along?â
But the rioting was just a few hours old as truck driver Reginald Denny turned off the Santa Monica Freeway and took a shortcut across Florence Avenue. At 6:46 PM , after entering the intersection at Normandie, he found himself surrounded by black rioters who started to throw rocks at his windows, and he heard people shouting at him to stop. Overhead, a news helicopter piloted by reporter Bob Tur captured the events that followed.
One man opened the truck door, and others dragged Denny out. Denny was knocked to the ground and one of the assailants held his head down with his foot. Denny, who had done nothing to provoke the violence, was kicked in the stomach. Someone hurled a five-pound piece of medical equipment at Dennyâs head and hit him three times with a claw hammer. Still another man threw a slab of concrete at Dennyâs head and knocked him unconscious. The man, who would subsequently be identified as Damian Williams, then did a victory dance over Denny, flashing a gang sign at the news helicopter hovering above, which was broadcasting the events on live television, and pointed at Denny. Another rioter then spat on Denny and left with Williams. Several passersby took pictures of the attack but no one came to Dennyâs aid.
After the beating ended, various men threw beer bottles at the unconscious Denny. Someone came along and riffled through Dennyâs pockets, taking his wallet. Another man stopped near the body and attempted to shoot the gas tank of Dennyâs truck but missed. Eventually, with the attackers gone, four men who had been watching the events on TV came to Dennyâs aid. One of them was a trucker with a license that allowed him to drive Dennyâs truck. The four rescuers loaded the prostrate trucker into his cab and drove him to the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, Denny suffered a seizure.
Paramedics who attended to Denny said he came very close to death. His skull was fractured in ninety-one places and pushed into the brain. His left eye was so badly dislocated that it would have fallen into his sinus cavity had the surgeons not replaced the crushed bone with a piece of plastic. A permanent crater remains in his head to this day, despite efforts to correct it.
Based on identification from the TV news video taken from Bob Turâs helicopter, the three men most directly involved in the attack on Denny were arrested and brought to trial. Of the three, only one, Damian Williams, would be convicted, and then only on one felony charge, the court seeming to take the view (rightly or wrongly) that the acts were not premeditated and were the result of citywide mob mentality. For our present purpose, however, the most fascinating aspect of the case is that the identification of Williams was a result of some remarkable new mathematics, and the acceptance of those methods by the court was a milestone in legal history.
THE ROSE TATTOO
Although millions watched the attack on Denny on TV, either live or during endless repeats on news programs, and although the prosecution in the trial of Williams and his two accused accomplices showed forty minutes of video recordings of the event as evidence, identification of the assailants of sufficient reliability to secure a conviction proved difficult. The video footage had been shot from a small portable camera, handheld by Turâs wife, Marika, in a helicopter hovering above the scene. The result was grainy and blurred, and on no occasion did Marika Tur get a clear face shot of the assailants. The person shown throwing a large slab of concrete at Dennyâs head and then performing a victory dance over the victimâs now unconscious body could have been Williams. But it equally could have been any one of hundreds of young black males in the Los Angeles area who shared his overall build and appearance.
One feature that did distinguish Williams from other possible suspects was a large tattoo of a rose on his left arm.
But the rioting was just a few hours old as truck driver Reginald Denny turned off the Santa Monica Freeway and took a shortcut across Florence Avenue. At 6:46 PM , after entering the intersection at Normandie, he found himself surrounded by black rioters who started to throw rocks at his windows, and he heard people shouting at him to stop. Overhead, a news helicopter piloted by reporter Bob Tur captured the events that followed.
One man opened the truck door, and others dragged Denny out. Denny was knocked to the ground and one of the assailants held his head down with his foot. Denny, who had done nothing to provoke the violence, was kicked in the stomach. Someone hurled a five-pound piece of medical equipment at Dennyâs head and hit him three times with a claw hammer. Still another man threw a slab of concrete at Dennyâs head and knocked him unconscious. The man, who would subsequently be identified as Damian Williams, then did a victory dance over Denny, flashing a gang sign at the news helicopter hovering above, which was broadcasting the events on live television, and pointed at Denny. Another rioter then spat on Denny and left with Williams. Several passersby took pictures of the attack but no one came to Dennyâs aid.
After the beating ended, various men threw beer bottles at the unconscious Denny. Someone came along and riffled through Dennyâs pockets, taking his wallet. Another man stopped near the body and attempted to shoot the gas tank of Dennyâs truck but missed. Eventually, with the attackers gone, four men who had been watching the events on TV came to Dennyâs aid. One of them was a trucker with a license that allowed him to drive Dennyâs truck. The four rescuers loaded the prostrate trucker into his cab and drove him to the hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital, Denny suffered a seizure.
Paramedics who attended to Denny said he came very close to death. His skull was fractured in ninety-one places and pushed into the brain. His left eye was so badly dislocated that it would have fallen into his sinus cavity had the surgeons not replaced the crushed bone with a piece of plastic. A permanent crater remains in his head to this day, despite efforts to correct it.
Based on identification from the TV news video taken from Bob Turâs helicopter, the three men most directly involved in the attack on Denny were arrested and brought to trial. Of the three, only one, Damian Williams, would be convicted, and then only on one felony charge, the court seeming to take the view (rightly or wrongly) that the acts were not premeditated and were the result of citywide mob mentality. For our present purpose, however, the most fascinating aspect of the case is that the identification of Williams was a result of some remarkable new mathematics, and the acceptance of those methods by the court was a milestone in legal history.
THE ROSE TATTOO
Although millions watched the attack on Denny on TV, either live or during endless repeats on news programs, and although the prosecution in the trial of Williams and his two accused accomplices showed forty minutes of video recordings of the event as evidence, identification of the assailants of sufficient reliability to secure a conviction proved difficult. The video footage had been shot from a small portable camera, handheld by Turâs wife, Marika, in a helicopter hovering above the scene. The result was grainy and blurred, and on no occasion did Marika Tur get a clear face shot of the assailants. The person shown throwing a large slab of concrete at Dennyâs head and then performing a victory dance over the victimâs now unconscious body could have been Williams. But it equally could have been any one of hundreds of young black males in the Los Angeles area who shared his overall build and appearance.
One feature that did distinguish Williams from other possible suspects was a large tattoo of a rose on his left arm.
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