COLUMN RIGHT : Contempt for Law May Be the Result

The police deny that the outrage committed against Rodney King was racially motivated. But that denial does not ring true. We know--we just plain know--that Caucasian suspects are not dehumanized like that. As a citizen of this city, I am enraged by the images I have seen. The African-American community has good reason to seethe with even greater rage and to feel abandoned by the law.

A police department cannot enforce the law if it does not abide by the law; it cannot preserve peace and public order when it loses the confidence of major segments of the community it claims “to serve and to protect.”

As an Angeleno, I am both ashamed and outraged. As a conservative, I am concerned that this police crime will breed intense contempt for the law. As a rabbi, I am appalled by the raw display of savage inhumanity and, yes, race-hatred that has been perpetrated by individuals who are paid with our tax dollars to uphold justice.