Official Negligence : How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD

This is a very important book. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rodney King police beating of 1991. It provides a deep understanding of police use of force, race relations, jury selection and politics. A great gift for your local chief of police. The best and worst ways to deal with protests and rioting. A must read for police chiefs, mayors and journalists. It's a long book and some of the content is very disturbing, but if you want to understand how a jury found the four police officers not guilty, this is the book for you.While the book is a complete coverage of the two Rodney King trials and the Denny trial, there are a few unanswered questions:Why didn't the Taser shots take down Rodney King?Was it because he was high on PCP?What's the best way to take down a large suspect who might be high on PCP?Would pepper spray work?Is there a better way to perform the "Swarm Technique"?

It’s a good read. There’s so much behind the scenes that I didn’t know occurred.

A very detailed and seeming honest accounting of the Rodney King beating, the Trials the Riots and the dysfunctional LAPD command. While I am a fan of the LAPD parts of this book were painful to read. While most officers in the field seemed to want to do the right thing they were left in the cold by Darryl Gates, a man I admired and a command structure at LAPD that could not think on it's own. This book offers a fair accounting of the beating of Rodney King, not the "motorist" the felon Rodney King running from the police. Nothing good comes from running from the police. The book is probably more interesting if your from that area and know something of the people involved. Very detailed, Very informative.

Was the LA Police Department so hard up for recruits that they hired these jokers? Just because they carried a badge and a gun doesn't give them the right to treat any member of the public like that! They all deserved to go to jail!Cass

Well researched & written. I lived & worked through the riots and was present at several locations to observe first hand the lack of senior leadership at the command level.Sgt D. Pugel, LAPD Ret.

This book provides an in-depth study of a case that most people thought they understood. Yet in reality the media failed to tell the "real" story on this nightmare. This should be mandatory reading for anyone planning a career in law enforcement.

Arrived quickly. Enjoy having read the book

Official Negligence How rodney king and the roits changed los angeles and the lapd tells about the months leading up to the events of the la roits.

Had to be there to understand why it all happened