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Rodney King Dead at 47: Icon or Agitator?

SodaHead News 2012/06/18 18:26:37
Related Topics: Rodney King, Drowned
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Rodney King, the victim of an infamous incident of police brutality in 1991, was found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool Sunday morning. According to police, there are no signs of foul play, and the death is being ruled as accidental. It will take six to eight weeks for toxicology reports to come through. He was 47 years old at the time of his death.

The 1991 brutality incident made national headlines when a bystander sent in video footage, and the aquittal of three of the officers contributed to the beginning of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Earlier this year, King told The Times, "I sometimes feel like I'm caught in a vise. Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero. Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction, like I'm a fool for believing in peace." Do you think King was an civil rights icon?

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Top Opinion

  • MkB 2012/06/18 21:26:11 (edited)
    Agitator
    MkB
    +33
    King started a dangerous high speed car chase because he was intoxicated and didn't want to violate his parole for a 1989 store robbery. I'm not making excuses for the police brutality. That was uncalled for.

    I feel empathy for Reginald Denny, an innocent truck driver who happened to be driving in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit on his head by a brick by a black man who didn't give a damn if he killed Denny or not.

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Opinions

  • TheNigh... seadog6... 2012/06/19 12:01:13
    TheNightFly
    you think a puppy in the rain is funny, nough said
  • seadog6... TheNigh... 2012/06/19 13:43:59
  • hasher TheNigh... 2012/06/18 23:34:12
  • Idiot r... hasher 2012/06/19 00:49:20
    Idiot repubs
    Like Breitbart.
  • Tackytiger hasher 2012/06/19 08:02:44
    Tackytiger
    +2
    True, If I was an African American - I would be offended at the idea that RK was an icon of the civil rights movement....
  • TheNigh... hasher 2012/06/19 12:03:24 (edited)
    TheNightFly
    I'm not putting him on a pedestal. Being an icon isn't necessarily a positive thing. It just means he played a significant role in history.
  • seadog6... hasher 2012/06/19 13:44:37
  • TheNigh... seadog6... 2012/06/19 17:35:57
    TheNightFly
    Instead you put those racist cops on a pedestal when they should have been put on a gallows.
  • seadog6... TheNigh... 2012/06/20 01:27:24
  • fuzzy K... TheNigh... 2012/06/19 13:36:47
    fuzzy Ken "In G-d We Trust"
    +1
    Correction; King personified what it was like to have a substance abuse problem.

    If he hadn't been high he wouldn't have robbed that store which put him on probation. If he wasn't on probation and high he wouldn't have led the police on a high speed chase. If he hadn't been high he would have stayed down instead of fighting the cops.
    He was drunk and stoned when he drowned. Very tragic.
  • Apache fuzzy K... 2012/06/21 10:38:40
    Apache
    +1
    This is the reality. Many will only believe what suits their own agenda. It's savage how some of his alleged supporters drag out his death for political point scoring.
  • MOMMA THOMAS 2012/06/18 22:31:25
    Icon
    MOMMA THOMAS
    +3
    NEED A THIRD CHOICE...... IT WAS RODNEY KING'S MISFORTUNE TO BE IN A SITUATION THAT EVENING WHERE LAPD CHOSE TO BEAT HIM REPEATEDLY. THEY HAD NO IDEA THEY WERE BEING FILMED.... BLACK ANGELENOS HAD BEEN REPORTING THIS VIOLENT PROCEDURE IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE CITY FOR YEARS. IT WAS THIS INCIDENT WHICH BROUGHT PROCEDURAL CHANGE IN LAPD's HANDLING "STOPS." EVERYONE SHOULD BE THANKFUL FOR THAT!
  • Bob Aronson 2012/06/18 22:22:32
    Icon
    Bob Aronson
    +2
    While I chose Icon I only did so because it was the better of two bad choices. King was neither. He was a victim of circumstance who had 15 minutes of fame he had not sought. We learned not from him as much as we learned from the incident in its totality. King was the wrong guy in the wrong place at the wrong time and wasn't bent on being an icon or agitator, he just wanted to be left alone to lead his miserable life. We should have had a choice between Icon, agitator and unfortunate black guy.
  • srini 2012/06/18 22:21:31
    Agitator
    srini
    +7
    More accurately a pawn--as the complete video of what happened in 1992 shows he RESISTED arrest after speeding (6'4", about 200 lb, resisting arrest).
  • Melizmatic 2012/06/18 22:16:00
  • Tackytiger 2012/06/18 22:13:14
    Agitator
    Tackytiger
    +7
    Wife beating, drug abusing, trouble making alcoholic? Not worthy of true Icon status in my book...
  • Idiot r... Tackytiger 2012/06/19 02:26:29
    Idiot repubs
    Breitbart?
  • TheBadOne 2012/06/18 22:04:48
    Icon
    TheBadOne
    +1
    He ain't a saint but he helped expose not only how corrupt law enforcement and govt can be, but how there were two different Americas at the time. Only now instead of there being White America and Black America, there's the county that serves the wealthy elite and the country that feeds off those who aren't in that 1 percentile.
  • Thor American EXPAT n New G... 2012/06/18 22:01:41
    Agitator
    Thor American EXPAT n New Guinea
    +6
    NEITHER>>>>>>>>>>>>

