probationary officer Timothy Wind and suspended without pay the other three officers who were criminally charged in the King beating. A grand jury refused to indict seventeen other officers who stood by.
In response to the King beating, Mayor Tom Bradley appointed Warren Christopher to head the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (the "Christopher Commission") to investigate the Los Angeles Police Department. The Commission issued its Report three months later, documenting the systematic use of excessive force and racial harassment in the LAPD. Police abuse reflected not just a problem with individual deputies, but management problems caused by the lack of supervision, discipline and accountability. The Report also condemned the organizational culture of the LAPD, which emphasized crime control over crime prevention and created a siege mentality that isolated the police from the people. Among the Report's chief recommendations were a call for community policing and the resignation of police chief Daryl Gates.
Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg ordered the trial of the four officers charged in the King beating moved to conservative and predominantly Anglo Simi Valley in November 1991. On April 29, 1992, the Simi Valley jury found the four police officers not guilty of committing any crimes against Rodney King, except that the jury hung on one count of excessive force against Officer Laurence Powell. The judge declared a mistrial on that count.

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