When Human Rights Are Violated

Did race play a role in the brutal beating of Rodney King, the black man who was stopped, then ferociously clubbed and savagely kicked by a group of white police officers following a chase prompted by a traffic violation?

In the wake of the shocking beating, which was videotaped by an amateur camerman and broadcast nationally--and other recent incidents involving black athletes--a growing number of civil rights leaders are accusing the LAPD of a pattern of disparate treatment against minorities. Those charges, of course, must be investigated fully.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates has said the department can turn up absolutely no racial evidence in the case of King, except for the fact that the 15 officers were white and the suspect was black. No racial epithets were recorded, according to Gates, and the victim has said he didn’t believe the beating was racially motivated.

The jury is out, so to speak, on whether there was some racial motivation in the King beating. But it’s important to remember that a beating doesn’t have to be racial to violate civil rights. If a white person believed officers used excessive force against him, he would be entitled to pursue a civil rights complaint.

All Americans enjoy federally recognized and constitutionally based civil rights to due process and equal protection under the law. These protections, which evolved after the Civil War and take precedence over state policies, are not race-based.

The right to due process is at the heart of police brutality complaints. That federal protection guarantees a suspect will be arraigned, tried, acquitted or convicted and sentenced in a court of law. When police brutality is alleged, however, the victim is charging, in effect, that police officers tried and punished him on the spot.

The U. S. Department of Justice has at least 2,000 complaints pending against law enforcement officers. The FBI investigates these complaints, but the Justice Department waits until state actions are completed. The Los Angeles County Grand Jury is currently weighing the evidence against officers who participated or watched the King beating without interceding. But a few local prosecutions will not put an end to the outcry, nor should they.

Two prominent, elected Los Angeles officials, Rep. Maxine Waters, an African-American, and Councilman Richard Alatorre, a Latino, plan to hold hearings regarding the police and excessive force. During the hearings, there will be much talk about civil rights. But it would be a mistake to define civil rights issues solely as minority concerns. Civil rights are human rights--that’s why the horrified reaction to the King videotape has been so universal.