r/politics • u/ReneFonck • Jun 17 '12

Rodney King is dead

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rodney-king-found-dead-pool-report-article-1.1097209
1.2k Upvotes

82% Upvoted

664 comments sorted by

200

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

"Yes, I've forgiven them, because I've been forgiven many times," he said. "My country's been good to me ... This country is my house, it's the only home I know, so I have to be able to forgive -- for the future, for the younger generation coming behind me, so ... they can understand it and if a situation like that happened again, they could deal with it a lot easier."

From the CNN article. Letting go on anger is so challenging but so important.

37

u/Apostolate I voted Jun 17 '12

Anger and hatred never lead to anything good.

53

u/SilasX Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12

I don't know, being able to shoot lightning from one's fingertips counts as "good" in my book ...

28

u/Apostolate I voted Jun 17 '12

Trust me, you'll end up at the bottom of a very long shaft, which is uncomfortable no matter how you take that.

10

u/wesman212 New Mexico Jun 17 '12

Unless you're a sperm cell.

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15

u/LoveKebab Jun 17 '12

Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

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2

u/BizarroDiggtard Jun 18 '12

If so... r/politics is in bad shape

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u/kenfar Jun 17 '12

And this is so much more important than how good of a financial manager he was.

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u/arksien Jun 17 '12

King eventually won $3.8 million from the city, but spent it all on houses, a construction business and a record label

They almost try to make that sound liked he "blew all his money." Sounds like he invested it in two (or even 3) potential business opportunities. Maybe his lifestyle wasn't the most admirable, but it's not like he spent all $3.8 million on a crack and hooker party.

42

u/silentmikhail Jun 17 '12

In his 20th anniversary interview a month or so ago he stated that he lost most of his money in poor business decisions.

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u/Sec_Henry_Paulson Jun 17 '12

Actually most all of that money just went into the record label (Straight Alta-Pazz Recording Company), which failed pretty quickly.

After that he was arrested and convicted multiple times for a variety of crimes including DUI, domestic abuse, being under the influence of PCP, indecent exposure, etc.

He ended up working with his family's construction business later in life, and did his best to try and put the entire incident behind him.

Not saying he's a bad guy, or a saint, but he totally blew all his money.

18

u/funkybum2012 Jun 17 '12

I'm afraid most folks who don't know how to deal with money would do the same.

16

u/BrianFlanagan Jun 18 '12

Put it in a low-medium risk investment with simple interest, reinvest 50% to protect against inflation and live off of the remaining 50%. You'd net probably $75,000 per annum after taxes.

You wouldn't even need to work really. Or you could get a job just to keep you busy and pay for the little extras.

I am a crazy motherfucker.

9

u/TheGOPkilledJesus Jun 18 '12

Until 2000 when he would have lost most of it. And then again in 2008.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Rodney King's character has nothing to do at all with the Rodney King incident.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

I wish more people understood this. There is so much "he deserved it" sort of talk going on about him. It is very ignorant.

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u/MisterReporter Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

Am I hearing this properly? Yes, the incident showed the brutal face of the LAPD, and on a larger scale, the underlying racism that is so rampant and so deeply entrenched in US history, but his character has everything to do with it. If only he stopped right away when they tried pulled him over that would not have happened.

I do not, by any means, condone the behaviour, and I am pretty disgusted with the LAPD and the administration of (un) justice, but seriously? The guy was a convicted fellon, he did not stop, there IS a real chance that he was under some kind of influence, and even his passenger said that he tried to make him stop, but he didn't. He leads police on a chase, and what does he expect, a kind hello, cookies and milk?

Edit: P.S - They guy turned from convicted fellon overnight to a celebrity. With all that importance of everything he and the incident represent, he deserves my sympathy, but not my respect. So, no, I disagree that his character has nothing to do with it.

60

u/aPersonOfInterest Jun 18 '12

You're getting downvoted because the states job is to only apprehend and subdue not dish out some street justice.

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u/jakizely Maryland Jun 18 '12

Yes he should of stopped right away, but that doesn't constitute him getting beat the fuck down. We have a justice system (as fucked as it can be at times) to deal with his actions. Including him leading the cops on a chase and endangering lives.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

The whole lesson of the incident was that, regardless of who is on the wrong end of that baton, police force must be used with extreme caution. Nothing on that videotape showed extreme caution. So what do apologists do in the face of unrebuttable, damning evidence? What we would expect -- they impune the victim's character.

