Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
JUDY MULLER (VO) To understand Tim Wind outside the context of
the King beating, it�s important to look inside that context.
Just what was
his role in that incident? First, he was a rookie officer who
did not really
know any of the others. His training officer for the evening,
Larry Powell,
had failed a qualifying test for baton use earlier that day.
SGT CHARLES DUKE Larry Powell didn�t have the technique, the
strength or the training to successfully deal with that
situation.
JUDY MULLER (VO) The result? Powell swings wildly, catching
King
in the face and chest. The LAPD was forced to turn to the
baton more
frequently after the controversial chokehold was eliminated.
It�s a brutal
weapon, even when it�s used correctly.
SGT CHARLES DUKE And when you use a baton, you�re going to
break bones, you�re going to cause injuries and it looks ugly
and brutal
and violent.
JUDY MULLER (VO) As for Wind, two criminal injuries and one
civil
jury, not to mention an LAPD review board, found that his use
of the
baton that night was within policy, even though he lacked
experience.
TIM WIND It was the first time in my entire police career I
ever used
my baton on anyone.
SGT CHARLES DUKE If you watch, he imitates, he evaluates, he
stopped his baton swings when there�s no threat. When there is
a threat
he uses his baton.
JUDY MULLER (VO) Wind says he became frustrated with King�s
resilience and he looked over to Sergeant Stacey Koon for some
direction.
TIM WIND And I paused going, you know, like what the hell do
we
do now? This isn�t working, what do we do? And I looked up at
him and
he went, �Hit him!�
JUDY MULLER (interviewing) He did?
TIM WIND Yeah. You can see it on the tape. He goes, �Hit him!
Hit
him!�
JUDY MULLER (VO) Meanwhile, Sergeant Koon had twice used a
taser stun gun on King, which can send out 50,000 volts per
hit. But
King got up after each jolt. Most of the officers concluded
that could
only mean one thing.
SGT CHARLES DUKE Every officer there, including the CHP, the
Highway Patrol, believed that Rodney King was possibly under
the
influence of PCP.
JUDY MULLER They really believed that?
SGT CHARLES DUKE They really did.
JUDY MULLER (VO) King says he was not on PCP, just drunk. So
why did he continue to move after being shocked? He says ...
RODNEY KING The officers kept beating me and running the
electricity through me so I could not stay still with all the
voltage going
through my body like that.
JUDY MULLER (VO) Finally, he did stop moving and put his hands
behind his back to be cuffed.
JOHN MACK I think most people could have understood if they
had
hit Rodney King a few times, you know, three or four times
until they had
him on the, had him subdued, you know, had him down on the
ground,
his arms, you know, handcuffed. Then it�s all over.
JUDY MULLER (VO) But it was not all over and what happened
next
is the most controversial part of the arrest. First, Ted
Briseno delivers a
stomp to King�s neck. Tim Wind says he never saw that stomp.
All he
knew, he says, was ...
TIM WIND He started to get back up and I had the, I couldn�t
let him
do that. And we were, it almost over. I was like oh, no, you
know?
JUDY MULLER (interviewing) He�s getting up again?
TIM WIND Yeah. I wished you could read minds through that tape
because you would see what I was thinking and that�s I could
either
mace him or kick him back over onto his stomach in the prone
position
where he�d been a little earlier.
JUDY MULLER (VO) And so while Powell continued to flail away
with the baton, Wind used kicks.
TIM WIND It didn�t work and I guess just looked too bad.
JUDY MULLER (VO) And those kicks still look bad to a lot of
people, including the prosecutors.
STEVEN CLYMER I really don�t retry Mr Wind now. I still think
that
they�re very troubling and I think I�ll always think that they
were very
troubling. He was kicking a man who was on the ground.
TERRY WHITE I do think that it was proper to charge him and I
do
think the evidence was there to convict him. But I don�t think
that he is as
blameworthy as the other defendants.
JUDY MULLER (VO) Clymer agrees, saying Wind was �in the wrong
place at the wrong time�.
STEVEN CLYMER Because based on the evidence we had, there
was no indication that Wind had ever been involved in any
other conduct
like this and there was no indication that Wind held any
racist attitudes.
JUDY MULLER (VO) In fact, neither prosecutor made race and
issue
in court. But that doesn�t change the public perception of the
incident,
based primarily on the videotape.
JOHN MACK It really, really symbolized the cancer, I mean just
how
rotten and how sick the institutional culture of that
department was.
HARLAND BRAUN The importance of the incident is almost
symbolic
now. It makes no difference whether it really happened that
way. So we
all make up our mind and the people that suffer, of course,
are the
officers that are involved and Rodney King.
TED KOPPEL So, what�s happened to the other officers who
participated in the beating that March night in 1991? And what
about
Rodney King? What�s happened to him? Some surprises, in a
moment.
