#Video camera used to record Rodney King beating up for auction

This non-functional Sony video camera may seem like a vestige of a pre-smartphone days, but it gives a timely view into the lens of history.

The Handycam that recorded the Los Angeles police beating of black motorist Rodney King in 1991 will hit the auction block on Thursday. The auction comes at a time when Black Lives Matter unrest continues to simmer around the nation following the cellphone-recorded May death of George Floyd in police custody.

The starting bid on the relic is $225,000, according to a Tuesday release from Nate D. Sanders Auctions.

On March 3, 1991, then-31-year-old plumber George Holliday stood on the balcony of his apartment to film the disturbing scene of four cops brutally attacking 25-year-old King during a routine traffic stop. The cops struck King, who died in 2012 at age 47, more than 50 times with batons, shot him with stun guns and kicked him. At the time, King was on parole after being convicted for robbery, and the officers stopped him for speeding down a darkened street.

Holliday taped most of the violent encounter and turned a copy of the footage over to a local television station. Widely considered the first viral video in the days before internet, and one that ultimately left a legacy for videotaping encounters with the police, it was played on repeat over the following year.

Holliday’s tape seemed to be enough evidence to hand the officers guilty verdicts. But the trial was moved to Simi Valley, California, a predominantly white suburb north of Los Angeles known as a residential enclave for police and their families. In April 1992, a jury with no black jurors acquitted all four officers on nearly all charges (they deadlocked over an assault charge on one). The decision ignited the LA riots, which lasted for three days. The events left more than 60 people dead, whole neighborhoods of the city on fire and more than 2,000 people injured.

“Can we all get along?” King said on television at the peak of the riots. A federal jury would later convict two of the four officers.

The videotape of the beating is not included in the auction, but a notarized letter of authenticity from Holliday will come with the sale. Beyond the camera not working, the foam cover of its microphone has almost fully deteriorated — the condition it was in when the FBI returned the camera to Holliday in 2015. The batteries of the camera have been removed to protect it, but the auction house notes that the camcorder remains in otherwise very good shape. It also includes the original accessories, such as a power adapter and battery case.

Images of the camera show a still-intact body and its original blue strap for wrapping around the wrist or hanging from the back of the user’s neck.