FIRST EVER VIRAL VIDEO. The story by George Holliday.
Produced and directed by Roby Massarotto. 
  
George Holliday, the man who pioneered citizen journalism, captured the history-making video that changed television news forever. The major networks shocked Americans showing LAPD officers beating King more than 50 times with wooden batons and shocked him with an electric stun gun. Before the local TV station paid him a cent, it aired the tape on its evening news show. From there, it went viral on the national cable and news networks and became the most famous home video of all time.
  
 

Before there was YouTube, before anyone had ever heard the words "Viral Video" there was Rodney King Beating Video. Rodney King would have lived and died complete unknown, were it not for the most famous home-video ever made Rodney King Beating Video. This is the story of little known maker of the FIRST EVER VIRAL VIDEO.

George Holliday, the man who pioneered citizen journalism, captured the history-making video that changed television news forever. The major networks shocked Americans showing LAPD officers beating King more than 50 times with wooden batons and shocked him with an electric stun gun. Before the local TV station paid him a cent, it aired the tape on its evening news show. From there, it went viral on the national cable and news networks and became the most famous home-video of all time.

But was King and what we saw on that videotape the whole story?

George Holliday reveals unknown details about the story behind the footage. A story of an Argentine plumber who inmigrated to the U.S. escaping from a turbulent country, Argentina in the 80s, looking for the American dream, and suddenly gets involved in a case of police brutallity, human rights leaders, the media preasure who took advantage of him, court rooms, millionaire demands, unfaithfull lawyers and covered settlements. However, one person later thanked him. In late 1991 Holliday stopped at a gas station and a young black man in a new sports car pulled up at the same pump: "Hey, George... George Holliday," the man said. "You do not recognize me, do you?" Suddenly, Holliday realized it was Rodney King. "I just wanted to thank you. You saved my life."

Rodney King Beating Video is a continuous matter of study in most schools and universities of the U.S. It turned what would otherwise have been a violent, but soon forgotten, encounter between Los Angeles police and Rodney King into one of the most widely watched and discussed incidents of its kind.
   
   

A dramatic encounter with a stranger and the Los Angeles police. Rodney King was pulled over by the police in Los Angeles, had an angry verbal confrontation with the officers, and was then brutally assaulted by several of them. Public servants gone wildly out of control, savagely kicked King, landed 56 baton blows to his body, battering and bloodying him. The beating was so loud and raucous, in fact, that it caught the attention of George Holliday in his nearby apartment. He got out of his bed and went to his window, where he witnessed the horrible scene. Holliday immediately went to get his video camera, and he captured the whole awful episode on tape.

Holliday reflects on how he did not realize how newsworthy his video of the Rodney King beating would be. He explains, "Coming from Argentina, it's different over there.  If a criminal commits a crime, you know, the police take him in and they take care of him.  For me, that's normal because that's the way I grew up." But Holliday was curious about what he had witnessed, so when the L.A. police would give him no details, he called local television station KTLA. Those videotaped images rocked this nation's consciousness.

The images of the Rodney King Beating Video were seared into the American consciousness: a black man struggling on the ground while Los Angeles police officers stood in a semicircle around him, beating him for 19 brutal seconds. Black leaders rallied behind Rodney King immediately. They say, "Seeing the Rodney King beating was, like, seeing history repeated again and again."

A prosecutor who was absolutely convinced that it was an open-and-shut case based on the George Holliday video, which showed King being beaten by the police. Little did he realize that by re-editing the images, the attorneys defending the L.A. police officers, in the first criminal case, totally changed the story. One year later, in the same city, different images: angry fists and faces, broken glass and flames, 54 dead, 2,000 injured and a city tearing itself apart before the world.

Ever since, the beating of Rodney King and the ensuing riots have formed a somber backdrop to America's "dialogue" on race. The beating itself, and the initial exoneration of LAPD officers by a suburban Simi Valley jury, supported the notion that America remained a deeply racist society. Today the Rodney King Beating Video is still remaining as an unique reference.

The powerful echoes of which we see on display in American cinema as Natural Born Killers (which uses actual footage from the King video), Strange Days, Mace, Malcom-X, Dark Blue, and The Matrix Reloaded, in which the beating of the main character "Morpheus" seeks to draw upon its audience's familiarity with the Rodney King beating. the codes inherent to the historical representation of racial conflict. 

Due to a recent ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, Chief Justice stated in her dissent that, had the King incident occurred in Massachusetts, "...under today's ruling Holliday would have been exposed to criminal indictment rather than lauded for exposing an injustice."

The Holliday tape is shown so often on world wide television that one CNN executive calls it "wallpaper." It is a continuous matter of study in most schools and universities of the  U.S.
   
   

• Briseno puts his hand in front of Powell, who is ready to strike King.
• Powell strikes King in the back as he attempts to rise.
• Briseno stomps on King's shoulder, forcing King's face down.
• King begins to get up from his hands and knees.
• King is up and charges in the direction of Powell.
• Powell hits King in the shoulder area with his baton and King falls on his face.
• King hit by numerous blows from Powell to various parts of his body, probably including one blow to the head.
• King is on his stomach. No blows are struck.
• Powell has baton raised and appears ready to strike King. Briseno  puts his hand in front of Powell.
• King is rising.  Powell strikes King in arms and chest.
• Wind strikes King near buttocks.
• After Powell strikes King in upper chest, King topples over and turns.
• Powell strikes King in arm and shoulder area.
• Powell strikes King in back while King attempts to rise.
• Powell hits King in left arm as King rises from his knees.
• Wind swings at King as King begins to fall.
• King falls. His face appears to hit asphalt.
• Powell strikes King on knee, while Wind hits King in shoulder.
• King's head his up. Powell and Wind deliver hard blows to King's back, buttocks, and thighs.
• King rolls to left and cocks right leg.
• After two-second break, officers resume force, striking King's legs.
• King lifts his upper torso.
• Powell strikes King's ankle while Wind strikes his back.
• ing rolls on ground while Koon puts arms in form of cross, showing  the position he wants King to assume.
• King, on his back, cocks his left leg.
• King rolls as Powell strikes his hand.
• Powell reaches for his handcuffs.
• King raises his torso. Briseno stomps on Kings shoulder and Kings head hits asphalt.
• Briseno points to King. Powell and Wind strike King's right arm.
• King is on his hands and knees.
• Wind strikes King's back three times.
• Powell strikes King's left arm.
• Wind delivers three kicks to King's shoulder and back area.
• Video back in focus. Powell swings at King.
• King is sitting on his calfs. Koon is pointing at King.
• King puts his hands on his head.
• Briseno begins handcuffing King.
• King is put in handcuffs after officers.