The King case only proves the point once again.

Since the King case, there have been several well-publicized campaigns to reform the department.

Asked if his ordeal was now over, he said: "It's the King case.

Sure, he said, he would have liked to have landed the King case.

"If you knew nothing else, you'd use that demographic variable in picking a jury in the King case," she said.

There will be a federal judicial inquiry into the King case and police abuse.

Before the King case, "there was enormous deference to police officers," he said.

The legal maneuvers are taking place in the sharpened context of a separate trial that many people consider linked to the King case.

"I would disagree that we backed away in the King case," he said.

When the perceived stakes are highest, as in the King case, the intrusion of the outside world is greatest, they say.