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Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles
The dramatic and captivating story of an unlikely coalition that formed in the wake of the Rodney King beating to challenge the destructive reign of Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates
LIBERALS WITH ATTITUDE DOCUMENTS THE SIXTEEN MONTHS IN 1991–92 between the brutal beating of Rodney King by four police officers that was captured on a home video camera and the resignation of LAPD chief Daryl Gates. Gates was reviled by the local Black and civil liberties communities because of the pattern of racism and brutality in the department, and he was uniquely powerful because of the structure of the Los Angeles City Charter and the secret files he kept on local politicians.
The effort to get Gates to step down after thirteen years as chief and to amend the City Charter to prevent another unaccountable chief from amassing that much power was led by Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, a former LAPD officer and the first Black mayor of the city. To overcome Gates’s entrenched power, Bradley assembled a team that included future US secretary of state Warren Christopher, the local ACLU, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and activists who saw the struggle against Gates as an important chapter in the civil rights movement. Much of the local media, especially the Los Angeles Times, was supportive of Bradley’s agenda, as was the burgeoning “gangsta rap” culture of LA, much of which emerged in reaction to the LAPD.
Author Danny Goldberg was the chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California during those years and was personally acquainted with the leaders of the fight against Gates. He interviewed several dozen people who are still alive and got access to thousands of pages of documents among the papers of Stanley Sheinbaum, who was married to the heiress of the Warner Bros. film fortune. Sheinbaum was chosen by Mayor Bradley to be the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, with the specific mission of getting Gates out of office. Goldberg’s insider portrayal of this unforgettable time in US history reminds us how fragile equal rights become when held in the hands of unaccountable white men of power.
LIBERALS WITH ATTITUDE DOCUMENTS THE SIXTEEN MONTHS IN 1991–92 between the brutal beating of Rodney King by four police officers that was captured on a home video camera and the resignation of LAPD chief Daryl Gates. Gates was reviled by the local Black and civil liberties communities because of the pattern of racism and brutality in the department, and he was uniquely powerful because of the structure of the Los Angeles City Charter and the secret files he kept on local politicians.
The effort to get Gates to step down after thirteen years as chief and to amend the City Charter to prevent another unaccountable chief from amassing that much power was led by Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, a former LAPD officer and the first Black mayor of the city. To overcome Gates’s entrenched power, Bradley assembled a team that included future US secretary of state Warren Christopher, the local ACLU, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and activists who saw the struggle against Gates as an important chapter in the civil rights movement. Much of the local media, especially the Los Angeles Times, was supportive of Bradley’s agenda, as was the burgeoning “gangsta rap” culture of LA, much of which emerged in reaction to the LAPD.
Author Danny Goldberg was the chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California during those years and was personally acquainted with the leaders of the fight against Gates. He interviewed several dozen people who are still alive and got access to thousands of pages of documents among the papers of Stanley Sheinbaum, who was married to the heiress of the Warner Bros. film fortune. Sheinbaum was chosen by Mayor Bradley to be the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, with the specific mission of getting Gates out of office. Goldberg’s insider portrayal of this unforgettable time in US history reminds us how fragile equal rights become when held in the hands of unaccountable white men of power.
356 pages, Hardcover
Published October 7, 2025
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About the author
Danny Goldberg
13 books33 followersDanny Goldberg is president and owner of Gold Village Entertainment, an artist management company; former CEO and founder of Gold Mountain Entertainment; former chairman and CEO of both Mercury Records and Artemis Records; former CEO of Air America; and frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Huffington Post, Dissent, Billboard, and many other outlets. He is the author of In Search of the Lost Chord, Bumping into Geniuses, and How the Left Lost Teen Spirit, and coeditor of It’s a Free Country. He lives in Pound Ridge, New York.
(Source: Amazon)
(Source: Amazon)
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 24, 2025
Liberals with Attitude by Danny Goldberg is a detailed account of the aftermath of the Rodney King beating by members of the LAPD.
As chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California during this time Goldberg can draw on his own experiences as well as the research and interviews he conducted for the book. If you remember this time frame you may have the same immediate reaction I did reading the name Daryl Gates, immense disgust at such a vile excuse for a human being as well as disappointment in a system that would give such a worthless human being so much unchecked power. Similar to what you feel when you read the name of our current felon-in-chief.
Goldberg does a wonderful job of presenting what it took, from so many different people, to make systemic change, however imperfect it is. Not everyone was given detailed backgrounds, which makes perfect sense since doing so would have made this an extremely large book. The most detail is about those who were most responsible for things turning out as they did. Gates with his tremendous arrogance and all of the things that went into his position of unchecked power, and Mayor Bradley because what many had thought of as a flaw or weakness (him not always being outspoken and out front about some of the earlier abuses) turned out to be exactly what was needed to put an end to Gates' reign, namely broad coalition of people who weren't perfectly aligned but were enough so to work together on this.
