The jury in the trial of a white Los Angeles police officer accused of assaulting a black teenager has said it is unable to reach a verdict. Jurors said they were deadlocked about whether an officer who was caught on video tape carrying out a rough arrest on teenager Donovan Jackson was guilty. The trial of officer Jeremy Morse has drawn comparisons with the Rodney King case more than 10 years ago which sparked riots in the West Coast city. Footage of Morse, showing him slamming the unarmed teenager onto the boot of a patrol car and then punching him in the face sparked outrage when it was aired on television. The jury was split seven to five in favour of Morse's guilt. The BBC's David Willis in Los Angeles says one community activist stormed from the court after the verdicts were announced, shouting "this is a joke, there's no justice here". The prosecution now has two months to decide whether to press for a retrial. Morse's former partner, Bijan Darvish, was found not guilty of failing to mention the incident in a police report. **Pleas for calm*** Community leaders held placards outside the court pleading for "Peace after the verdict". "It is an insult to our intelligence," said one man brandishing a placard. "We cannot believe after seeing that video [of the beating] how anyone can come up with anything less than a guilty verdict not only in Darvish's case but in Jeremy Morse's case." In 1992, anger spilled out onto the streets after four white police officers accused of beating black motorist, Rodney King, were acquitted. The LAPD claimed the officers had acted in self-defence to restrain Mr King, who they said was aggressive and resisting arrest. South Central Los Angeles became a battleground with 54 people killed, 2,000 injured, 1,100 buildings burned or destroyed and more than 1 billion US dollars of damage done to the area. Residents of the largely black area were furious at what they saw was the letting-off of white police officers clearly shown beating an unarmed black man in a videotape that was broadcast around the world. **PHOTO CAPTION*** This file image taken from video appears to show Inglewood Police officers holding a handcuffed 16-year-old boy against a police car, July 6, 2002 in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Mitchell Crooks, File)