Holliday Videotape
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A Trial Account
by  Douglas O. Linder    
It seemed like an open-and-shut case.  The George Holliday video, played on television so often that an executive at CNN called it "wallpaper," showed three Los Angeles police officers--as their supervisor watched-- kicking, stomping on, and beating with metal batons a seemingly defenseless African-American named Rodney King.  Polls taken shortly after the incident showed that over 90% of Los Angeles residents who saw the videotape believed that the police used excessive force in arresting King.  Despite the videotape, a jury in Simi Valley concluded a year later that the evidence was not sufficient to convict the officers.  Was the all-white jury racist, as some charged, or did they see something in the evidence that  [CONTINUED]
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