Like we used to try to get students to understand in the courses we taught, there is a difference in neglecting someone who was important in a narrative and in not telling the story from their perspective. There are many important people involved in this and it would certainly be interesting to read their recollections and a narrative from their perspective. Not doing so because it isn't the purpose of this book is not a flaw, it is an editorial decision to keep the book focused on the story being told. Usually by junior year students figure out the difference, some don't. They simply like to pose and present their one-trick pony every time.
One of the big takeaways is the importance of creating coalitions that can attract people who might not agree on more than a few policy areas. If you only bring in people who agree with most or all of your positions you will leave valuable assets on the outside. Work together on the change you can agree needs to be done now and debate other differences when the time comes. We can't instantaneously make this society exactly what we want across the board, so work together with allies on topics you agree on and start making change now rather than keep tilting at the windmills of complete utopian societal change.
Recommended for those interested in history and racism, both individual and systemic, as well as those activists who want to learn about successful campaigns of the past to help generate successful campaigns in the future.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing.
As chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California during this time Goldberg can draw on his own experiences as well as the research and interviews he conducted for the book. If you remember this time frame you may have the same immediate reaction I did reading the name Daryl Gates, immense disgust at such a vile excuse for a human being as well as disappointment in a system that would give such a worthless human being so much unchecked power. Similar to what you feel when you read the name of our current felon-in-chief.
Goldberg does a wonderful job of presenting what it took, from so many different people, to make systemic change, however imperfect it is. Not everyone was given detailed backgrounds, which makes perfect sense since doing so would have made this an extremely large book. The most detail is about those who were most responsible for things turning out as they did. Gates with his tremendous arrogance and all of the things that went into his position of unchecked power, and Mayor Bradley because what many had thought of as a flaw or weakness (him not always being outspoken and out front about some of the earlier abuses) turned out to be exactly what was needed to put an end to Gates' reign, namely broad coalition of people who weren't perfectly aligned but were enough so to work together on this.
Like we used to try to get students to understand in the courses we taught, there is a difference in neglecting someone who was important in a narrative and in not telling the story from their perspective. There are many important people involved in this and it would certainly be interesting to read their recollections and a narrative from their perspective. Not doing so because it isn't the purpose of this book is not a flaw, it is an editorial decision to keep the book focused on the story being told. Usually by junior year students figure out the difference, some don't. They simply like to pose and present their one-trick pony every time.
One of the big takeaways is the importance of creating coalitions that can attract people who might not agree on more than a few policy areas. If you only bring in people who agree with most or all of your positions you will leave valuable assets on the outside. Work together on the change you can agree needs to be done now and debate other differences when the time comes. We can't instantaneously make this society exactly what we want across the board, so work together with allies on topics you agree on and start making change now rather than keep tilting at the windmills of complete utopian societal change.
Recommended for those interested in history and racism, both individual and systemic, as well as those activists who want to learn about successful campaigns of the past to help generate successful campaigns in the future.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via LibraryThing.
June 21, 2025
Book Review: Liberals with Attitude: The Rodney King Beating and the Fight for the Soul of Los Angeles by Danny Goldberg
Perspective: Female Sociologist & Public Health Professional
Rating: 4.3/5
Reactions & Emotional Resonance
As a scholar examining systemic racism and institutional power, Goldberg’s narrative evoked both admiration and frustration. The coalition-building between Mayor Bradley, the ACLU, and activists resonated with sociological theories of intersectional solidarity—yet I found myself unsettled by the parallels to contemporary struggles against police brutality. Goldberg’s insider perspective humanizes the tactical negotiations (e.g., leveraging media, political maneuvering), but the emotional toll on Black communities—whose trauma became a bargaining chip—lingers uncomfortably. The book’s focus on structural change (e.g., charter reforms) is laudable, yet its celebration of center-left cooperation risks sanitizing the radical labor of grassroots organizers.
Strengths
-Structural Analysis: Goldberg meticulously dissects how institutional design (e.g., LAPD’s autonomy, secret files) perpetuated racialized violence—a vital contribution to critical race and public health scholarship on systemic inequities.
-Coalitional Praxis: The unlikely alliance between politicians, activists, and cultural figures (e.g., gangsta rap artists) exemplifies how marginalized communities weaponize diverse tactics against entrenched power.
-Historical Urgency: The 1991–92 timeline mirrors current reckonings with police accountability, making it a trenchant case study for scholars studying cyclical oppression and resistance.
Constructive Criticism
-Gendered Blind Spots: The narrative centers male leaders (Bradley, Gates, Sheinbaum), sidelining women’s labor in the movement (e.g., Maxine Waters’ role merits deeper interrogation). A feminist lens would enrich its analysis.
