Videotapes shot from TV news helicopters show a stolen car chase that ended in Compton yesterday morning. After running a short distance, an unarmed, African-American man appears to surrender. As two LAPD officers restrain him on the ground, a third delivers a quick kick and then strikes the man 11 times in the upper body with a flashlight. Yesterday's televised beating will be a test of procedures developed since the Rodney King Case that led to the riots of 1992. That's the word from Mayor Jim Hahn and LA Police Chief William Bratton, who's given a detailed account of the investigation so far. Warren Olney speaks with City Councilman Jack Weiss and civil rights attorney Connie Rice, chair of the LAPD Blue Ribbon Rampart Review Panel, to see of the LAPD is living up to its new standards.
- Reporter-s Notebook: Peace Activist or Sheriff-s Spy?
The newspaper obituary named him as Aaron Kilner, a Fresno Sheriff-s detective who died in an accident, but members of Peace Fresno recognized his picture as that of Aaron Stokes. After months of lobbying by the anti-war group, Attorney General Bill Lockyer has agreed to investigate the claim that they were being spied on by their local police. Diana Marcum, has been following the story for the Fresno Bee.
LA Times article/video on taped beating by LADP officers
Peace Fresno
ACLU on police spying of peace group
Marcum's article on investigation of alleged surveillance of Peace Now