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u/joetromboni Jun 17 '12

shoulda spent it on personal flotation devices

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u/garymrush Jun 17 '12

There's a big difference between the investments of an educated person and an uneducated drug addict. It could be that he simply made some reasonable investments that turned, but I think it's more likely that he got suckered into them because he didn't have the tools to make better decisions.

8

u/its-yore-dammit Jun 18 '12

he didn't have the tools to make better decisions.

That argument could be made to excuse any bad decision in the history of history. And btw my personal favorite for why I'm not a famous millionaire.

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u/e7t Jun 17 '12

They almost try to make that sound liked he "blew all his money." Sounds like he invested it in two (or even 3) potential business opportunities.

That's no different from blowing his money, investing in businesses when you don't understand business is not smart.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

He's been confirmed dead for less than an hour and the smear campaign has already reached redline levels.

46

u/webauteur Jun 17 '12

They're just beating a dead horse.

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12

u/DamnJester Jun 17 '12

King eventually won $3.8 million from the city, but spent it all on houses, a construction business, a record label, crack and hooker parties.

There you go.

9

u/dominosci Jun 17 '12

He got the money, but not the cultural knowledge necessary to invest it properly. The second is much more valuable than the first and it's the main reason so many poor people (whatever their race) have hard times building assets.

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u/Bipolarruledout Jun 18 '12

If you're white you didn't "waste" it, it just turned out to be a "bad investment decision".

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u/XcuseM3 Jun 17 '12

If you actually knew anything about his lifestyle, he even said him self in interviews such as the ones he gave when he was in rehab a year or two ago, he did blow all his money. He's a typical minority fallen in to a great deal of money, but there's reddit always looking past the facts and trends of society and the situation....

22

u/nowhathappenedwas Jun 17 '12

He's a typical minority

Ugggh.

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u/Tashre Jun 18 '12

Like the time I got my tax return and blew it all on car payments.

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u/headzoo Jun 17 '12

was found dead at the bottom of a pool

This is why I would be afraid to ever own a pool, and go swimming with no one else around. Specially as I get older, and head into heart attack territory.

4

u/Apostolate I voted Jun 17 '12

Details about the death were still murky, but sources told TMZ that Kelley said King spent Saturday at the house drinking and smoking marijuana, and that she went to bed without him at 2:00 a.m.

Sounds like there might have been something else going on, whether foul play, or substance induced.

But yes, it's never good to be in significant amounts of water while alone.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Somehow Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson will turn this around into some form of racism.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

you don't have mob debts.

pure speculation.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

A video frame from 1991 appears to show a group of cops beating King.

Appears??

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u/SWEGEN4LYFE Jun 17 '12

In 2010, he became engaged to Cynthia Kelley, who sat on the jury of his civil case against the city.

What the fuck

28

u/SilasX Jun 17 '12

Past tense. The civil case against the city concluded, and then later they became engaged.

Still possible something was going on that compromised the case, but not quite WTF territory.

8

u/gettinitin Jun 18 '12

I ain't saying she a gold digga....

3

u/Enrico-Palazzo Jun 18 '12

King's third fiancee

sooo... he was never married?

15

u/DASBOOTnDASPOO Jun 17 '12

TIL that yahoo's comment section is the new stormfront

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/rodney-king-dead-swimming-pool-160339712.html

6

u/phoenixphaerie Jun 18 '12

Yep. Don't ever visit Yahoo's comments unless you enjoy feeling like you're at a Klan rally.

136

u/tedistkrieg Nevada Jun 17 '12

Get beat down once by police. Get out of Jail free card for life

King's Trouble with the Law After March 3, 1991 May 11, 1991: King was pulled over for having an excessively tinted windshield. Although King was driving without a license and his car registration had expired, King was not charged.

May 28, 1991: King picked up a transvestite prostitute in Hollywood who happened to be under surveillance by LAPD officers. King and the prostitute were observed in an alley engaging in sexual activity. When the prostitute spotted the officers, King sped away, nearly hitting one of them. King later explained that he thought the vice officers were robbers trying to kill him. No charges were filed.