    DIRT-BAG sums it up nicely
  • Marek Thor Am... 2012/06/19 07:12:16
    Marek
    +1
    YES, it does.
    He was an agitator as he was used by race pimps like Jackson and Sharpton to agitate mobs into frenzy.
  • Bob DiN Thor Am... 2012/06/19 14:49:43
    Bob DiN
    Lowlife dirt bag at that.
  • ☆Hitler was a community org... 2012/06/18 21:58:50
    Agitator
    ☆Hitler was a community organiz☆
    +6
    just a waste of skin...and 3.8 million dollars
  • Idiot r... ☆Hitler... 2012/06/19 00:49:56
    Idiot repubs
    Like Breitbart, or George Zimmerman
  • ☆Hitler... Idiot r... 2012/06/19 02:06:17
    ☆Hitler was a community organiz☆
    +1
    lolz, Zimmerman (the light Hispanic) will turn out to be the hero in all this.. here in our neighborhood watch...we use video so there is no argument, next time
  • Apache ☆Hitler... 2012/06/19 19:47:07
    Apache
    +1
    Zimmerman will be a RICH hero when all's said and done.
  • ☆Hitler... Apache 2012/06/20 00:04:34
    ☆Hitler was a community organiz☆
    how is that?...there is no one to sue...except maybe the black panthers
  • Jake Blanton 2012/06/18 21:53:58
    Agitator
    Jake Blanton
    +5
    He was an idiot...
  • RicardoCabeza 2012/06/18 21:50:41
    Icon
    RicardoCabeza
    +4
    But let's remember Him for who He was "Why can't We all just get along".
  • Dion Prince 2012/06/18 21:44:36
    Icon
    Dion Prince
    +6
    Even though he was a drug and alcohol abusing idiot, his ordeal was iconic as it brought to light the injustices that many african american males had suffer at the hands of police for decades.
    even though most of the cops were aquitted, America was forced to opened its eyes to police brutality
  • christopher.strehl.1 2012/06/18 21:39:04
    Agitator
    christopher.strehl.1
    +4
    Notwithstanding the ignorance of the potentially bigoted or at a minimum overzealous police… Mr. King was thug… Likely the best thing to ever happen to him was that infamous beating… He was paid better than Mike Tyson … So I guess if being a drugged out looser who happens to get his butt beat by legal thugs makes one an Icon, well then build a big monument, because we have a lot of Icons in our country!
  • TruXter 2012/06/18 21:38:38
    Icon
    TruXter
    +2
    Looking at how the news has handled current race baiting issues.
    I now have to wonder about the Rodney King incident.
  • Meako TruXter 2012/06/19 00:48:20
    Meako
    +1
    No wondering, there is a video to prove it all.....
  • TruXter Meako 2012/06/19 23:12:10
    TruXter
    I understand this.

    but what happened before the video rolled?

    Back in those days, it was legal to shoot someone resisting arrest, running from police, or the like.
  • POWERSHAKER 2012/06/18 21:35:58
    Icon
    POWERSHAKER
    +2
    Well, Rodney King sure was an icon. There's no doubt about it. :)
  • IndyLinda 2012/06/18 21:30:52
    Agitator
    IndyLinda
    +6
    Just another history revisionist.
  • MkB 2012/06/18 21:26:11 (edited)
    Agitator
    MkB
    +33
    King started a dangerous high speed car chase because he was intoxicated and didn't want to violate his parole for a 1989 store robbery. I'm not making excuses for the police brutality. That was uncalled for.

    I feel empathy for Reginald Denny, an innocent truck driver who happened to be driving in the wrong place at the wrong time and got hit on his head by a brick by a black man who didn't give a damn if he killed Denny or not.

  • Ricardo... MkB 2012/06/18 22:00:00
    RicardoCabeza
    +8
    Mr. King, just as Mr. Denny were caught within the same dynamic as when victims in a situation are far outside a situation of their own engineering, and while Mr. King did break the law, and went on a "high speed chase" it was at speeds less than double the speed limit and He did not deserve the beating he received. I lived in LA during the riots, when the idiots burned down stores that were the only stores for blocks, and destroyed community members capital that could not be replaced... they destroyed the lives of the innocent more than they changed anything, but it was not done on behalf of Rodney King nor because of the fine character of Mr.. Denny for the matter.
  • rightside MkB 2012/06/18 22:24:20
    rightside
    +7
    As I've said before, if king hadn't started it, it would have never gotten that far. king is responsible for all the fall out. he should have never been beaten, but the money he got should have gone to all the people that got violated in the riots.
  • Apache rightside 2012/06/19 19:43:37
    Apache
    +2
    I watched the entire episode. Rodney King was too stupid to stay down after the police forced him down the first time. King is lucky I wasn't one of the cops there at the time.
  • aneed2know Apache 2012/06/20 04:00:30
    aneed2know
    no you are lucky, you are all talk nothing but a bloviating ignoramus,, all talk no hat. as they say

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