Taped Beating of Rodney King

Does the beating of King portray a few bad apples or a rotten barrel, as Jerome Skolnick suggests (Commentary, March 7)? A case could be made, from a statistical point of view, that the chance that a few bad apples converged on the scene, from a “random” assortment, at the same time is possible, but not probable. An alternative viewpoint would suggest that there may be an underlying pattern of behavior within the department that encourages such brutality by the officers.

Last year Los Angeles shelled out $8 million to victims of police brutality. In our age of high-tech innovations, couldn’t that amount of money be allocated for the purchase of camcorders that could be installed in police cars to record the interactions between officers and suspects? This arrangement would offer visual evidence in support of the officers in incidents such as drunk drivers, suspected felons, etc., and maintain the “sunshine” of truth which may suppress such future outrageous behavior.

MICHAEL W. SMITH

Mammoth Lakes