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.
Rodney King Dead at 47: Icon or Agitator?
SodaHead News
2012/06/18 18:26:37
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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?
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?
Top Opinion
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Agitator
+33King 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.
Ever fought a drunk?
You cannot go lightly on them, they don't feel as much pain as a sober person does until the BAC drops int hem....proven fact.
will be a whole about face. He will be screaming bloody murder louder than a banshee.
I was sad to hear that he had died, because, if you listen to the testimony of his neighbors, he was a kind guy. Yet, a guy with demons on his shoulders.
Rest in peace my man.
Maybe America is not the country for you..... Given your logic I'm thinking Iran, Cambodia, Somalia or any other police state for that matter will work better for you.
The involved public servants were acquitted by a hand selected jury that included 10 pro/former law enforcement white jurors, 1 Asian former military and 1 Hispanic former military. They have never really explained how they came to such a quick acquittal for all of the officers with the exception of Public Servant Powell, who was the supervising officer on the scence. 8 of the jurors wanted to quickly acquit him as well but could not convince the remaining jurors that he did not have some responsibility for the actions that night for letting the incident go on for so long. Jo-Ann Dimitrius, jury consultant for the defense, was delighted with the final twelve. She called it "a gem of a jury."
While I did not agree with the decision of this jury, I respect their decision because I respect the trial system we have. We are all entitled to the right of having a jury of our peers judge our innocence or guilt in a court of facts and laws. However this case along with thousands of others bring into question the jury selection process. There is definetly room for improvement that, if we are truly to have justice in our courtrooms.
http://www.sodahead.com/unite...
I never said I think that the jury system should be scrapped, what I said was that the selection process needs to be reformed. Most if not all criminal defense attorney's use what is called the Scientific Jury Selection or SJS.
This is when experts in law AND psychology are deployed to determine which potential jurors will be most favorable to either the defense or prosecution. Boutique law firms, that specialize in jury selection have sprung up since the 70’s, when this practice first began.
I think that we need three key reforms:
1. Juror Competency Validation - We all would like to think that the best and brightest among our peers would be in the jury box if we ever had cause to be judged by our peers in court. This unfortunately is not always the case. We ensure that defendants are competent to stand trial; why do we not ensure that jurors are competent enough to fully weigh the details of a case and truly make an informed judgment about the defendants actions?
2. Elimination of Unlimited Peremptory Challenges: This process more often than not results in undermining the balanced representation on a jury which could occur if random selection was used. Of course there would still be a need for a cha...
http://www.sodahead.com/unite...
I never said I think that the jury system should be scrapped, what I said was that the selection process needs to be reformed. Most if not all criminal defense attorney's use what is called the Scientific Jury Selection or SJS.
This is when experts in law AND psychology are deployed to determine which potential jurors will be most favorable to either the defense or prosecution. Boutique law firms, that specialize in jury selection have sprung up since the 70’s, when this practice first began.
I think that we need three key reforms:
1. Juror Competency Validation - We all would like to think that the best and brightest among our peers would be in the jury box if we ever had cause to be judged by our peers in court. This unfortunately is not always the case. We ensure that defendants are competent to stand trial; why do we not ensure that jurors are competent enough to fully weigh the details of a case and truly make an informed judgment about the defendants actions?
2. Elimination of Unlimited Peremptory Challenges: This process more often than not results in undermining the balanced representation on a jury which could occur if random selection was used. Of course there would still be a need for a challenge process which could be used in a limited capacity to eliminate potential jurors that have an obvious bias that could infringe upon the rights of the defendant to a fair trial. An example would be not having a rape victim be on a jury of a person charged with rape. These however should be far a few in between and have specific defined parameters.
3. Third Party Jury Selection: Neither the prosecution nor the defense should have a say so in who is selected to be on a jury in a case they will argue. A third party entity charged with jury selection and ensuring that there is no obvious bias would be a workable solution. They could also potentially be responsible for ensuring that the jurors are competent to serve on the jury they are selected for. A third party jury selection process brings back the much needed neutrality our judicial system has been lacking.
The innocence project exists for this very reason.
In the mean time this question was about Rodney King's activities, and my opinion is that he basically brought it all on by his own actions; all of the controversy could have been avoided had Mr. King behaved himself!
Please explain how exactly he should have behaved that would have prevented over 20 ADDITIONAL baton swings that occured AFTER he was already subdued on the GROUND AFTER being hit with a taser....
Since you say the brutality piece could have been avoided. Because I don't know about you but I'm not disputing that he should have been pulled over for DUI.
Once it was determined that he would not follow instructions and started to resist all efforts to restrain him, things proceded to what resulted.
If it were simply a case of police brutality, there would have been convictions.
Not having been there, and only seeing what MSM chose to air, I don't know all that went on. It may have appeared that Mr. King had been subdued, but absent being there I am not prepared to accept your premise. Instead, relying on the results of the subsequent trial, where the police were exonerated of brutality charges, I believe, had Mr. King been cooperative when first apprehended, none of what followed would have happened!
I told you what my opinion is and the facts I used to form that opinion. To be completely honest when this happened I was still in middle school so really had no opinion of the situation in real time. They say hindsight is 20/20 for a reason. I formed my opinion based on the facts after the emotion subsided.
You seem to have formed your opinion based on emotion. But hey to each his own. I just wanted to understand your definition of brutality and what role it plays in police officers carrying out their duty to PROTECT & SERVE. You seem to think that if you or I break a law we deserve to be beaten into submission with batons. Or you believe that SOME people in our society deserve to be beaten into submission during a DUI traffic stop, and as long as it is not you and yours. Which one is it?