[djf]

Alcohol can do bad things to people.
But I never got the sense from seeing interviews that he was a mean, vicious, or vindictive person. Quite the opposite. Seemed pretty laid back.

[Captain Peter Blood]

This guy was not just on alcohol but drugs also. The main reason that he got beaten by those cops was that at the time he was hopped up on PCP which can give one, somehow, enhanced strength.
Someone on PCP can be damn hard to bring down and control.
Rodney King was a pathetic individual but the tinder box that was and is LA was looking for an excuse to go off and he happened to be it.
What I don't see here mentioned is what happened to the cops that were found not guilty at the state level but were pursued by a Tyrannical Government and convicted of violating his so called Civil Rights. Call what you want be I believe that was and is a form of Double Jeopardy.