Rodney King’s Day in Court : Appearance is a landmark in this long ordeal

Los Angeles is not quite the laid-back mecca that perhaps it once seemed to be for all who dream of fame, fortune or freedom. There is now almost no escaping the crime, the congestion, the high cost of living. Racial, ethnic and class tensions, exposed and exacerbated by last spring’s riots, now hang just below the surface during everyday encounters.

Since the riots, Los Angeles has been a city on the edge. In the last three weeks four area police officers have been shot. And there are fears of new civil unrest stemming from the outcomes of two controversial trials: the federal civil rights trial of the four white police officers accused of beating Rodney G. King and the state trial of the four black men accused of beating Reginald O. Denny. Whatever the outcomes, this city and this nation need at least to perceive that justice has been done. In this sense, the criminal justice system is on trial; in another sense, so is the city.

Amid all these tensions, King has finally had his say in court. His dramatic testimony was important both inside and outside of the federal courtroom because his full voice had never been heard on the events of March 3, 1991. Just as the world watched the videotape of the four police officers beating King, the world paid attention to what King had to say about that day. Whether or not the jurors ultimately choose to believe King--who was at times inconsistent, at times convincing during his two days on the stand--his appearance in the courtroom humanized the events captured on videotape.

King’s testimony--and the testimony of new witnesses such as the medical experts not heard during the state trial--gives even more meaning to the federal trial. Considered initially by some as merely a political exercise to placate rioters and liberals, the federal trial of Sgt. Stacey C. Koon, Officer Laurence M. Powell, Officer Theodore J. Briseno and former Officer Timothy E. Wind on new charges is proving to be much more than a stale rehash of the state case. That, in itself, is reassuring.

Did the four police officers violate King’s civil rights? Did any officer hit him on the head, a violation of LAPD policy? Did they lie and cover up their actions that night? Those specific questions will be up to the jury to decide.

Did justice prevail? Did the truth come out? Was the trial fair? Can we now all get along? Those much larger questions will be up to Los Angeles and the world to decide. Only when such answers can be given in the affirmative will the tensions begin to disappear. It’s perhaps not fair to ask of the King and Denny trials that they also serve to arbitrate all these larger questions. But that is what it seems to have come down to.