Police Brutality and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Tale of Two Beatings

Abstract

This study uses data from a national and a local opinion survey that were underway when highly publicized police beatings of African Ameri can citizens occurred in two American cities-the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles and the killing of Malice Green in Detroit-to probe the impact of these dramatic events on public perceptions of racial discrimi nation. The incidents appear to have had their greatest effect on specific perceptions of the way local police treat blacks, and markedly less effect on broader perceptions of the extent of discrimination against them.