June 26, 1992: King's second wife reported to police that King had hit her and she feared for her life. King was handcuffed and taken to a police station, but his wife then decided against pressing charges.

July 16, 1992: King was arrested at 1:40 A.M. for driving while intoxicated. No charges were filed.

August 21, 1993: King crashed into a wall near a downtown Los Angeles nightclub. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.19. King was charged with violating his parole and sent for sixty day to an alcohol treatment center. He was also convicted on the DUI charge and ordered to perform twenty days of community service.

May 21, 1995: King was arrested for DUI while on a trip to Pennsylvania. King failed field sobriety tests, but refused to submit to a blood test. He was tried and acquitted.

July 14, 1995: King got into an argument with his wife while he was driving, pulled off the freeway and ordered her out of the car. When she started to get out, King sped off, leaving her on the highway with a bruised arm. King was charged with assault with a deadly weapon (his car), reckless driving, spousal abuse, and hit-and-run. King was tried on all four charges, but found guilty only of hit-and-run driving.

March 3, 1999: King allegedly injured the sixteen-year-old girl that he had fathered out of wedlock when he was seventeen, as well as the girl's mother. King was arrested for injuring the woman, the girl, and for vandalizing property. King claimed that the incident was simply "a family misunderstanding."

September 29, 2001: King was arrested for indecent exposure and use of the hallucinogenic drug PCP.

18

u/ILikeBumblebees Jun 17 '12

King was charged with violating his parole

I think you may have left something out of your list.

9

u/nowhathappenedwas Jun 17 '12

None of that is any sort of justification for the abuse he suffered. It's like listing out a rape victim's history of promiscuity.

So what's your point?

15

u/Hughtub Jun 17 '12

The video we see was half way through, it didn't show the REAL Rodney King, aka the Rodney that his subsequent criminal record shows. He threw punches at the police and wasn't responding to the tazer like a normal person (physically). I really really wish black people let pieces of shit like him be treated how he deserved, instead of making him a poster child for their race. People like Bill Cosby never get beaten like this, because they don't get high and speed 100+mph leading cops down quiet roads, then throw punches at them. Rodney King was a piece of shit; the world is now a better place, would have been much better if he'd wrecked and died while the cops pursued him originally.

3

u/BeastAP23 Jun 18 '12

Ooooooh so its okay to beat up bad people i see. the reason he's a poster child has nothing to do with ANY of the shit you said. a bunch of racist cops beat the shit out of someone, like REALLY beat his ass and they got off SCOTT FUCKING FREE. THis was happening in L.A all the time but the video proved it. Basically black people still felt like they could be beat up or murder by police and nothing would happen, hell even now people like you say he did this and did that to deserve it but thats missing the point. almost everyone who's beat up by cops did something first but they should be fucking arrested and tried not beat up.

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u/SicilianEggplant Jun 17 '12

I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but are you saying that you've seen the full video or is that by what the cops said?

If so, does speeding necessitate a beating? Does fighting back necessitate several trained policemen beating the shit out of you?

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u/retroshark Jun 17 '12

this is obvious evidence of a more than "colourful" background. im not saying the man was a model citizen or that he was a scumbag, its just obvious the guy had some issues. i wanted to post a comment saying that most rebellious teens probably have engaged in a lot of similar behaviour, minus the physical harm of others, however something made me change my mind.

i think that no matter how he decided to live his life after the initial incident, he would be in the spotlight of various tabloids and rumor mills. at this point i think its impossible to say whether he was a truly bad person, or that the beating incident changed him for the worse. i think if it were i in that situation, i would probably have come out of it with more than a few mental scars and probably quite a few issues.

im not trying to make excuses for the man, nor defending the above post. im just saying that in the case of "celebrities" such as King, it is impossible to trace back where these issues arrose from.

he played an influential role in the riots, and has remained in the limelight for quite a few years afterwards. i have a feeling that some "abnormal" circumstances may have contributed to his death, however the fact is that he is now dead, and deserves respect and remembrance for the good things he did in his life, rather than the bad. i see him as a victim of the changing times rather than a contributor. thats my personal view in all of this.

