Case Study: The Rodney King Case
Interpretations of Video:
Although many aspects of the Holliday video are inconclusive as to what exactly is happening, the video seemed to affect the overwhelming majority of those who saw it in the same way, save the twelve jurors who acquitted the four police officers in the first trial. The Holliday video falls far short of telling the whole story of the night’s events. For example, the eight minute video clip, which is frequently interrupted by shots of the Holliday family members playing Nintendo, does not tell the story of King’s foolish attempts to evade the pursuing police by driving at speeds of over 100 miles per hour. Furthermore, the video has no sound, and is very fuzzy. In fact, all one can make out for sure in the footage is that there are four men in dark suits (they tell us the police) taking repeated and violent swings at somebody who is apparently lying helpless on the ground. This is not to suggest that anyone ever deserves the beating which Rodney King received, but an image that makes King look more helpless an innocent is difficult to imagine.
It is also interesting to consider why the twelve jurors interpreted the videotape differently than the overwhelming majority of Americans that saw the tape. For starters, they were necessarily exposed to all the information, as they had to sit and listen to the defense lawyers’ attempts to justify their clients’ actions. But even more interesting are the strategies both sides employed to show the Holliday video to the jury. While the prosecution played the tape without interruption, the defense repeatedly interrupted the showing, and often showed the beating in slow motion in an attempt to justify each and every blow (Tomasulo 76). The defense attorneys believed that by slowing the video footage down and interrupting its flow, the emotional outrage which most Americans experienced upon seeing the video would be reduced on the jurors, and judging by the jury’s decision to acquit the four charged officers, it worked.
