COURT WATCH : The Public Pays Up

The second, punitive phase of the Rodney King civil trial is due to begin today; the first phase, in which King sought compensation from the City of Los Angeles for the injuries he suffered in the now-infamous 1991 police beating, resulted Tuesday in a jury award of $3.8 million.

In having to pay King that much, has Los Angeles learned anything? The carping from City Council member Hal Bernson and former Police Chief Daryl F. Gates that King didn’t deserve $3.8 million misses the point. The law does not require that King be perfect. He was horribly abused by officers entrusted to represent law and order.

Unfortunately, the King case is just one of many police misconduct cases in which the city has had to pay up with hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Part of that no doubt is the cost of doing tough police work in a big city. But another reason Los Angeles has been plagued so with police misconduct lawsuits over the years has to do with a lack of accountability.

Too few council members or police brass have asked: Are there ever consequences if officers abuse their authority? Before the King case, the answer often was “no.”

Where does it go from here? The city is not being held liable for punitive damages, but the council could decide to cover costs assessed against individual officers, who are or were city employees (though that’s unlikely). Whatever happens now, L.A. taxpayers should at the very least be able to expect the worst police misconduct lawsuits to be behind them and never have to worry again about such egregious, and costly, incidents.