After reading the Trials and Tribulations of Rodney King essay, I immediately thought of a similar more recent case. That is the case of Sean Bell in New York City. For those of you unfamiliar, here is the wikipedia link...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean_Bell_shooting_incident
The abridged version is that police were investigating in an area when Mr. Bell was "suspected" of reaching for a gun in his car. He was then shot and killed.
The murder of Sean Bell has been compared to the Rodney King beatings. However, in my opinion, the Sean Bell case shows a more blatant case of police not following protocol, and yet, the backlash was not nearly as much. When the police officers were acquitted in the Rodney King trial, it gave way to the L.A. Riots. However, when the officers were acquitted in the Sean Bell murder trial (including the one officer who fired 31 shots, meaning he needed to reload his weapon, even though Bell did not have a gun) the city mourned and got a street named after Bell. It appears as though our country has matured and displayed that maturity even in the face of an unbelievable unnecessary tragedy, a time when immaturity would certainly be understandable.
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