-Public Health Absences: While policing’s racial dynamics are explored, the book misses opportunities to link LAPD brutality to health disparities (e.g., trauma’s physiological impacts, over-policing as a determinant of community health).
-Radicalism vs. Reform Tension: Goldberg’s emphasis on institutional victories underplays the tensions between reformist and abolitionist strategies—a critical debate for contemporary movements.
Final Thoughts
Liberals with Attitude is an indispensable account of how power bends—but not without cost. Its greatest value lies in exposing the messy, necessary work of dismantling oppressive systems, though its silences about gendered and health inequities remind us that no struggle is singular.
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the review copy. This book is a provocation to scholars and activists alike: How do we honor the past while demanding more of the future?
Rating: 4.3/5 (A rigorous yet incomplete chronicle of resistance, with lessons for today’s freedom fights.)
Perspective: Female Sociologist & Public Health Professional
Rating: 4.3/5
Reactions & Emotional Resonance
As a scholar examining systemic racism and institutional power, Goldberg’s narrative evoked both admiration and frustration. The coalition-building between Mayor Bradley, the ACLU, and activists resonated with sociological theories of intersectional solidarity—yet I found myself unsettled by the parallels to contemporary struggles against police brutality. Goldberg’s insider perspective humanizes the tactical negotiations (e.g., leveraging media, political maneuvering), but the emotional toll on Black communities—whose trauma became a bargaining chip—lingers uncomfortably. The book’s focus on structural change (e.g., charter reforms) is laudable, yet its celebration of center-left cooperation risks sanitizing the radical labor of grassroots organizers.
Strengths
-Structural Analysis: Goldberg meticulously dissects how institutional design (e.g., LAPD’s autonomy, secret files) perpetuated racialized violence—a vital contribution to critical race and public health scholarship on systemic inequities.
-Coalitional Praxis: The unlikely alliance between politicians, activists, and cultural figures (e.g., gangsta rap artists) exemplifies how marginalized communities weaponize diverse tactics against entrenched power.
-Historical Urgency: The 1991–92 timeline mirrors current reckonings with police accountability, making it a trenchant case study for scholars studying cyclical oppression and resistance.
Constructive Criticism
-Gendered Blind Spots: The narrative centers male leaders (Bradley, Gates, Sheinbaum), sidelining women’s labor in the movement (e.g., Maxine Waters’ role merits deeper interrogation). A feminist lens would enrich its analysis.
-Public Health Absences: While policing’s racial dynamics are explored, the book misses opportunities to link LAPD brutality to health disparities (e.g., trauma’s physiological impacts, over-policing as a determinant of community health).
-Radicalism vs. Reform Tension: Goldberg’s emphasis on institutional victories underplays the tensions between reformist and abolitionist strategies—a critical debate for contemporary movements.
Final Thoughts
Liberals with Attitude is an indispensable account of how power bends—but not without cost. Its greatest value lies in exposing the messy, necessary work of dismantling oppressive systems, though its silences about gendered and health inequities remind us that no struggle is singular.
Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the review copy. This book is a provocation to scholars and activists alike: How do we honor the past while demanding more of the future?
Rating: 4.3/5 (A rigorous yet incomplete chronicle of resistance, with lessons for today’s freedom fights.)
November 19, 2025
Liberals with Attitude is such an eye opening look at 1990s activism and the political climate surrounding the Rodney King beating. What really stood out to me was the way Danny Goldberg takes you behind the scenes of the movement. Instead of only focusing on the big moments, he brings attention to the people, the conversations, and the internal struggles that shaped the fight for justice in Los Angeles. I always appreciate books that show the human side of activism because it makes history feel alive and personal, not just something we read about from a distance.
I also really loved how clearly the book connects the energy of the 90s to what we are seeing in the world today. So much of the activism happening now is part of a much longer story, and this book really highlights those roots. It reminded me that the push for justice, equality, and accountability has always required courage, community, and constant pressure from ordinary people who care deeply.
Danny Goldberg’s perspective is thoughtful, reflective, and grounded in real experience. If you want a deeper understanding of political organizing, social justice, and the forces that shaped modern activism, this book is a meaningful and powerful read. It gives you context, insight, and a reminder of how important it is to keep showing up for what matters.
I also really loved how clearly the book connects the energy of the 90s to what we are seeing in the world today. So much of the activism happening now is part of a much longer story, and this book really highlights those roots. It reminded me that the push for justice, equality, and accountability has always required courage, community, and constant pressure from ordinary people who care deeply.
Danny Goldberg’s perspective is thoughtful, reflective, and grounded in real experience. If you want a deeper understanding of political organizing, social justice, and the forces that shaped modern activism, this book is a meaningful and powerful read. It gives you context, insight, and a reminder of how important it is to keep showing up for what matters.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews