Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles [Hardcover]

This is a book that everybody should read. It is a good and easy readand, I might add, an important one for young people who may only slightly know the name Rodney King, let alone those who have seen the infamous eight-minute video, taken via camcorder by a local citizen, of white officers beating him. They could learn a lot about this city and its history of Black struggle against police violence long before George Floyd woke up the country again in 2020 Authored by a former chair of the ACLU SoCal, this insider saga catalogues the 16 months surrounding the 1991 LAPD beating of Rodney King and the resignation of LAPD chief Daryl Gates, demonstrating the teamwork necessary for the political left and center to overcome white grievance and unaccountable power. Offering an impressively detailed and informative behind the scenes perspective of the political, cultural, and judicial aftermath of the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles that became a nationwide social justice issue,? In this scintillating book, Danny Goldberg takes us back to the crises over policing and racism that unfolded in Los Angeles during the early 1990s. Brimming with insight, Goldbergs book unpacks how the events surrounding the brutal beating of Rodney King were deeply rooted in a broken criminal justice system that culminated with the leadership of Chief of Police Daryl Gates. But Goldbergs story is not just one of despair; from the ACLU to rap musicians, he recounts how a group of tough liberals fought back. In our own current moment of intense racial reaction, this history has never been more vital. An extraordinary autopsy on a traumatic inflection point in the contested history of Los Angeles, Danny Goldbergs tough-minded investigation of how Los Angelenos grappled with institutional racism and the desire to reinvent the city itself is written with smarts and verve and is destined to take its place alongside Mike Daviss? I lived in Los Angeles for much of 1990 to 1993, and this bolƒ*