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July 18, 2002
why can't i live a life for me
There was a brief piece on the BBC World Service about Jeremy Morse getting charged with assault in the beating of Donovan Jackson-Chavis.
"My client believes that an impartial jury will find that the use of force was necessary and he will be acquitted," said Officer Morse's lawyer, John Barnett.
Officer Morse, who has been on paid leave as federal, state and local investigations were launched, is to appear at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday morning.
He will be charged with assault "under colour of authority", and faces up to a year in prison and $10,000 fine if convicted.
In the radio version, the correspondent mentioned the riots which occurred after what's now termed "the Rodney King incident." This is, of course, a slight oversimplification.
There were no riots when the video originally aired. Black people got the silly idea in their heads that, finally, here was incontrovertible evidence of what we'd been saying for years, that even white people could no longer keep their heads stuck in the sand, and the wheels of justice were allowed to run their course.
And the good people of Simi Valley demonstrated how wrong we were.
Of course, the riots which followed the not-guilty verdicts weren't solely a black thing:
"The coverage of Latino-looking people rushing from stores...was treated as incidental," [University of Florida College of Law Professor Juan] Perea said. In fact, nearly one-third of those killed during the riots and half of those arrested were Latino. These numbers are not surprising considering half the population of South Central Los Angeles is Latino, Perea said.
and weren't solely about the verdict:
15 year-old Latasha Harlins was shot in the back of the head by a LA Korean-American grocer in early 1991 over a container or orange juice. The grocer was freed on bail shortly after the shooting. As a result, there had been tensions between Blacks and Koreans for years, and when the riots began, Koreans were the first target by the rioters.
but why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
Posted by Aaron at July 18, 2002 03:39 AM
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