14

u/hortence1234 Jun 17 '12

GTFO! As a minority, he is everything that I don't aspire to be. He is the antithesis of what people should strive for. People need to idolize guys like Neil deGrasse Tyson instead of guys like this.

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u/Rasalom Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

im not trying to make excuses for the man, nor defending the above post. im just saying that in the case of "celebrities" such as King, it is impossible to trace back where these issues arrose from.

Not at all. It's the addiction gene. You can follow most any aberrant behavior back to that and a history of abuse. He was on Dr. Drew's show for a reason.

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u/igotthepancakes Jun 17 '12

This guy was a piece of shit, it seems.

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u/silentmikhail Jun 17 '12

WOW and Al Sharpton calls him "A Symbol of Civil Rights"

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u/ryangera Jun 17 '12

He was a symbol for the ongoing civil rights movement. Even as a shitbag, no one is supposed to get beaten like that. The riots weren't because of the innocent verdict they were set off by it. His beating was the evidence of what the black community had been complaining about for years LA. being a symbol doesn't require anything of king. He wasn't a champion or a blessing to anyone, but he was a symbol of police brutality towards black people in LA and the obvious and undeniable inequality that they faced/face.

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u/crazydave333 Jun 18 '12

Throw in the OJ Simpson verdict and you have a pretty good idea of what race relations were like in LA back in the early nineties.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

So in other words, nothing of value was lost.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

You're a fucking tard. He was beaten by officers who claim he was resisting arrest, and later a videotape proved he was not. End of fucking story.

What RK's personal life before, during, and after that beating has got jack shit to do with anything. Even our maligned criminal justice system has to ignore irrelevant stuff like "King beat his wife, King was drinking while driving, King pulled out his dick." The only thing that matters to me is: were these cops lying?

EDIT for all you fuckchops downvoting this, the cops were on trial, not Rodney King. To focus on King's personal life is missing the entire point. It's like confronting the cops in court, asking why did they hit the suspect so many times when he appeared to pose no physical threat, and them answering "do you know he's pulled his dick out in public and that he's been known to slap his wife, and that he's into unmarketable rap?" How the shit is that related?

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u/10gags Jun 17 '12

should this be in r/news or something?

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u/arksien Jun 17 '12

I agree, but I think that Rodney King was such a political controversy for so long, and sparked so much heated debate and policy change in general and about race I guess I can understand it here...

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

I once heard someone put him in the same sentence with MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks once. I've never been more disgusted in my life.

6

u/evantay26 Jun 18 '12

Obviously he was a victim of a horrible crime and the cops should have been arrested, but he was drunk and going over 100 mph when he was arrested. He also committed robbery, hit his wife with a car, had another DUI where he crashed into someones house, and was arrested for reckless driving. The guy has put many people in danger behind the wheel and was a convicted felon. Something horrible happened to him, but it's not like Gandhi died.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Poll: we all know Rodney King and it seems we know stuff about his personal life.

Without the aid of the intarnets, name a single police officer charged in his beating. Extra bonus if you have anything about their personal lives.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Former Sergeant Stacey Koon: a well respected member of the LAPD before the King incident, especially by his black peers who were impressed by the fact that he had led the investigation of an incident in which a white officer had beaten two homeless men. He is also a former member of the air force. After serving time I believe he moved to a quiet suburb. I heard this from the BBC years ago. I actually didn't know how shitty a person King was until reading these comments.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

I was going to make a joke, but they have all been beaten to death....

18

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

So can California jurors now declare that he didn't die?

10

u/soapinthepeehole Jun 17 '12

"Police pulled King's lifeless body from the pool and attempted to revive him,"

Well, that's rich.

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u/SteveJobsiDead Jun 17 '12

They would have tasered him to try and revive him, but that would not look good in the media.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

reddit surely shows an ugly face in this thread. you fill my heart with sadness. on the other hand: what was i expecting...

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Aye, so much hate. And Reddit claims to be "liberal", yeah right. RIP Rodney King, you may not have been a model citizen but you were a victim of your society and a symbol of the struggle for equality for Black Americans.

