Following the videotaped beating of Rodney King by the LAPD, an official commission
was appointed to investigate the department. The Christopher Commission, named
for
its chair, Warren Christopher, who is now the US Secretary of State. The Christopher
Commission issued a hard-hitting report, and estimated that 15 % of the LAPD were
hard-core racists, or over 1200 of the LAPD's 8100 members. The Commission took 23
pages to document the extent and virulence of racism in the LAPD.
You certainly have to wonder how the hundreds of representatives of the mainstream
media managed to overlook this, especially because they covered every other
possible aspect of the trial. One person was profiled whose sole connection was that he went to elementary
school with Kato Kaelin. The LA Times published over 1000 articles on the
trial.