30 years after Rodney King’s beating, George Floyd’s friends see similiarities in historic cases
Updated Mar 03, 2021;
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George Floyd and his childhood friends spoke of the video with astonishment.
The year was 1991, and images of Los Angeles cops beating Rodney King, a Black motorist, were sparking a national firestorm over police brutality. Floyd was a 16-year-old student in an impoverished Black neighborhood in Houston, a city with its own accusations of authorities using excessive force against people of color.
“There was a level of excitement, like finally it’s caught on camera,” said Floyd’s friend Jonathan Veal, recalling their group discussions. “But then later, the verdict came back, the police were acquitted and there was just a level of disgust, shame and, really, disappointment in the justice system.”