[GandalfTheGrey]

When I leave this earth and when I'm dead and gone I want to be remembered as the person who tried to calm things down and made a difference for the future.

- Rodney King

Rodney King, whose beating by police sparked the Los Angeles race riots 20 years ago, has been found dead in a swimming pool in California, aged 47.

King's fiancée found his body. Police say there are no immediate signs of foul play.

"It's unknown if he had fallen in the pool or if there was some type of medical situation where he tripped and fell in the pool," Captain Randy Deanden of the Railto police department said.

An autopsy will be carried out within 48 hours.



Video footage of King being beaten by four white police officers in 1991 sparked deadly riots in Los Angeles and prompted a national debate about police brutality and race relations.

Police struck him more than 50 times with their wooden batons and used a stun gun following a high-speed car chase.

The officers went on trial for use of excessive force but were acquitted on April 29, 1992, triggering days of riots that left more than 50 people dead and caused around $US1 billion in damage.

As Los Angeles was ripped apart by crowds who looted businesses, torched buildings and attacked one another, King made a personal plea for peace.

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?" he asked on the third day of rioting, going off script from the statement planned by his lawyers.

In the years since the riots, King struggled to live a stable life within the law, but had recently written a memoir of his life.

Two of the officers were later convicted on federal charges of violating King's civil rights and were sentenced to prison.

A jury ordered the city of Los Angeles to pay King, who was unemployed at the time of the beating, $US3.8 million in damages.

King had a history of substance abuse and previously appeared on the US cable TV program Celebrity Rehab.

He had three children and was engaged to marry Cynthia Kelley, a juror in the civil suit he brought against the city of Los Angeles, according to the biography that accompanied his book.

In his public appearances on the 20th anniversary of the riots, there was little or no sign of anger from King.

"When I leave this earth and when I'm dead and gone I want to be remembered as the person who tried to calm things down and made a difference for the future," he said.

The Los Angeles Times published a quote that King gave the newspaper earlier this year.

"I would change a few things, but not that much," the quote said.

"Yes, I would go through that night, yes I would. I said once that I wouldn't, but that's not true. It changed things. It made the world a better place."

ABC/wires

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-18/r ... 47/4075998

[Far-Right Sage]

When I leave this earth and when I'm dead and gone I want to be remembered as the person who tried to calm things down and made a difference for the future.

Oh please.

Does anyone else remember the fuss this hophead tried to kick up?

Good riddance.

[steve71]

Oh please.

Does anyone else remember the fuss this hophead tried to kick up?

Good riddance.

Oh, the gall of the man, for complaining about being beaten half to death!

[Preston Cole]

Oh please.

Does anyone else remember the fuss this hophead tried to kick up?

Good riddance.

[Fried Chicken]

He's no different to the drug dealing, gun-toting Tottenham scumbag that caused the London/and the other immigrant infested cities of the UK, riots last year...good riddance! How many innocent people died because of him?

[Lightman]

He's no different to the drug dealing, gun-toting Tottenham scumbag that caused the London/and the other immigrant infested cities of the UK, riots last year...good riddance! How many innocent people died because of him?

Zero.

[Fried Chicken]

Zero.

Location, Los Angeles, California. Date, April 29, 1992 (1992-04-29) – May 4, 1992 (1992-05-04) (PT). Attack type, Rioting, Protests. Deaths, 53. Injured, 2000+

You're not such a 'light' man are you?

[Lightman]

He did not encourage the rioters. He is not responsible for their actions.

[Fried Chicken]

He did not encourage the rioters.

Who did then? God?

He is not responsible for their actions.

LOL...who is then, God? should be 'was' shouldn't it? haha

[Lightman]

Do you think you're smart, Fried Chicken? Does race-baiting about events that you know very little about make you feel good about yourself?

Tell me, what event were the LA riots of '92 a direct response to?

[Fried Chicken]

Do you think you're smart, Fried Chicken? Does race-baiting about events that you know very little about make you feel good about yourself?

