LA's Rodney King riot of 1992 was America's deadliest and most expensive civil disturbance in the 20th Century. A young lawyer named Connie Rice saw it as an opportunity. Taking up Martin Luther King's call for a "radical reconstruction of society itself," she made legal war on the brutal abuse of blacks and Hispanics by the LAPD and the Sheriff's Department. At the risk of her life, she learned the worst about gang culture, and ultimately enlisted gang members, as well as whistle-blowing cops, to help bring about real reform. We talk to her about the achievements, and the setbacks, she describes in her new book, Power Concedes Nothing. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, Dr. King's dream and American politics.
Banner image: Connie Rice, taken from the front cover of her new book
Connie Rice: From the Courtroom to the Kill Zones
From this Episode: