1991: March 3-15

On March 3, after stopping King for speeding, members of the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) severely beat and arrest him. George Holiday, a nearby resident, captures the episode on video tape and distributes it to television networks, which repeatedly show it in broadcast news. Three days later, LAPD Chief Daryl F. Gates calls the King beating an "aberration" as the community clamors for his resignation. King is released from custody, and on March 15, four LA policemen Sergeant Stacey Koon and officers Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, and Theodore Briseno are charged with a felony and arraigned for their part in the beating.

1991: March 15-26

On the night of March 15, fifteen-year-old Latasha Harlins, an African-American girl, is shot to death by Korean-American Soon Ja Du in a South LA liquor outlet. On March 26, on the same day that the four officers charged in the King beating enter an...