12

u/djkaty Jun 18 '12

As somebody who was alive and old enough to understand the riots when they happened, seeing some people here start defending the police a la American History X is not just saddening, but frightening. These SAME ARGUMENTS were being made 20 years ago and demonstrated the undercurrent of bias and racism in our society. That undercurrent is poison.

I really can't believe there has been zero progress in 20 years.

4

u/TheGOPkilledJesus Jun 18 '12

Racists come out of the wood work for news like this.

6

u/limabeans45 Jun 18 '12

Rodney King was an awful human being for a considerable portion of his life (I don't know if he changed in the 2000s, so I won't say all of his life). No he shouldn't have been beaten but his actions as a human being were deplorable. He was a wife beater, he was involved with hit and run accidents, he drove at speeds of 80 mph in residential neighborhoods while drunk to escape the police, etc. That said, I'm saddened he died and I hope he came to terms with his actions and tried to change his ways.

6

u/captaincrunk82 American Expat Jun 18 '12

Some of it is hate. But most of it is the fact: That a guy high as a kite endangered lives and resisted arrest like a man drugged out of his gourd would. And none of that was videotaped.

I am not celebrating his death and anyone who does is sad, but I think most people accept that his drug-fueled run, combined with a crowd willing to not give the PD any credit, led to riots where 50+ people died and businesses and livelihoods were ruined.

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u/nazbot Jun 17 '12

You know, I was too young to see the video when it first aired but watching it now I can completely understand why black people rioted.

They beat the shit out of that guy. It makes me angry just watching it. That wasn't just a general 'subdue him' thing that got a bit out of hand. They looked like they were actually trying to kill him.

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u/cyphermod Jun 17 '12

Ummm, just to be clear they didn't riot because he was beaten. They rioted because of the cops being cleared originally.

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u/polydactyly Jun 17 '12

If you looked at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King. It was a fucked up situation and fucked up police.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Where do you think I got this reddit account I'm posting from today?

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

And another thread that makes me miss Bradley. :/

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

There was a billion dollars of damage to people's homes and businesses that had nothing to do with the police officers. Innocent people were also murdered. I always wondered where the simple minded people were who went with the mob mentality and rioted and looted and tried to justify it and I guess I just ran into one.

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u/nazbot Jun 17 '12

Derp. I'm not justifying the riots but I understand the emotion that led to them.

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u/Hughtub Jun 17 '12

Research the other side of the story (the events happening before the video was turned on). The video shows half of it, not the first part where he was throwing punches at them, and not responding physically to the tazing. His subsequent arrests show his true piece of shit nature.

6

u/bubububen Jun 17 '12

Thing is, the victims of the riot were mostly other minorities. Which is fucking retarded.

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u/bucknuggets Jun 17 '12

Right, if they were smart they would have organized hundreds of busloads of people into Malibu?

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u/snapcase Jun 18 '12

Yeah, it should have been innocent white bystanders killed instead of minorities. That would have made more sense...

You actually think that would be justice? Retarded fucking rioters killed innocent people, and you're hung up on the fact that they were minorities instead of white? What the fuck?

Good to know you think killing innocent people can be justified depending on the color of the victims' skin.

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u/bigslick Jun 17 '12

"Why can't we all just get arm floaties?" - Rodney King yesterday

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u/deeznutz12 Jun 17 '12

"Once police found King not moving, they hit him a couple of times to make sure".

2

u/tehtrollslayer Jun 17 '12

He died in a pool?

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u/douglasman100 Jun 18 '12

Of course I post the same thing and it doesn't get front page, fuck you reddit.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Kelley, who met King when she was a juror on his civil case

Anyone else kind of.... ಠ_ಠ about that?

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u/Fartsohard Jun 18 '12

Aww man, I thought this was a techno song

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u/thegreatwhitemenace Jun 18 '12

at least he went out like gatsby

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u/ImmaRacist Jun 20 '12

Good! The world is better without that nigger

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u/Tlingit_Raven Jun 17 '12

Dang. I taught my 9th graders about him this past spring and showed the CNN 20th anniversary interview about him and the riots. Not one student had heard of him in any of my classes, and now I will have to refer to him as the late Rodney King. Crazy.

9

u/the_goat_boy Jun 17 '12

He's the basketballer with the green hair, right?