(Commercial Break)
JUDY MULLER (VO) Where are they now, the players in that
historically pivotal moment? Larry Powell has kept a low
profile since he
was released from prison and is reportedly pursuing a new
career in
computer technology.
Stacey Koon used his prison time to study to become a Roman
Catholic
lay minister. A defense fund raised a couple of million
dollars for his legal
bills and his family�s living expenses.
Ted Briseno, who had a prior suspension on his record for
hitting a
handcuffed suspect with a baton, was acquitted in the King
incident. But
his testimony against the other officers in the first trial
made him a pariah
with police. He now works for a private security firm.
The officers are not the only ones whose lives changed that
night. Rodney
King became an instant symbol of racial injustice and, during
the riots, a
symbol of anguish.
RODNEY KING People, I just want to say, you know, can we all
get
along? Can we get along?
Yeah, can we all just get along? Cause, you know, I live by
that and I�ll
die by that and I really meant that.
JUDY MULLER (VO) King admits he was afraid of going back to
prison for violating his parole the night he fled police.
RODNEY KING You know, I admit I was wrong, you know, for
speeding and not stopping the car sooner, but once I stopped
the car, I
did nothing to provoke the officers into being almost killed
that night.
JUDY MULLER (VO) And he admits he�s had some run�ins with the
law since then.
RODNEY KING Oh, yeah.
JUDY MULLER (interviewing) How many times, 11 times or
something?
RODNEY KING Oh, way, way more than that.
JUDY MULLER (VO) These run�ins included a charge of spousal
abuse for trying to push his wife out of the car. But King
sees them all as
a continuing pattern of harassment.
RODNEY KING From the start it�s for the police to justify what
they
did to me. It�s like ...
JUDY MULLER (interviewing) Oh, so you think they�re out to get
you?
RODNEY KING Oh, without a doubt. Without a doubt.
JUDY MULLER (VO) But while he still has a rap sheet, he also
has a
rap label. The first CD produced by his company will be
released on
April 29th, the anniversary of the riots.
RODNEY KING (rap singing) It was hell on earth, Flames burning
to
the sky, And I can�t believe the media Was asking why, No
justice no
peace.
JUDY MULLER (VO) King received almost $4 million in damages
from the city but says he didn�t really get that much after
lawyers took
their cut.
RODNEY KING You know, the city of Los Angeles, they threw the
bone, which was a check, out of the window and told me,
basically told
me to go chase it with the attorneys and all.
JUDY MULLER (VO) And he still suffers from headaches,
backaches
and memory loss.
RODNEY KING I�ll forget, you know, and leave something on the
stove and it�s, you know, it�s I�ll come back to it and the
whole kitchen�s
burning up.
JUDY MULLER (VO) Like Wind, he also lost his privacy and
received threats. Even so, he�s able to joke about the
unexpected silver
lining.
RODNEY KING If it didn�t happen, then I wouldn�t be here
today. I
wouldn�t have this record label, this rap label that I have.
JUDY MULLER (VO) Tim Wind has also found a silver lining of
sorts.
He�s going to college in the evenings to get his degree and
has
discovered he loves research.
(on camera) He�s now working up a study for his sociology
class on why
criminal suspects flee from police. Wind concedes it�s an
ironic topic for
someone whose life was altered by just such an event�an event
in which
the truth remains elusive and opinions are ironclad.
SGT CHARLES DUKE They still talk, whenever they refer to this,
as
the Rodney King beating. This wasn�t the Rodney King beating.
This was
a situation where officers attempted to take somebody into
custody that
wouldn�t allow themselves to be taken into custody.
JOHN MACK That�s where I have a serious, serious disagreement.
The incident was an incident of brutality, yes. It was an
incident of
racism.
TERRY WHITE I could never prove that it was racial and since I
couldn�t prove that, we didn�t pursue that.
STEVEN CLYMER There is more to the story than simply the
videotape. There were things that happened before the
videotape, there
were things that happened after the videotape. There were
things that
happened during the videotape that the videotape doesn�t
capture that�s
necessary for an informed view of the entire incident.
LOU CANNON It was a well�intention but bungled and incompetent
arrest in which everything that could have gone wrong went
wrong.
RODNEY KING There�s only one truth and, you know, I told the
truth
that night. I told the truth about it all and now everybody
else, they have
their opinion.
JUDY MULLER (VO) It is an endless debate and for Tim Wind, an
endless nightmare.
(interviewing) Your life changed in just a few minutes on a
single night.
How do you feel about that?
TIM WIND I haven�t figured that out yet. I have no idea. I was
just
doing my job.
JUDY MULLER (VO) I�m Judy Muller for Nightline in Los Angeles.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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