Tell me, what event were the LA riots of '92 a direct response to?

I'm the son, grandson, great grandson of the po-lice...I'd imagine some thug breaking the law and causing trouble in Los Angeles? The Angels lol...

[QatzelOk]

(Officer) Koon then fired a Taser into King's back. King groaned; momentarily fell to his knees; then stood back and yelled for almost five seconds.[21]
...
King was taken to Pacifica Hospital immediately after his arrest. He suffered a fractured facial bone, a broken right ankle, and numerous bruises and lacerations.[27] In a negligence claim filed with the city, King alleged he had suffered "11 skull fractures, permanent brain damage, broken [bones and teeth], kidney damage [and] emotional and physical trauma."
...
At Pacifica Hospital, where King was taken for initial treatment, nurses reported that the officers who accompanied King (including Wind) openly joked and bragged about the number of times King had been hit.[29]

I've also been stopped by the cops while stoned/drunk, but none of this happened to me. Maybe it's because I'm nice.

[dgun]

He's no different to the drug dealing, gun-toting Tottenham scumbag that caused the London/and the other immigrant infested cities of the UK, riots last year...good riddance! How many innocent people died because of him?

Zero.

He didn't film his own beating by police. He wasn't on the jury that let those cops off the hook. He didn't run a police department where racism was part of the culture. He didn't burn down his own neighborhood and beat random people after the verdict.

And he wasn't a particularly bad person. Just a typical alcoholic.

[Demosthenes]

Fried Chicken completely and utterly fails in every possible way known to human kind.



Rodney king may have been an alcoholic, but beyond that he wasn't anymore trouble to cops here then you've ever been to cops in your berg FC.

Such an utter and total fail, deserves icon status.

[grassroots1]

Look at the far right posters flock, it's pathetic.

[R_G]

King was convicted of armed robbery 2 years before the incident.

Also....

King continued to get into trouble after the 1991 incident. On August 21, 1993, he crashed his car into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles. He was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol, fined, entered an alcohol rehabilitation program and was placed on probation. In July 1995, he was arrested by Alhambra police, after hitting his wife with his car, knocking her to the ground. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run. King invested a portion of his settlement in a record label, Straight Alta-Pazz Records, which went under. On August 27, 2003, King was arrested again for speeding and running a red light while under the influence of alcohol. He failed to yield to police officers and slammed his vehicle into a house, breaking his pelvis.

I'd say the world lost nobody....

[Stormsmith]

Did I miss something? Was Mr. King charged, tried, and found guilty of causing another downfall of mankind?

Makes me think of Ira Hayes.

[dgun]

King was convicted of armed robbery 2 years before the incident.

Just to clarify, he was armed with some kind of pole.

In November 1989, King robbed a store in Monterey Park, California. He threatened to hit the Korean store owner with an iron bar he was carrying, then hit him with a pole. King stole two hundred dollars in cash during the robbery, and was caught, convicted, and sentenced to two years of imprisonment and released after serving one-year of the sentence

And everything else you pointed out from the wiki article is pretty typical of alcoholics.

Besides, I've never heard anyone say King was a saint.

I'd say the world lost nobody....

And that's what LAPD thought of King too. Too bad he wasn’t born with a lot of money and privilege like say, Charlie Sheen. King could have been somebody in the eyes of the world then instead of just a victim of brutality who happened to mutter a sensible appeal to a riotous mob on one memorable occasion.

[Far-Right Sage]

Do you remember anything of those bestial riots?

King was a hophead degenerate piece of refuse with the incidental benefit of having flesh.

The only tragedy here is that he croaked at forty-seven rather than seven.

[QatzelOk]

I sometimes think that American blacks are kept poor to make white trash think better of itself.

What other reason could there be?

In a competitive society, everybody - even the chicken de-boners - need to feel superior to someone else.

I'm not sure why equality isn't the goal. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the American Elite live completely apart from the working class and poor?