Posted on 04/28/2012 2:47:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
On tour promoting his new book, Rodney King, the Los Angeles man whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police became a flashpoint for the 1992 LA riots, is often asked to put his ordeal into contemporary terms.
On the 20th anniversary of the riots, the name Mr. King often mentions is Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Florida boy who was shot and killed on Feb. 26 by a suspicious neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman.
The police’s original decision to not charge Mr. Zimmerman with a crime again raised questions about the treatment of black men by police and the courts, questions that in 1992 exploded into looting, arson, and violence when the four officers charged with the beating were acquitted by a jury. Fifty-five people died.
“It's nothing for them to come along and just shoot you, put a bullet in you because they know that, hey, … he's a black guy,” Mr. King told NPR this week.” They think about it like it's nothing when a citizen go out there and kill an innocent child, like in this case of Trayvon Martin.”
There are of course several differences between the two events.
Mr. King, out of jail on parole, was driving drunk and evading cops before the beating began. Video of the beating was replayed for months. Trayvon, a high school student, was on his way to his father’s house in Sanford, Fla., after making a snack run when he was shot by Zimmerman after the two fought. No video exists, only testimony from Zimmerman and several witnesses.
What’s more, tensions between police and inner city Angelenos were higher in 1992 than they are today, thanks to new policing strategies and the professionalization of the force. Politically, America is different, having elected its first black president in 2008...
(Excerpt) Read more at axcessnews.com ...
Why is no one rioting over Black on Black killings? Will they target white people or Latinos?
They’d best be targeting unarmed people. Very few of those where I live
Time for another riot??? Are the thugs gonna burn down their own neighborhoods again???
I would be surprised if a Zimmerman acquittal leads to a riot in Sanford.
Trayvon wasn’t killed or beat by the local PD.
He was killed by a citizen.
But Sharpton et al see Zimmerman and all armed law abiding citizens as extensions of the oppressive, predominately white police.
He just has to say it through innuendo.
la’s nothing compared to the riots when white people are beaten by cops! Oh, wait a minute...
who was defending himself from him.
Isn't that justice?
True. But, both Martin and King were criminals whose problems were brought about by their bad behavior and poor decisions. The black community also used both incidents to indulge and excuse their blatant racism.
If George Zimmerman is convicted, will the “White Hispanics” riot in black neighborhoods?
Actually, I think George Zimmerman may be the only White Hispanic. Certainly, he is the only person who has ever been identified as as a White Hispanic by the lamestream media.
Exactly. If George Zimmerman had been black there would have been no story.
[ Music by Reginald K. Dwight; Lyrics “Unattributed” ]
Trayvon wore his hoodie all around
But he’s gone to see Jesus.
Now we all know his name,
And some say he was the finest boy in town.
Trayvon, he’s still makin’ money
He’s still the cause celebre today.
“Reverends” Jackson & Sharpton counting
On the furor for another payday.
Martyr born - another Media pawn
On a slow news day, when the New York Times said: “Black Kid’s Dead”
So a race war’s begun;
Obama lost a “son” today.
[Chorus]
And he shall be Trayvon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Trayvon
In tradition with the “family plan.”
And now, “We Are Trayvon”
Then we shall be good men...
We . Are . All . Trayvon
H!
You are my first reply back!
Exactly!
Today “The Man” is Black!
Zimm must be an agent of the Man!
LOL
This time, "journalists" need to be the ones having their heads bashed in with bricks.
If only Reginald Denny had had a gun....
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