I asked Lt. Nixon, “Why don’t you suspend everyone involved and then worry about the circumstances later?” Lt. Nixon nodded his head but didn’t give me any response.
A Los Angeles Times news photographer, Mike Meadows, was in the police press office that night and jumped on the story early. I filled him in on some of the details and he told his city desk about the existence of the tape. Mike came over to our news room and photographed stills of the video that we played for him on one of our television monitors. He would have his pictures in time for the morning edition of the Times. It was about seven that night when I left Parker Center. I caught up with my camera crew and drove to George Holliday’s condominium in Sylmar. Rosalva had set up an interview with the man who shot the tape.
It was raining while we searched for the correct address in the condominium complex. It was a large, gated community. We followed directions, but lost our way through the maze of buildings. We had to retrace our steps a few times before we found the right unit. George Holliday answered the door and introduced us to his wife. Both were from Argentina, but had lived in this country for many years. George managed a plumbing company.
I looked around his condo, his new camera was still in the white, foam protective packaging. The new camera box was nearby, as well as a scattering of video tapes and cables and connectors.
George told me he was just learning how to use it. He had shot it only a few times. “There was an Arnold Schwartzeneger movie filming down the street last week,” he told us. “I took the video camera and got shots of Arnold and some of the other members of the cast. It was good experience and I enjoyed it.”
“How did you happen to take this video”? I asked.
His wife answered. “The sirens and copter noise woke me up. I went out on the balcony and saw all the commotion and called George. Maybe you should get the new camera. There is a lot going on out there on Foothill.”
“I found the camera. It took a little time to get it ready and for me to start shooting. I just followed the action”
George Holliday had no idea of the impact of what he was videotaping. He didn’t have any plans to contact a television station, because he wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in what he had shot. It wasn’t until the next morning when his wife called the Foothill Station and inquired about the man arrested outside their condo the night before. It was only then that they considered doing anything about it. “The policeman on the phone gave me the run-around. He wouldn’t give me any information at all, so I asked George if maybe we should give it to a news station. I was a little scared about doing it. Because of the way they talked on the phone we decided to call you,” she told me as we sat in their living room.
The Hollidays said they had watched KTLA a lot and knew that we did these late breaking action stories and that we might be interested. They called, talked to our assignment desk and were asked to drop the tape off with the security officers at the KTLA main gate. The rest is history
It was still raining when we left the Hollidays. I knew this would be a difficult story. It was brutal and violent and would offend a lot of people. I decided to use that as a peg for my narration. I had an umbrella out as I put my notes together and decided to use it while I told the story.
I wanted to be as objective as possible and not sensationalize something as devastating as the tape. I wanted people to see it and make up their own minds.
I did the on-camera portion of my story and then went back to the newsroom to finish up the rest.
There was some concern for the safety of George Holliday as we put the finished tape together. Would we make him a marked man if his face went on the air? How important was his on-camera appearance to our presentation?
While we were getting the tape ready for our ten o’clock broadcast I was paged over the newsroom loudspeaker. “Stan Chambers, there is a call for you on extension 5501.”
It was Assistant Police Chief Bob Vernon. “Stan, I want to let you know that we have already sent investigators out to the site where the video tape was shot. They are working in the rain talking to witnesses right now. All we are interested in is the truth. Let the chips fall where they may.”
I thanked the chief. We now had a strong reaction from the Police Department. We could tell the viewers what immediate steps the police were taking. Vernon also told me that Police Chief Daryl Gates was out of town. I later learned that he was attending a police seminar in the East. He wouldn’t be back in Los Angeles until early the next morning.
