The verdict in the Rodney King trial was an abomination of justice. So were the riots.

Jurors in the King trial must have been blind to justice. What better proof of someone getting beaten severely than a tape? Yet, they acquit four police officers who were captured on tape battering a man.

The defense tried to twist the tape around and said if the tape was watched in slow motion, then one could see King trying to get up. Of course he was trying to get up, someone was beating him. He probably was trying to escape.

Many people were upset about the verdict all over the nation, but the way that some L.A. citizens reacted to the verdict was inexcusable.

More than 1,500 fires were set, 35 people died and hundreds were injured. Stores were looted to a point where they will never be able to open their doors again.

What is this world coming to? If this is the way people are going to react, then the A-bomb probably will be dropped soon if King’s conviction isn’t overturned.

After all, wasn’t King trying to get justice for unprovoked violence? He was trying to prove that no one can get away with that type of behavior no matter who you are.

And then people react by creating violence. Those 35 people who died in the riots died for no reason.

For the next two days, people still are looting and burning things “in the name of Rodney King.” But King himself pleaded for everyone to get along.

Pulling people out of trucks and beating them until they die is not the way to protest something. King himself said it best when he said the battle might be over but the war has just begun. King can and probably will appeal his verdict.

President Bush should have taken action sooner than Friday. Sending in the troops after part of L.A. has been levelled was stupid. He should have sent them out immediately when rioting began.

Bush should be commended, however, for starting an investigation into the verdict. Although Bush didn’t say he thought the verdict was wrong, he didn’t say he thought it was right either. He was concentrating on the present danger of L.A. being burned to the ground.

The sad part is there are many fine police in the nation who will suffer from the bad example of the L.A. cops.

The suffering has started already. Many policemen were harassed. The windshields of some policemen’s cars were broken in Wisconsin. All over the nation, police are being harassed. And it’s all because of a bad decision made by a few people.

If people want to protest, they should look for peaceable means to get the message across. As long as it doesn’t hurt anyone, it would be fine. But when things get out of hand and innocent people who had nothing to do with the verdict are killed by people who are just plain angry, then those people are just as guilty as the policemen who beat King.

King said it best when he said “we all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for awhile, let’s try to work it out.”