Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing

by Joe Domanick,
Tulsa World, December 13, 2015

In the 1970s and ’80s, the Los Angeles Police Department had a reputation as an arrogant, aggressive paramilitary force that covered up acts of brutality, racism and corruption. And then, on March 3, 1991, a passerby videotaped four white police officers beating Rodney King, a black motorist, with heavy aluminum batons, 56 times in 81 seconds. When the cops were acquitted, all hell broke loose in Los Angeles. And reform became the order of the day.