Posted on 09/06/2003 11:27:59 PM PDT by Mark
Los Angeles Daily News
Liberals won't admit Rodney King is a loser
By David Horowitz
Thursday, September 04, 2003 - If you're not a news junkie, you probably didn't notice that Rodney King was arrested again. He was speeding at 100 miles an hour, high on PCP, when he ran a red light in Rialto, Calif., on Aug. 27.
It is just a matter of luck that King hasn't killed someone yet. This was his fifth arrest since a kangaroo court awarded him $3.8 million some years ago because the Los Angeles Police Department had "violated his civil rights." Or perhaps it was because the court was afraid that rejecting King's claim would spark another riot that would kill 58 people and cost the city $16 billion in destroyed homes and stores.
One of King's post-riot arrests was for beating his wife, just in case you thought he was a nice guy harassed by police simply because he was black.
Apparently, in addition to going to jail again, Rodney King is now broke. Which is one of the reasons you haven't heard much about his latest bust. Because the post-riot life of Rodney King gives the lie to virtually every liberal nostrum for improving society, eradicating poverty and making us all equal.
How can you go broke on $3.8 million?
Let's say, for the sake of this example, King had to pay his lawyers a million dollars in legal fees. If he had put the remaining money in the bank in a long-term savings account, it would have netted him a six-figure income for the rest of his life -- without requiring a stitch of work to get it. But if you give money to a self-destructive lout like King, all you are going to get for your money is trouble.
Poverty, as a friend of mine has said, is different from being broke. Being broke is when you're out of pocket. Being poor is a dispiriting and disabling state of mind. Giving money to dysfunctional people is not a way to make them rich or even comfortable. It's a way of enabling them to pursue their self-destructive behaviors at an even higher velocity.
If Rodney King had obeyed the orders clearly given and had laid down in a "prone position" on the night of his famous encounter with Los Angeles police, 58 people would be alive today, $16 billion would be circulating in the economy and four dedicated Los Angeles Police Department officers who were working to the book that night would not have been forced to endure two trials (the first had acquitted them) and had their careers destroyed to appease the liberal conscience.
But liberals had to make their point. They had to roll out the racial melodrama, insisting that every time a black man is arrested -- even one fleeing and refusing to be cuffed -- a hate crime is committed by the police themselves. Liberals had to wring millions of dollars out of Los Angeles taxpayers to pay reparations to a man whom everyone knew then and knows now is just a pathetic bum.
Will Rodney King's fifth arrest teach anyone anything? Hardly.
First, because no one wants to even talk about it. But second, nothing will be learned for the same reason that liberals reading this column will consider it mean-spirited and lacking compassion.
Of course, the same liberals have already forgotten the 58 people who are dead because of Rodney King and the criminals he and his supporters inspired. Nobody cares about the innocent victims of the protesters for social justice -- the 2,000 Koreans who lost their businesses to "black rage"; the four cops who lost their careers because they beat a reckless criminal who was resisting arrest and refused to go prone.
And so is the inspirer of it all, Rodney King, forgotten, too. But he is forgotten because remembering him would tell a liberal culture more than it wants to hear.
David Horowitz is the president of the Center for the Study of Popular Culture in Los Angeles and editor of www.frontpagemag.com.
NOPE
The corruption of LAPD and government failure to rein in the department is well documented. The rampart division was involved in drug dealing, murder for hire, planting drugs on innocent suspects, excessive force without provocation, and numerous other crimes. A a result of the FBI investigation the state had to release hundereds from prison.
I rode through there in the early 1970's and a group of bikers I ran into told me I should carry a small amount of marijuana on me when in LA county, so the police would not plant something worse on me. I laughed at them and thought they were joking, being a newbie to CA.
It was no joke. People that have not lived in CA can never understand that attitude that the police are not the good guys. Yes, CA has rampant crime and the highest prison population in the world but when you live there you learn to fear the police as much as the criminals. If it weren't for badges and uniforms it would be hard to tell the difference.
The very idea of this sends chills down my spine.
What he should have said was "stop looting and stop setting things on fire you morons." Instead I took his "can we all just get along" as "why can't you let these people riot in peace?" Like I said, the only problem is that the police didn't beat this turd bad enough.
I recall reading many years ago that Rodney was "working on becoming a producer for rappers" or some such crap.
What ever become of the "Rebuild L.A" committee headed by Peter Ueberroth?
I had just to opposite reaction. When I first saw the video, I kind of felt sorry for the guy. The more I learned about the events that led up to it, the more I wondered why the other drivers out there didn't want to stop and take a whack at him themselves.
Do I need to say anymore about where the money went?
or maybe they should not have let him out of jail so many times. Anyway, that's not the point I was trying to make. The point is Horowitz is a shill to the LAPD's coruption if he blames the LA riots on Rodney King.
We have a 1st ammendment that allows anyone to write anything it seems, but journalist's have some kind of lisense that allows them to abuse and misuse the power of the press. You and I do not have an audience of millions, many of whom believe everything in print is fact.
Consider what they are allowed to get away with. Praising Enron right up to the collapse. Covering for eight years of Clinton misdeeds. Persecuting Richard Jewell as the Olympic bomber. Constant distorting of perception in crime waves caused by white males. Blaming Bush for 9-11 and the situtation in Iraq. Or how about the NY times fisaco ? add your own to the list it is nearly infinite.
Some think that the WOD is the greatest threat to Liberty, others think it is the gun contol lobby. I beg to differ it is the media and the majority of what they print and broadcast. It would not be so bad if they all wrote under the title of "National Enquirer" or included a disclaimer that stated, "for adult entertainment only" but they don't.
Horowitz would make Joseph Goebels proud. Got to gogh get my asbestos underwear now. C-ya.
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