The footage of white truck driver Reginald Denny's beating by blacks has become a video counterpoint to the Rodney King tape.
Like the King video, the scenes of Denny being pulled from his rig and bloodied shocked the nation. And much as King became a symbol of police brutality, Denny has become a symbol of the savagery of the Los Angeles riots.His ordeal is also testimony to the power of television to move people to action.
"It just broke our hearts when we saw that on TV," said Yvonne Honore, a black woman and one of hundreds of people who sent money or letters or called with words of support for Denny. "To have this happen, to actually see it, just made me cry."
She and her husband contributed $2,000 to a burgeoning fund for Denny.
"It's just a sad thing, and the whole world is looking," Honore said. "There are thugs and criminals in every race. I just hope people know blacks aren't all like that."
Until Monday, Denny wasn't even aware of his celebrity, said Cicily Kahn, a social worker at Daniel Freeman Hospital, where he is recovering.
"I'm just a regular guy," he said in a handwritten note to Kahn. "I work. I go home. I never wanted to be famous."
Denny realized he was targeted by young blacks angry over the acquittal of the white policemen who beat King, who is black. But "he didn't realize the enormity of it all. He didn't know there was a war on the streets and he just happened to be one of the first victims," Kahn said.
Denny, 36, may owe his survival to black passers-by who helped him get to a hospital.
Several black youths had pulled Denny from his rig in South Central Los Angeles, kicked him and smashed his skull with his fire extinguisher as a TV helicopter showed it live.
Denny lay unconscious in a pool of blood for about 20 minutes before he got back into his truck. His eyes swollen shut, he steered while one rescuer pointed the way. Another took the wheel when Denny's steering ability failed and drove him to the hospital. Two other people provided an escort in their car.
"He was unconscious when I saw him and he looked just about dead," said Dr. Bayliss Yarnell, medical director in the hospital's emergency room.
Denny's condition was upgraded to good on Monday.