George Holliday, who shot video of police beating Rodney King, dies

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George Holliday, the plumber who shot video of Los Angeles cops beating Black motorist Rodney King in 1991, has died at a hospital in California on account of issues from COVID-19, a buddy stated.

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The video that Holliday captured symbolized police brutality and racial injustice and was an early instance of the facility of citizen journalism, the place a bystander documented a momentous occasion that may in any other case have been neglected.

Holliday, who was believed to be in his early 60s, was hospitalized with the coronavirus for a few month and died on Sunday, his buddy, Robert Wollenweber, stated on Monday. The loss of life was first reported by TMZ.

Lengthy earlier than the appearance of the Black Lives Matter motion, the title Rodney King was synonymous with using extreme power in policing minority teams. King, then 25, was battered by a squad of cops after a site visitors cease in March 1991, an incident caught in graphic element on Holliday’s video.

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The video of King’s beating, shot in grainy black and white, was performed on a whole bunch of tv stations. The acquittal of the 4 L.A. cops by a jury led to riots in Los Angeles over six days in 1992, through which greater than 50 folks have been killed and a few $1 billion in injury was triggered.

The 4 cops have been indicted later that 12 months on federal civil rights expenses, with two discovered responsible and sentenced to 2 years in jail. King, who died in 2012 on the age of 47, was awarded $3.8 million in damages.

Recollections of the King video resurfaced following the 2020 loss of life of George Floyd, an African-American who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for greater than eight minutes, a killing {that a} bystander captured on video, sparking months of protests towards police brutality and racism the world over.

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On March 3, 1991, Holliday stood on his balcony and used his Sony Video8 Handycam to file the cops beating King. Holliday referred to as the police to seek out out what had occurred. After they declined to share info with him, he rang the KTLA information station.

King – who was on parole for theft – had led police on a high-speed chase via Los Angeles. Later, he was charged with driving below the affect, in line with NPR.

When police stopped him, King was ordered out of the automotive. Los Angeles Police Division officers kicked him repeatedly and beat him with batons. The video additionally confirmed that a number of policemen stood by watching and commenting on the beating.

King’s accidents resulted in cranium fractures, damaged bones and tooth, and everlasting mind injury, NPR reported.