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The Original NPR Report On Rodney King

Twenty-five years after the beating of Rodney King, we rebroadcast the first NPR report on March 8, 1991, about the incident.

Reporter Ina Jaffe tells the NPR audience what happened in Los Angeles, foreshadowing the debate over police procedures that followed.

A special thanks to NPR librarian Sarah Knight for retrieving this audio.

Reporter

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rodney King speaks with fans before presenting his autobiographical book 'The Riot Within...My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption' at the Eso Won Book Store in Los Angeles, California, on April 30, 2012.  The 1992 police beating of  Rodney King sparked the LA riots that left more than 50 people dead. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages)
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Rodney King speaks with fans before presenting his autobiographical book 'The Riot Within...My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption' at the Eso Won Book Store in Los Angeles, California, on April 30, 2012. The 1992 police beating of Rodney King sparked the LA riots that left more than 50 people dead. (JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages)