If you want to see an excellent documentary on not only the life of O.J. Simpson, but the racial animus felt by the black community throughout Robert Gates' reign in the LAPD that lead to the verdict, don't miss ESPN’s “30 For 30” documentary series O.J.: Made In America
During a segment on the police assault of Rodney King on Tuesday's broadcast, ESPN cut to former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman, who was one of the people most responsible for an innocent verdict in the case, defended the brutal beating by his fellow officers by saying if only the deadly "choke hold" hadn't been outlawed, none of that would have happened.
“This is what happens when you take away a tool that would have ended this in 10 second seconds - choke hold."
The question should be, would Rodney King even be alive if the LAPD used the "choke hold" on him?
What does this say about Fox News, that they'd hire this man to act as an analyst?
The "choke hold" was banned in LA in 1980
“There was a pattern to it,” said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, director of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable. “You had the police continuing to use this chokehold and the victims were young African-American males. People were saying, ‘You are targeting us with a hold that has deadly consequence.’ ”
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Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates inflamed tensions with his support for the chokehold, which he deemed a “valuable tool” for subduing combative suspects, and for ordering a study to determine if blacks were more likely to die from police chokeholds than other races because of anatomical reasons.
“We may be finding that in some blacks when it is applied, the veins or arteries do not open up as fast as they do on normal people,” Gates said.
Gates refused to apologize for the racist statement.
And then in 1993, NYPD also banned the controversial technique.
