Most people who got to hear about Henry “Kiki” Watson was when they watched aerial footage of the Los Angeles riots showing a white van driver being pulled from his construction vehicle and attacked.
Or else it was when the former marine, then aged 27, was arrested and mug-shotted, along with five other young black men and agreed a plea deal to only a modest charge. Or when he appeared with that driver, Reginald Denny, on The Phil Donahue Show after being released from jail, shook his hand and apologised “for my participation in the injuries you suffered”.
Today, Watson, who was involved in one of the most notorious incidents in the riots and civil unrest that followed the acquittal of four white police officers over the beating a year earlier of black motorist Rodney King, says he has no regrets about what he did. Asked if the 55-year-old Watson would have responded in the same way as his younger self, he says he would have.
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