Stacey Koon
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Stacey C. Koon was a Sergeant with the Los Angeles Police Department. On March 3, 1991, after a high speed chase, he and four other officers - Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseño and Rolando Solano - attempted to arrest Rodney King. King resisted arrest[citation needed] and Officers Powell and Wind and Briseño beat him. The incident was videotaped by nearby resident, George Holliday, who sold it to local TV station KTLA. The station aired parts of the video and CNN aired it the next day. The police officers were tried in a state court in Simi Valley in 1992 and acquitted. In 1993, the four officers later were tried in a federal court in Los Angeles, and Koon and Powell were convicted of violating King's civil rights and sentenced to 30 months in prison.
The initial sentencing of officers Powell and Koon was appealed to the United States Supreme Court on the issue of whether the Federal District Court properly applied departures from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, in Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81 (1996). Ultimately, the Court affirmed the lower court and allowed the officers' sentences to be significantly reduced due to four factors: King's own provocation, the officers' susceptibility to abuse in prison, their successive prosecutions in state and federal courts, and the unlikelihood of them repeating the same crime, as any felony conviction rendered both of them ineligible for law enforcement employment.
Koon served his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, and the Federal Work Camp in Sheridan, Oregon. He was released on October 15, 1995. An armed assailant attempted to kill Koon in the halfway house in November 1995, but Koon was away for Thanksgiving.
Before his release, Koon unsuccessfully attempted suicide. He became ineligible as a convicted felon to serve on any police force and is now a part-time paralegal assistant and a "house husband." He currently resides in Castaic, California, where he is selling copies of his book, Presumed Guilty: The Tragedy of the Rodney King Affair.
[edit] Presumed Guilty
In his book, Koon claims, among other things, that:
- He and the other three officers were "swarming" King, a tactic regularly used by the LAPD to intimidate the suspect into submission without seriously injuring him. They would have used a chokehold if permitted.
- King's injuries were minor. His fractured cheekbone healed within a week, and his "broken leg" was a hairline fracture which initially went unnoticed. Remarkably, on page 52 Koon writes, "It was remarkable that Rodney King hadn't been hurt worse than he was. Our use of force was unusually powerful."
- The videotape did not show King's aggressive actions.
- King appeared to be on PCP. Although Koon tased him twice, it seemed to have no effect, and he repeatedly appeared to threaten the officers. (Whether King was on PCP was never definitively established.)
- Koon and the other officers were "presumed guilty" by Police Commissioner Daryl Gates, who played politics with the case instead of defending their actions. Koon feels this led directly to the riots that followed their acquittals. Gates lost the support of his men and left the LAPD soon after.
While Koon was in prison a mass mailing was sent to buyers of "Presumed Guilty" seeking money for his legal defense. He raised about $1 million.
[edit] Pop culture
- Political rock band Rage Against the Machine references Koon in the song "Vietnow".
- "Don't want to be a felon like Stacey Koon" Ice Cube in the song "Really Doe"
- "Pretty soon we'll catch Sergeant Koon" Ice Cube in the song "We Had To Tear This Mothafucka Up"
- Koon is referenced in The Simpsons episode Sideshow Bob Roberts by Rush Limbaugh parody Birch Barlow as "another intelligent conservative railroaded by our liberal judicial system just like Colonel Oliver North, Officer Stacey Koon and cartoon smokes-person Joe Camel."
- Satirical comedian Bill Hicks makes reference to Koon on his posthumously released album Arizona Bay. He plays on the fact that "coon" is also a racial insult towards African Americans and suggests that the other officers involved were named "Officer Nigger hater" and "Officer Keep Darkie Down."