Tony Fote went over and over the tape in his editing room. He is an expert at working under deadline pressure and getting the heart of a story in the finished edit. The first ten seconds or so were out of focus as George Holliday started shooting his new camera. There were images there, but you could not tell what was happening, once he was in focus, the images were clear and the action mesmerizing. We decided to pick it up there. The officers swarmed around Rodney King. We let the tape play until the beatings stopped. The tape was so brutally powerful, we just used Holliday’s voice as he described what he saw. That is the way it went on the air that night. Of course, the tape could not show what had gone on before. The camera wasn’t rolling during the high-speed police pursuit down the San Fernando Freeway. The large number of officers at the scene were there because they were part of the pursuit and follow up. The camera did not show that Rodney King threw off four officers who tried to subdue him after the freeway chase. The camera did not show Sgt. Tracy Koon use a taser gun twice in an effort to subdue Rodney King. Nothing that preceded the beatings on the tape had been recorded except the out-of-focus footage taken by George Holiday before the clear pictures appeared in his view finder. The fact that the officers thought he was on PCP, a drug that seems to give super powerful strength to someone under its influence was, of course not seen on the video tape. King, a huge powerful man fought all of the officers, until he was finally subdued.
The beating that happened in San Fernando was seen all over the world. It had a devastating impact.
The tape was played over and over again on television. It incited anger, rage, sorrow and pain. Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates called it an aberration.
It took almost a year before the trial of the four officers accused of beating Rodney King began.
There was wide media coverage of the trial. Many stations did live broadcasts from the courtroom. One station, KTTV in Los Angeles, televised the day-by-day proceedings of the entire trial. All the media in Los Angeles and most of the country followed every development of the trail. Those interested in the minute details of the legal arguments had access to the complete story. Defense attorneys were able to raise doubts in the minds of the jurors about the actions they saw on the video tape.
Some officers testified that they were frightened by the way King was acting. Some said they feared for their lives. Defense attorneys talked about “tunnel vision”, where a person is so intent on what is happening directly in front of him that he has no idea about what is around him. The fact that there were a lot of officers there didn’t enter into the mind of those faced with an aggressive, possibly PCP drugged assailant. They talked to the jury about the escalation of force. They listened to experts who said it was necessary to go all the way short of shooting to subdue the man. They had the jury look at “freeze frames” of the tape and had experts say various blows were according to regulation. Many disagreed with the testimony of some of the witnesses, but the jury could not find criminal fault and the officers were found not guilty of the charges. When the jury returned with that innocent verdict on three of the accused officers and said they were unable to reach a decision on the only remaining count against the fourth officer, the backlash slammed into the city.
Reporters covering the trial rushed to their live cameras, their microphones and their computer terminals to tell the world about the decision.
During the trial Brian Jenkins, a Black reporter for KCOP television, and Michael Ambrosini an anchorman for KNX newsradio, were fixtures in the media room of the Simi Valley courthouse. They were in the middle of everything every day covering the controversial trial. Both of them were among the two or three dozen reporters who spent weeks in the small converted courtroom, crammed with desks, monitors, chairs, computers and telephones. They were not far from the small work space that Eric Spillman and I shared while covering the trial. Brian’s makeshift desk was at the end of one cluttered table, Michael sat behind an old- fashioned typewriter about two dozen feet away. They were almost chained to their computers and typewriters while the trial droned on in the courtroom next door. They listened intently to the slow-moving developments in the courtroom, condensing important issues for their audiences. Michael had to do updates for KNX radio a dozen times a day. He was always over his workstation mumbling to himself.
When the riots exploded, both were caught up in the surge of violence and both of them found themselves playing the unanticipated role of hero.
Brian Jenkins was with Bob Quinlan in a KCOP camera car parked on a street in the riot zone. They were stunned by what they were seeing. At one point they saw a white man frantically running, being chased by four black youths. The assailants caught up and tackled the man right in front of their KCOP car. Bob Quinlan had his camera on his shoulder and was shooting the chase through the car’s windshield. At the moment they all tumbled to the ground and the young men started to pounce on the victim, Brian Jenkins opened the door, raced from the truck, and began pulling them off of the man. Quinlan was taking pictures of everything that was happening.
Jenkins wasn’t fighting them, he was pleading with them and trying to keep them from hurting the man, but he kept pulling them off as he tried to reason with the hot tempers.
“Come on fellows, leave him alone. He didn’t have anything to do with the decision. He hasn’t hurt anyone. Don’t pick on him just because he’s white.”
