"Looting, fires, gunshots, and the threat of murder were the grim backdrop against which Tiffany navigated her way to the safety of the freeway, fourteen blocks away."
Quote from "Blazing Upheaval" by Karen Charles
"April 29, 1992, at the Simi Valley Court House, a jury acquitted all four of the LAPD officers who assaulted a Black man named Rodney King. During the early morning hours of March 3, 1991, after a night of binge drinking, King and some friends were speeding down the Foothill Freeway. He was erratically driving his 1987 Hyundai when two California Highway Patrol officers spotted them. They gave chase but could not force him to stop. King panicked not wanting to be arrested while intoxicated, in case it was a parole violation. Speeding off the freeway, he tried to elude his pursuers through residential neighborhoods. Soon, Los Angeles Police Department patrol cars and a police helicopter joined the chase. They pinned him down and ordered King and his two friends out of the car.
When Rodney King emerged from the car, the officers said he acted “peculiarly,” waving to the helicopter and stomping his feet. They tasered him and the order was given to subdue him.
Unknown to the officers, a tenant in a nearby apartment captured the next seventy-nine seconds, recording King’s resistance. The officers responded by beating him with their batons and kicking him thirty times. Later, when a pulverized King was taken to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a broken ankle, a broken facial bone, and multiple lacerations.
The tenant took his videotape to a local television station. They broadcast the graphic display of police brutality, sparking outrage in the Black community.
Now, with the acquittal of the officers who assaulted Rodney King, a group gathered at the intersection of Florence and Normandie Avenues in Los Angeles. Emotions ran high. A White truck driver, Reginald Denny, stopped his truck at the traffic light at that intersection. A group dragged him out of his truck and beat him. Anger was now at the boiling point, ready for a catastrophic, deadly explosion the city would never forget."
Quote from "Blazing Upheaval" by Karen Charles
Coming soon is the thriller, "Blazing Upheaval" by Karen Charles. Read her blog summary and bio at weaveofsuspense.com.
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