Rodney King, whose (well deserved) beating in 1991 touched off the infamous Los Angeles riots, was found dead.
LOS ANGELES — Rodney King, whose videotaped 1991 beating by Los Angeles police officers led to riots, was found dead Sunday morning, according to a report. He was 47.
King’s fiancee reportedly found him dead at the bottom of a swimming pool, sources told TMZ.
On March 3, 1991, King was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers after a high-speed car chase, an infamous case of police brutality that was captured on camera by a bystander and broadcast around the world.
Four officers were tried for the assault but were acquitted, a decision that sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Standby for the Rodney King Memorial Riots.
The media is responsible for inflaming those riots.
Just as they will be responsible for the “Justice for Trayvon” riots
if Zimmerman is not convicted. They never showed the full encounter
between RK and the cops. He had plenty of chances to peacefully surrender
and avoid the beat down.
@ huckfunn:
@ The Osprey:
If you watch the video, which we’ve all see numerous times, all King had to do was comply with the cops’ orders. But he chose to fight them. It was his choice. Fight with the cops, and you’ll lose, no matter what color your skin is. Skin color had nothing to do with it. Being combative and high on drugs will get your but kicked.
Bob in Breckenridge wrote:
@ The Osprey:
@ Bob in Breckenridge:
I was close to a similar situation in Miami back in 1993. I had just gotten into town for some mop-up insurance adjusting for Hurricane Andrew damage the previous year. 2 Miami cops (Cuban as I recall) were aquitted in the shooting deaths of 2 black armed robbers. I was down in South Miami and had to travel through some pretty rough neighborhoods to where I was staying in Hollywood. The radio anchors were really doing their best to get a riot started. “Somebody threw a bottle”, “somebody threw a rock”, “large crowd gathering at the corner of so-and-so”. The cops were ready and while there were some incidents, it really didn’t get totally out of hand.
I have no hard feelings for Rodney King. He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing. He did try to calm things down after the fact. Think of him being a butterfly in West Africa whose flapping of its wings triggers a hurricane across the Atlantic. Small events can have big consequences. I do not consider him a victim, hero, or villain.
RIP Rodney.
EBL wrote:
He was a small time hoodlum. Actually a tragic figure. He became a pawn of the media and the race pimps… but I repeat myself.
huckfunn wrote:
Contrary to popular beliefs here, blacks do not riot at the drop of a hat.
Seems Mr. King has become the latest victim of ‘pool brutality’.
Thanks, I’ll be here all week.
Speranza wrote:
Not sure where you came up with the “drop of the hat” reference, but they will, and do riot with much greater frequency than any other ethnic group that I can think of, particularly when incited by the press.
Around 53 people died in those riots and yes the media ginned it up.
Rodney King resisted arrest…when that happens bad things happen especially after a high speed chase.
@ Lily:
Yes’m. And when was the last time a group of Irish-Scots-German-Italian-Anglo-Hispanics went on a rampage, burnt down block after block of a city and murdered 53 people? Interesting fact. There was a race riot in Columbus Ohio (where my wife is from) in July of 1969. The only guy killed in the riot was named George Stulz. My wife’s father owned and operated a picture frame/art restoration shop and George worked at the shop. He was killed by a sniper while directing traffic.
Don’t bodies float?
Urban Infidel wrote:
If the deceased died from drowning, the lungs will fill with water and weigh the body down. As the body decomposes, gases will form inside the body and the body will then float.
He seemed like an ok guy afterwards. I would agree that the press ginned up the lynch mobs running around. Life is not that bad for anyone anymore, so to find an excuse to riot suggests to me a depraved education. how does one avoid participation in a mob like that? probably just not being there.