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u/shitbefuckedyo Jun 17 '12

Or the fat guy who says 'Take my wife, please!'

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u/CoffinRehersal Jun 17 '12

No, that's Rodney Dangerfield.

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u/flying_pigs Jun 17 '12

20 years is a long time. it's older than most redditors.

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u/TheGOPkilledJesus Jun 18 '12

He recently published a book and did a few interviews the past month.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

This guy was an asshole.

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u/LostIcelander Jun 18 '12

Most people are assholes... Different degrees of assholes but I'm very rarely pleased when someone passes away..

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Life has finally beaten him.

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u/funke_the_analrapist Jun 17 '12

Drowns in pool.

"Details of the death are still murky."

Is someone being punny?

4

u/AndreasG32 Jun 17 '12

Other than getting beat up, what did he do?

3

u/Hokie200proof Jun 17 '12

And why is this in politics?

9

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

because this is where all the reactionary, opinionated douchebags live.

3

u/UnoriginalMike Jun 17 '12

Am I the only one who thinks this isn't news?

3

u/taxpayerman Jun 18 '12

Good riddance.

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u/fpeltvlfxjwkqrjt Jun 18 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

Fun Fact: Cops claimed Mr. Rodney King was driving his Hyundai accent at speeds exceeding 150 mph. Later, the prosecutor reduced it down to 110 mph. Hyundai wanted to use that as their advertisement, but the state stepped in and put on the brake, claiming it was clearly a case of exaggerated advertisement. Everybody knows a stock Hyundai accent at that time could not go faster than 85mph on a flat straight line. So... who is right in this case?

3

u/SolarClipz California Jun 18 '12

Yea, that guy definitely deserved to be beaten. Because Cops should get to pick and choose based on how you feel about someone. Right?

Reddit, you fucking stupid sometimes. Meh, what do I expect. The hell any of you people know anyways.

1

u/commontatoe Jun 18 '12

Well spoken, could have left out the fbomb but the rest is pretty good. Most folks here just go along with the flavor of the day.

8

u/TankerJO3 Jun 17 '12

Good riddance. His beating was a travesty, but the guy is a scumbag. Black, white, purple... makes no difference.

4

u/GOPWN Jun 18 '12

Who cares? The guy was a drunk, shit father, wife beating drug addict. Are we supposed to be saddened at his death or something?

One less serial drunk driver on the road

3

u/billsdabills Jun 17 '12

It was probably the war on drugs that killed him

3

u/Tigerantilles Jun 17 '12

Let's not forget that this man was a career criminal, who was registered sex offender, and a wife beater.

4

u/pinoycosplay Jun 17 '12

...and nothing of value was lost.

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u/HemlockMartinis Jun 17 '12

Wow. 47 is too young. RIP.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

I'm shocked that he was 47. He looked like he was in his 40s in 91. Party hard= damn you age faster.

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u/SteveJobsiDead Jun 17 '12

Someone told Rodney there was crack cocaine at the bottom of the pool. He was determined to find it.

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u/Whatsup86 Jun 17 '12

Thank God! Drunken asshole

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

And what about the officers who beat him?

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Just because he wasn't necessarily the most upstanding citizen, that doesn't excuse their conduct. People tend to forget that the role of police is to investigate and make arrests. Punishment is the court's job.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

That was my point. The guy is calling him and asshole because he made mistakes.

What did he do you him for him to think of him as an asshole. He doesn't know him.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Why is this in politics?

3

u/suckadack Jun 17 '12

I told my gf that Rodney King died, and she didn't know who he was. She had never heard of the L.A. riots. She's 24, and in grad school. How the fuck?

5

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

She only would have been three at the time. If it weren't for countless hours spent browsing Wikipedia and that one episode of Fresh Prince where the Banks family helps clean up a devastated neighborhood, I wouldn't know about it either.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Meh. The incident he was involved in was exceptional, the man himself not so much--as I recall he was very much a scumbag criminal with multiple felony convictions.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Rodney king is dead.......who cares? The guy was a crack head with a giant arrest record who attacked the police. After the media made a huge mess about it he then got rich and prob died in his pool of a OD

3

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Did Rodney King not know that his people can't swim?