Somehow, it worked. One by one, they grudgingly stopped and the imposing figure of Brian Jenkins, who talked to them like a big brother, swung the tide away from further violence. Brian took the beating victim into his camera car. The three blacks ran off looking for a more guilty target.
I talked to Brian a few days later on a hostage-barricade story that we were both on. He said, “When I saw the video tape that my cameraman shot of me running into the fight, I couldn’t believe that I did it. I guess it was something inside of me that said I had to do something, so I just ran out there and tried to stop the guys from beating him.” Brain was able to rescue the man, get him into their KCOP car and rush away from the scene. The victim was a photographer from France who was trying to get pictures of what was happening that chaotic day in South Central Los Angeles.
Brian’s partner at the Rodney King trial table, Michael Ambrosini, also found himself thrust into a volatile situation as the riots broke out around him near the corner of Vermont and Martin Luther King Blvd. A microwave television news crew from KCAL-TV was under attack. Reporter Bill Gephardt and cameraman Chris Torgerson had been interviewing looters when several men came rushing out of the crowd and chased them. Gephardt was hit by a flying bottle. At one point he slipped and fell; the pursuers were on top of him. He was hit on the side of the face so hard, some of his teeth were loosened. They viciously kicked him in his side. Others tried to steal the television camera. In the scuffle that developed over Torgerson’s camera, Gephardt was able to get up and start running through traffic in the middle of the street. The four assailants finally were able to grab the KCAL-TV camera from Torgersons and took up the chase after Gephardt. As the pair weaved in panic through traffic in the middle of the street, they spotted Ambrosini’s KNX car. The car hardly stopped, the door swung open, both men jumped inside. Ambrosini tried to pull away but the car got jammed in the heavy traffic. The attackers, pounded on the windows, grabbed the locked doors and shook the van trying to get at the fleeing newsmen. The moment Ambrosini found an opening, he cut the car to some open space and the three of them fled the scene. Bill Gephardt had to be taken to a local hospital. The KCAL-TV microwave truck had to be abandoned on the street.
A KTTV television truck had to be deserted at another riot scene. There were mobs running randomly through the parking lot of a Fedco Store. Some of them vented their anger when they spotted a television crew huddled inside the big, white truck. A few rushed over and banged on the doors, others tried to rock it back and forth, some pelted it with anything they could get their hands on. One man swinging a two-by-four, shouting and glaring menacingly at the engineers inside the cab, let loose a vicious blow to the windshield and the side of the truck. The glass shattered, but didn’t break, but it was almost impossible to see through the windshield.
The crew had hoped to ride out the storm, but now it was developing into a desperate situation. Their only hope was to get out of there. They decided to start the truck and race out of there, escaping from the threatening crowd.
What the engineers didn’t know was that the heavy blow by the two-by-four hit a tender target, the “kill switch” in the dash board, making the truck inoperable. The switch is there to prevent fires that might be caused by a serious collision.
The frightened crew was now stranded among the rioters. Mobs seem to have a guiding force of their own. The anger erupts in waves. New targets focus their attention. That happened here. There were too many other things to do at that Fedco store and many members of the attacking mob lost interest in the truck and turned their attention to looting.
At the right moment, when the action had turned elsewhere, the engineers opened the door and fled the scene. One of their grandmothers lived about a half mile away. Her house was the their only nearby haven of safety. They abandoned the truck and ran to her place. They stayed there the rest of the day.
For months after the looting and burning, local newsmen talked of their close calls in the riots. I remember a November afternoon in 1992 at the Los Angeles County Courthouse. A bunch of reporters and cameramen were standing in the hallway outside a courtroom where the local teachers were arguing their salary situation before a judge.
I saw Marco Peterson, a Black cameraman from KTTV, was sitting on a nearby bench and reading a newspaper. He turned out to be the hero in this abandoned microwave truck story. Marco was the one who volunteered to go back to the Fedco parking lot to try to salvage the television truck.
I sat down next to him and asked why he offered to do that.
“Stan, did you know that was my son’s truck. He just started working at the station. I wanted to help out. You know Robert Campbell, well he and I went down to the Fedco parking lot to see if the truck was still there.”
