Rodney King, Key L.A. Riots Figure, Dead at 47
June 17, 2012 | 10:23 am
Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police helped spark the 1992 L.A. riots, died Sunday at his home in Rialto. He was 47.
King became a symbol for police brutality and the troubled relations between the LAPD and minority residents. He was eventually awarded a $3.8-million settlement, but the money and fame brought him little solace. He had repeated run-ins with the law and as of April said he was broke ...
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Awarded 3.8 million dollars, and he still couldn’t make it. It’s very tempting to say something contemptuous, but what good would it do? Naturally, the L.A. Times is portraying him as a Celebrated Symbol of Public Awareness of Police Brutality. What was he really? Star-crossed? A victim of Caucasian hostility and indifference? A criminal? A lunatic? A tragic figure? A clown? Merely pathetic? Or maybe just an ordinary, garden-variety asshole?
You be the judge.
There are many very sad things about it, but the saddest of all is that we pay so much attention to degrading spectacles of this sort.
One thing is certain, however: MONEY without proper moral grounding, and enough education to know how it can and should be used has little value.
~ FreeThinke
Another thing is sure, a badge and a gun with nothing but a stint in the military is a recipe for moral turpitude.
ReplyDeleteThe garbage pit that was called the LAPD has been exposed in all it's glory.
I'm sorry Rodney King never found any peace. He was a black man who clearly deserved to be beaten so badly he sustained brain damage.
They're called pigs for a reason.
"There are many very sad things about it, but the saddest of all is that we pay so much attention to degrading spectacles of this sort."
ReplyDeleteExactly! Society places too much emphasis on the meaningless in life. Society has propped up those who really aren't important and put them on pedestals.
"One thing is certain, however: MONEY without proper moral grounding, and enough education to know how it can and should be used has little value."
Spot on Free Thinke!
According to my in-laws who live in that part of Southern California, Rodney King was "nothing but a drunk and a stoner" of long standing.
ReplyDeleteSad, really.
As for police brutality, well, it exists more than we know.
I appreciate everyone's thoughts –– even those I disagree with.
ReplyDeleteI'm much more interested in finding out what others think than merely using this place as a personal Bully Pulpit, although I can't guarantee that will never happen.
If you don't immediately receive a pat on the back for saying something kind and generous or particularly eloquent, please don't feel slighted. The idea is to establish a place where varying and conflicting views may be expressed without fear of being rebuked, reprimanded, insulted or dismissed.
So, Ducky, why do you insist on taking such a completely negative view of the LAPD, at least as it was when the famous beating took place?
Have you ever considered what policemen might be up against when they patrol these trouble spots? Could there possibly be a reason for their readiness to do violence, or do you honestly think most of these men have sadistic proclivities and, therefore, a blood lust to hurt people on the slightest provocation at every available opportunity?
Does anyone think the troubled neighborhoods would be better off if the police just let everyone do their thing without interference of any kind?
Does anyone see Rodney King as nothing but a victim of criminal assault, or did he bear at least some responsibility for what happened to him in 1992 -- and beyond?
~ FreeThinke
Couldn't care less..........
ReplyDeleteWell, Spidey, the issue isn't Rodney King, so much, but what he has been made to stand for in our eyes because of the of the agenda-driven enemedia.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, most of us only get to think about what they choose to tell us.
How much remains covert and unreported we may never know.
~ FreeThinke
Throwing all that money at him was just the usual silly political correctness but as I was looking at clips of him recently I just felt awfully sad for him. No doubt a drunk and a druggie, sometime domestic abuser even, but a sort of sweet sad nature comes through, also in that pathetic "Can we all get along?" If we're going to throw money at someone who doesn't deserve it I'd rather throw it at him than a belligerent "civil rights" activist.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents.
Guess I didn't address some of the other points. I think the video of the cops attacking him showed that they were way out of control. I'm sure that cops face all kinds of danger all the time which can account for some of it, but I couldn't see why they needed to hit him over and over. Hold him down, cuff him, take him in. Am I missing something?
ReplyDeleteJust an observation, I've had many friends in law enforcement both military and civilian. They were in the majority, type-A control driven personalities.
ReplyDelete... type-A control driven personalities."
ReplyDeleteIs that by any chance code language meaning "Sadistic bullies," Finntann. ;-)
~ FT
Hey, I was being nice ;)
ReplyDeleteI got my four door jeep when they first came out and was pulled over here in Colorado by a county sheriff's deputy, and the first words out of his mouth were "you didn't do anything wrong, I just want to check out your jeep".
It's a good thing I have a sense of humor and didn't need to be anywhere. But what does that say about personality and mindset.
Hey, Finntann. I've always wanted to drive a Jeep. I like "sensible" vehicles, unlike the crappy little Honda Civic I drive today which is so poorly designed I can't easily position it for parking or even changing lanes on the highway. The visibility is lousy. Screw aerodynamic design!
ReplyDeleteHowever, all I do these days is run errands in the confines of a city, so a Jeep wouldn't make much sense, I guess. Probably more expensive too, right?
Ironic that both the Lexus -- considered a "high-end" luxury car -- and the Civic share virtually the same body -- with the same visibility problems. The Lexus just has a more powerful engine and more bells and whistles.
More proof that the average American consumer lacks IQ.
~ FT
Right on cue, the dems trot out Rodney (Who said later he needed a good butt kicking) AND one of the most heinous political crimes (er I mean, hardly even a good college prank type deal) watergate.
ReplyDeleteImagine the number of things that the seriously corrupt felonious obama administration has done that are 1000 more than watergate.
And in the future we can look to yearly trotting our of the travon martin thing, another non-event in the context of politics and political parties.
You and I really are on the same wavelength, Kid.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how old you might be -- I'm well on my way to 72 -- but it doesn't seem to matter when someone understands the principles that have been violated in order to ensure a liberal Democrat ascendancy.
Watergate was nothing but a "Journalistic coup d'etat." By my lights it was far more of a crime than anything done by the Nixon White House, but because Nixon was not only a REPUBLICAN but had also been a particularly effective anti-Communist warrior, he HAD to be crucified, because -- as we surely have learned in latter years -- the sympathies of the MSM are almost 100% behind Marxism,
So glad you got here. Please don't be a stranger.
~ FreeThinke
FT, Well, I'm not quite old enough to be as honest as you, so I'll lie and say I'm 15. :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Yea I had No Idea that watergate was a nothing event that was trotted out by the communist media. I didn't clue into that until about 15 years ago.
The commies have a lot more of their foot in the door these days.