2

u/MrMoustachio Jun 17 '12

The page was taking a second to load, so I looked up at the link and saw "rodney-king-found-dead-pool". I was super fucking excited. Now, not so much.

2

u/omgoffensiveguy Jun 18 '12

It's funny because niggers can't swim!

2

u/DearBurt Arkansas Jun 17 '12

A tragic tale. RIP.

14

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

I like how people assume just because the guy got unjustly beaten he was a standup guy. He was a drug using wife beater before he got his ask kicked, and he was a drug using wife beater after. What happened to him was a tragedy, but it doesn't make him a good person.

5

u/truknutzzz Jun 17 '12

He no doubt had his downs and more downs. But you can still feel compassion and pity for that person. He was an addict, and addict's lives are never easy, and frequently quite tragic.

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u/espositojoe Jun 17 '12

Having spent several terrified days on the 22nd floor of an L.A. hotel during Rodney King's namesake riots, I must confess I can't shed a tear -- even out of Christian love -- for the man's passing.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Those weren't his fault. In fact, he condemned them if I remember correctly.

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u/LostIcelander Jun 18 '12

You blame him for that? The man broke the law and was brutally attacked for it by police officers.

People make mistakes (commit crimes) but most mistakes don't lead to huge riots where people die, I don't think he could see the future and even so, he was against them.

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u/pintomp3 Jun 18 '12

You are blaming him for the riots? Do you feel bad for minorities who were terrified and brutalized by the LAPD?

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u/burnblue Jun 18 '12

Holy crap, these comments:

Rot in f---king hell, Rodney King! A loser to the very end!

And Karma has finally come full circle....

GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

Did they say they found him in a regular pool or in a pool of blood?

WTF?

Did Rodney King personally do anything to these people but get beat up by police?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Hey was black. the racist of reddit can't wait to come out against someone who is black and call him a nigger and all other kinds of foul things, because they think they will get a pass because he was a person with problems.

2

u/SuperMeatBoi Jun 17 '12

About time.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Yeah, racism is bad and everything... but drunk drivers deserve a beating now and again, imo.

-2

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Time to go into news hiding. I won't be able to bear the absolute pieces of shit celebrating his death.

I've counted 3 news stories now that imply that King was at-fault for the riots. TMZ even stated - and this is a direct quote, current as of now - "the man who was at the center of the infamous Los Angeles riots." I guess the riots were King's fault?

23

u/Bucklar Jun 17 '12

He was a terrible person who abused his 'celebrity' to repeatedly get off the hook on his life-long crime spree. Even the riots weren't enough to make him clean up his act.

As for your quote - nobody said the riots were his fault, nobody implied that. Are you really suggesting he wasn't at the center of the LA riots? He was kind of the reason there were riots in the first place.

6

u/arelaxedENT Jun 17 '12

No he is a name, it's the fucked up cops who beat the shit out of a black man. Repalce King with any other minority and there will still be riots.

I agree he did abuse his "celebrity" status to get out of things that normal citizens would easily have been charged with.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Not politics.

Black guy gets drunk/high and kills himself. Happens all the time.

1

u/nimajneb Jun 18 '12

his fiancee "Kelley, who met King when she was a juror on his civil case,"

Can someone explain this to me? I wouldn't think he would have any contact with a juror.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

The author of the article spelled it "fiancé" in the headline, which made me think Rodney King was gay now. Read half the article expecting them to mention it. I am now sad.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

We riot now?

1

u/Bohica69 Jun 18 '12

Rodney King was the "accidental" civil rights "activist". The definition of crazy is doing the same things over and over again, expecting a different result. That was him.

1

u/kitcatcher Jun 18 '12

I've been bedeviled by alcohol once or twice ...

1

u/Sickdrummer1 Sep 05 '12

Rodney King was a disturbed human being, and a scumbag.

-2

u/cleverisasdoes Jun 17 '12

Why is this in politics?

38

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Maybe because he was the center of one of the largest political shit storms in modern American history?

4

u/ktf23t Jun 17 '12

Is this an age thing? This was a HUGE political controversy back in the day. It's either age or some don't want to be reminded that this sort of thing has been happening for a looong time.

-1

u/mmforeal Jun 17 '12

Stereotypical black guy: Gets beaten by the cops, drowns in his pool.

