A CITY IN CRISIS: HOPE AND PRAYER AMID THE ASHES : From the Nation’s Newspapers

Newspapers around the nation have reacted with pain and anger to the verdict in the Rodney King trial and to the subsequent riots. A sampling of editorial comment:

ATLANTA CONSTITUTION

We must begin by admitting that the verdict is a product of racism. For some, that realization may be difficult. To white Americans, racism can be like gravity. You can’t see it and may never notice it, but its existence is clear by the effect it has on things around you. . . . The Rodney King episode is the equivalent of the apple dropping on Isaac Newton’s head. It shatters the comforting notion that our racial problems were resolved by the civil-rights legislation of the ‘60s, the election of black public officials in the ‘70s, and the cross-cultural popularity in the ‘80s of the black men such as Michael Jackson, Magic Johnson, Hammer and Cliff Huxtable.

ARIZONA REPUBLIC

Where is the rhyme or reason, (Angelenos) must wonder, in a system that puts Zsa Zsa Gabor behind bars for slapping the policeman who stops her for a traffic violation, then exonerates four officers who are filmed breaking a man’s leg and fracturing his facial bones in a sustained assault that leaves the victim bleeding and half senseless?

BOSTON GLOBE

If . . . jurors can deny racism in its most blatant form, it seems impossible that America will ever own up to subtler forms of racism that take place every day.

CHARLESTON (W.VA.) DAILY MAIL

It’s going to take more than the mighty Justice Department to undo (the) damage. The overwhelming majority of Americans, black and white, do not think in stereotypes. Most Americans would treat each other fairly and resolve problems peacefully. Color isn’t the great divide. Violence is the enemy here, and it is violence that must be condemned.

(Cherry Hill, N.J.) COURIER-POST

The jury, which included an Asian and a (Latino) but no African-Americans, took the ancient protection afforded people charged with crimes--innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt--and stretched it into something chilling. Policemen, this jury decided, should be judged by different standards--their own standards--under which any doubt at all will do for an acquittal, reasonable or not.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

. . . A federal prosecution would not undo the damage done by the verdicts Wednesday evening in Simi Valley. It can’t bring back the property that has been destroyed and the jobs that went up in smoke with it. It can’t bring back the dead. It might, however, be able to counter the deadly impression that there are two systems of justice in California and the nation--one for the wealthy and white, another for the poor and black; one system that is real and another that is just a semblance of justice.

CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER

Editorial pages don’t often second-guess juries because the system usually works. But it boggles the mind that the suburban Simi Valley jury, in good conscience, could reach a not guilty verdict after repeatedly watching King’s videotaped beating. And it surely causes many to wonder if the verdict would have been different had the case not been transferred from Los Angeles to predominantly white Ventura County. The . . . verdict was clearly a travesty.

DES MOINES REGISTER

To minorities and the poor, the message is that the system doesn’t work for them. That doesn’t justify the looting and burning that are tearing Los Angeles apart, but it explains why the perpetrators aren’t especially afraid of the consequences. What more is there to lose, if you believe that just being black and poor already puts you on the wrong side of the law?

DESERET NEWS (Salt Lake City)

(Although) the jury exonerated the four Los Angeles officers, much of the nation simply cannot. In fact, many Americans across the country--white and black alike--are left wondering if what happened to King could also happen to them. . . .

HOUSTON CHRONICLE

This senseless brutality and waste of human life and property that was carried out in a carnival-like atmosphere was not the natural consequence of anger and frustration over the King verdict. This was not the result of a high level of joblessness, poverty and drug addiction in the heavily black area where it occurred. This was the action of criminals, plain and simple.

KANSAS CITY STAR

The judicial system . . . has failed at a crucial time. . . . Asked about the suspicion that racism was a factor in the beating, the juror offered the irrelevant observation that two other black men in King’s car were not beaten. Must racial prejudice be discounted as a possibility unless every black person involved is sent to the hospital? . . . It is frustrating and discouraging to see yet another important decision made by a jury from which blacks, one way or another, have been excluded. . . . Blacks around the country are understandably outraged, alarmed and disgusted by the outcome of the trial. So are many other Americans.

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Why have we made so little progress over all this time? How has the gap between the haves and the have-nots remained so wide? Why has so little been done to bridge this nation’s racial divide? What will it take to bring the problems of the cities back onto the national agenda?

RICHMOND (Va.) TIMES-DISPATCH

Fortunately, juries have not only the freedom but also the obligation to exercise their own judgment in assessing facts and evidence to make their own independent decisions. Consisting of imperfect mortals, juries will not always achieve perfect justice. But they are to be trusted far more than mobs.

SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER

Any way you look at it, the verdicts in the Rodney King beating case are wrong. Legally: Police are now free to use excessive force to subdue suspects. Morally: Poor blacks can’t get a fair trial. Ethically: The cops got away with it. . . . Wednesday’s verdict is an outrage. . . . King was drunk and resisting arrest. . . . But nothing excuses the holocaust of batons, boots and blood that King experienced. King was subdued long before the last blow came crashing down on his head. . . . First the cops crushed justice, then the jury did.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Two things need to be done rapidly. . . . The U.S. Justice Department should move swiftly to file federal criminal charges against the four officers in the King case for violation of King’s civil rights, (and) L.A. Police Chief Daryl Gates, who is a symbol of widely perceived racism in his department and of police disregard for community concerns, should resign immediately.

THE TENNESSEAN (Nashville)

In a sense, the Rodney King incident robbed the nation of a measure of innocence. Very few people, fortunately, have ever had any firsthand experience with police brutality. Some people don’t even believe police brutality occurs. Rodney King’s case erased any doubt.