Marco told me how he tried to blend in as he walked through the crowd of looters to the truck. He made believe that he was trying to jimmy the front door open.
“I had my secret key hidden in my hand and got the door opened. I got some cheers when I got into the front seat. They thought that I was trying to steal the truck. I put the key in the ignition, but no luck. I tried and tried but it just wouldn’t start. I kept doing it until the battery died. Robert and I drove down in a big pick up truck, so we decided to try to push the KTTV truck out of the parking lot.” While this was going on, looters were running out of the Fedco Store carrying dresses, shoes, lamps, television sets and anything else they could get their hands on. Many had driven their cars on the parking lot and filling them up with the stolen merchandise.
“With all of this chaos going on, Robert drove the pick up truck behind the disabled vehicle and started pushing it slowly. The crowd started cheering us on thinking that they were trying to make off with it.”
“Keep going Brother, It’s all yours.”
“That’s the way. You’re taking the big one.”
“Good going. That’s what I like to see”, the voices in the crowd laughed approvingly.
Marco and his friend waved back to the crowd as the two trucks eased off the parking lot to a safer spot in a quiet part of the neighborhood where a tow truck could be called in.
“That tow truck cost the station five hundred dollars.” Marco told me.
A few weeks after the riots, I was in Simi Valley. About a hundred people had gathered outside the courthouse to denounce the decisions in the Rodney King case. They shouted their speeches over an amplified speaker. Many were angry, but the rally was peaceful. Local police were inside the building with their riot gear on and were ready to move into action in case things got violent. One of my colleagues also covering the story was James Bartholomew, a free lance journalist who often works for the New York Times. Bart still had a badly bruised jaw from the riots. He had been taking pictures at Florence and Normandie in South Central Los Angeles when he got caught in the flash point of the outbreak. He was attacked and beaten by an angry crowd. Someone grabbed a large stick and smashed him in the face. Others took his cameras and trashed his car. A man watching the attack, somehow, was able to get to Bartholomew and helped him to get back into his car. When other rioters saw this, the attacked the car again, pulling the doors open, rocking it viciously and jumping on top of it. Not only, did they almost total his car, they also stole thousands of dollars of cameras and photographic gear. Despite it all, Bart got his pictures of the start of the riot and they were published in the New York Times. They showed Los Angeles Police Officers trying to arrest a man while a large hostile crowd surged around them.
Bart was out of commission for a few days, but he was back here in Simi Valley with cameras strapped around his neck, covering the news.
There were many heroes among the cameramen and reporters covering the riots. Many were beaten, had their cameras stolen, vehicles damaged, rocks and bottles thrown at them. But there were no fatalities. The Greater Los Angeles Press Club saluted all of the newsmen who covered the riots during the burning, looting and vandalizing. At its 1992 Headliners Dinner, it honored “The Media 500”, those members of the news media who were there and survived the Los Angeles riots.
At least three of the helicopters that flew over the fires and rioting were hit by gunfire. The KCOP and KNBC copters had bullet holes in their fuselage and my copter had a nick in the rotor blades from some gunman who took aim at the helicopter from the ground.
Los Angeles still lives with the scars of the worst uprising in this country since the Civil War. The charred debris from the fires has now been cleared, but many empty lots remain; bare, upright, exterior walls still standing, constant reminders of the days of fury. Fifty three people died in the violence, over six hundred buildings were destroyed by fire and the damage to the city was over one billion dollars. It will take a long time for the heart and spirit of Los Angeles to recover.
This riot would have been incomprehensible to people of Los Angeles in the 1930’s or 1940’s. They could understand the possibility of a Japanese air raid over Los Angeles, but could not imagine the people of Los Angeles rioting. In fact most of us in 1992 were shell-shocked by what happened. The world has changed dramatically in those five decades. What we are today if far different from those innocent pre-war years when radio dominated our leisure time and television was just a dream.
Orders: E-Mail to Stan Chambers ggsc@webtv.net
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Last update: 5 June, 1997
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