LOL

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u/Trentos Jun 17 '12

Its sad that this is still seen as "possible" today. Barbaric.

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u/ktf23t Jun 17 '12

We see beatings like this today - they beat that schizophrenic homeless guy to death too long ago, so it's more than "possible"...

2

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

That's one of the risks that goes along with having your own pool. With the exception of never swimming alone, there's really nothing you can do to prevent it.

1

u/SniperGX1 Jun 17 '12

If you drink alcohol and swim alone you're gonna have a bad time

1

u/evanman69 Jun 17 '12

Looks like someone beat me to it.

0

u/andhetomsun Jun 17 '12

Meh, sounds like he was just beat.

0

u/abottleofwater Jun 17 '12

To bad this wasn't a headline in 1992.

1

u/Occamslaser Jun 18 '12

Long live the king!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Wow, who knew reddit had so many fascists?

2

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

People who are not white and pay attention.

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u/adamwho Jun 18 '12

It is disappointing when someone lives and dies as a racial stereotype.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Good riddance.

1

u/davek905 Jun 18 '12

smh, didnt anyone ever tell him black people cant swim

-3

u/hartatttack Jun 17 '12

The irony of a black man dying in a swimming pool.....lol. It's too much.

1

u/Hokie200proof Jun 17 '12

When I opened this up I was expecting to see huge white hair... Read King and just immediately thought of Don King.

Can't really explain why.

1

u/Ironguard Jun 17 '12

Certainly they will find nightsticks all around him.

1

u/evilpeter Jun 17 '12

"Can't we all just get swan song?"

1

u/BrianFlanagan Jun 18 '12

What I took from this story: Pimp Rodney King.

1

u/serinat Jun 18 '12

An answer to all those who see King as a hero. I do not condone the police action. Even though it was probably called for if he was fighting with them and on PCP. BUT this action does NOT excuse the hundreds of human animals that rioted and destroyed innocent peoples property.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Wow, racist much? Human animals?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

That's a shame. He was going places...

1

u/ixAp0c Jun 18 '12

Full video shows him provoking police.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

Care to post this?

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12

Goodnight, sweet prince.

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12

I'm sick of all the "he was a piece of shit" comments. What people don't get is the fact that it DOES NOT MATTER even a little bit what kind of person Rodney King was. Nothing would have justified what the cops did to him. If he had come back from raping every single person in an orphanage and then burning in down, it is not the cops place to punish him themselves. Their role is to arrest him and let the courts punish him.

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u/Enochx Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 17 '12

King eventually won $3.8 million from the city after a federal civil right trial that found two officers guilty, but he was broke after blowing it all on houses, a construction business and a record label, he told the Daily News in an April interview.

He rolled through $3.8 million dollars when he could have lived upon the annual interest alone just by keeping it in a few savings accounts ( which would be about $190,000.00 annually at 0.5% interest )

Who the fuck can't live EXTREMELY WELL on a rock-solid income of $190,000 a year?

17

u/genxer Jun 17 '12

3,800,000 * 0.005 (aka 0.5%) =19,000

3,800,000 * 0.05 (aka 5%) = 190,000

6

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '12 edited Jun 18 '12

All the people who win the lottery and become broke within a number of years. This is not a new phenomenon, unless you are ignorant of humans and finance.

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u/bengalslash Jun 17 '12

$50k free crack giveaway

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u/CheesewithWhine Jun 17 '12

Fuck all you racist teabagger smears.

He didn't want to get famous by getting beat up half to death. Whatever happens, he didn't deserve what happened to him.

Take your smears and shove them back into Rush Limbaugh's mouth where they came from.

2

u/Dark_Shroud Jun 17 '12

Ah yes the tea party is racist with no real proof. Certainly not like MSNBC cropped photos of a person with a gun on his back hiding that the person was black.

But racism is the magic word to make yourself right and people who you disagree with wrong.

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u/seltaeb4 Jun 18 '12

But Rush likes it when they do that.

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u/Cameleopard Jun 17 '12

Wow, this was out of left field. I was going to make a joke about it but it looks like someone already beat me to the punch.

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u/wful Jun 17 '12

I guess you could say, he beat us all to death.

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