The Rodney King Verdict: Did Our Justice System Fail? And Now What?

The acquittal of the four LAPD officers in the Rodney King beating trial was a far greater truth than a conviction would have been. A conviction would have created the illusion that our system of justice is blind to race and social status and that it works well for black people and for other minorities.

That verdict and the riots that followed struck America like a searing bolt of lightning, shocking us into the grim reality that if our system failed this time, it probably fails all too often for black people. We now know beyond any reasonable doubt that what they have been trying to tell us for decades about their second-class status in our system of justice is true.

This is the paradox. In this enormous injustice, justice has been served. The truth that came to light gives us the freedom to change a system with serious flaws. By acquitting the four police officers the jury gave us a new suspect, our judicial system.

The verdict that caused so much pain and anguish will in the end work for the higher good by focusing the attention of our nation on its serious social ills. God works in strange ways.

MARCEL J. FERNANDEZ, Lake Forest