Rodney King, key figure in LA riots, dies at 47

AP ^ | June 17, 2012 | Christopher Weber

[lbryce]

Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, was found at the bottom of his swimming pool early Sunday and later pronounced dead. He was 47.

King's fiancée called 911 at 5:25 a.m. to report that she found him in the pool at their home in Rialto, Calif., police Lt. Dean Hardin said.

[lbryce]

Rodney King did much to effect race relations in America in a wholly malevolent way not only in Southern California where he lived but across the nation as well. There's not much to eulogize an incorrigible recidivist who did much to bring a new paradigm shift in the dynamics of law enforcement in Southern LA, the nation and the world for that matter. The dawn of the video age had arrived and Rodney, LA police officers who were administering their own brand of frontier justice were caught at the worst possible nexus of time and place.

Rodney was a two-bit criminal who never got the gist of doing some low-level crime and getting away with it. There's nothing to Rodney King's legacy except for some extraordinarily naive quote about the state of race relations and the dumbest dumbass rhetorical question of all time, said in a high pitched drunken-stupor sounding voice; Why can't we just all get along? Well, Rodney, the question is a responsibility for you, you alone to answer for and not society's. respond to r

[Dilbert San Diego]

So now we get to eulogize Rodney King.

I wonder if the president will weigh in on this.

[Boogieman]

How many “Rodney King is dead” threads do we really need? This is like the 7th one I’ve seen.

[Buffalo Head]

Not much else needs to be said after your excellent post.

[al_c]

“Can’t we all just take a swim?”

Apparently not.

RIP dude.

[1rudeboy]

Well done. You took the sanest voice in the aftermath of this whole mess (”why can’t we get along?”), and turn him into a demon.

[MWFsFreedom]

I wonder if the president will weigh in on this.

If Obama had a brother, he would look like...

[ontap]

i wouldn't call him a demon but he was definitely a thug!!!

[the invisib1e hand]

I wonder if the president will weigh in on this.

If there was some political capital to be had, why his theoretical son would look like Rodney King!

[lbryce]

You need to add VeryLowIQ after “1” to your user name to convey the full extent of all your marvelous qualities, characteristics. Reading comprehension not part of the curriculum at Hillbilly Reformatory School?

[1rudeboy]

I would call him more of a hoodlum than a thug. And he appeared to grasp the gravity of the situation (irony, there), much more than someone who writes, “dumbest dumbass rhetorical question of all time, said in a high pitched drunken-stupor sounding voice.”

[1rudeboy]

You appear to mad. Care to talk about it?

[1rudeboy]

be mad

[M-cubed]

I wonder if the president will weigh in on this.<<

I wonder what Monday he'll pick for Rodney King Day and make a 3 day federal holiday.... after all...if Barack had a son he'd be alot like Rodney....smoke a lil choom and do a lil blow when they could afford it

[BerryDingle]

If Rodney was beat up, he’d look just like Obama.

[rovenstinez]

Now, let’s see the pop PC culture name a few streets, and some schools after our dear Rodney.

[Balding_Eagle]

Somewhere, way back, there was a thread on FR detailing the physical reason most black people are not good swimmers.

AND, where was Ted Kenndy when Rodney King needed him most?

Come to think of it, Ted probably needs some of that water right now REALLY, REALLY bad!

[stevem]

Indeed, if Obama had a brother, he would look like Rodney King.

[BerryDingle]

Now, let’s see the pop PC culture name a few streets, and some schools after our dear Rodney.

I'm waiting to see if N.J. will lower it's flag to half staff. After all he was screaming into the back window naked at 5 AM just before the "loud splash".

[Farmer Dean]

“If Obama had a brother,he would look like....”

If Obama had a brother,he would act like....