# The King is dead. (Rodney King dead at 47) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434 "2012-06-17T16:27:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/21 "2012-06-17T18:53:11Z")
So he was the lowest, low-life asshole. That explains a lot. Please put out an all-points bulletin for other low-life assholes, so the police can beat them, too. They deserve it, right? ---
**Author:** ![simple\_homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@simple\_homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simple_homer)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/22 "2012-06-17T19:02:32Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > His actions throughout his life show a complete disregard for authority, order, and anyone’s life but his own. He should have been removed from society decades ago. > > Fuck him. I agree. He was a worthless piece of shit. It does not bother me at all that he is gone. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/23 "2012-06-17T19:08:04Z")
Of course, this had nothing to do with the riots: > **[Killing of Latasha Harlins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latasha_Harlins)** > > Latasha Harlins (January 1, 1976 – March 16, 1991) was an African American girl who was fatally shot at age 15 in Los Angeles by Soon Ja Du (Korean: 두순자), a 49-year-old Korean American convenience store owner. Du was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter over the killing, based in part on security camera footage. The judge sentenced Du to 10 years in state prison but the sentence was suspended and the defendant was instead placed on five years' probation with 400 hours of community serv... > [@](#): > > Du saw Harlins putting a bottle of orange juice in her backpack. Police say that Du erroneously concluded Harlins was attempting to steal, evidently not seeing the money Harlins was holding. (The police reached this conclusion after speaking with the two eyewitness present and viewing the videotape of the incident, recorded by a store security camera.)[2][3] Du attempted to grab Harlins by the sweater and snatched her backpack. Harlins then struck Du with her fist three times, knocking Du to the ground. After Harlins backed away Du then threw a stool at her. Harlins then picked up the orange juice that dropped during the scuffle, threw[4] it on the counter and turned to leave. Du reached under the counter to retrieve a handgun. Du then fired at Harlins from behind at a distance of about three feet and shot her in the back of her head, killing her instantly. Du’s husband, Billy Heung Ki Du, heard the shot and rushed into the store. After speaking to his wife, who asked for whereabouts of Harlins before fainting, he dialed 9-1-1 to report an alleged holdup. Harlins died with two dollars in her left hand.[5] > > **Du testified on her own behalf, stating that it was self-defense and that her life was in danger, but her words were contradicted by the statements of the two witnesses present at the time and the security camera footage, which showed her shooting Harlins in the back of the head as Harlins was attempting to leave the store**. However, the Los Angeles police department ballistics expert report also found that the handgun Du used was altered in such a way that, compared to an ordinary handgun, much less pressure on the trigger was necessary to result in firing.[5] > > On November 15, 1991, the jury found Du guilty of voluntary manslaughter with a 16-year prison sentence recommendation, believing that Du’s shooting was fully within her control and she fired the gun voluntarily. **The presiding judge, Joyce Karlin, reduced the sentence to probation of five years, four hundred hours of community service, and a $500.00 fine.** [6][7] [Bolding mine.] ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/24 "2012-06-17T20:17:02Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > Good riddance. I hope it hurt. You know, Rodney King is probably not someone I’d be in a hurry to invite to a dinner party, but that’s really a bit harsh. Clearly, he had substance abuse problems, and without a doubt he ought to have been prohibited from operating a motor vehicle a long time ago. But many items on this list that aren’t ancient history are either trivial, unsubstantiated, or mitigated somewhat by a history that may be hard for _anyone_ to deal with. You notice how many times the date of March 3rd shows up in that list? It’s one thing to be a bit of a fuck-up, but it’s another thing to be a bit of a fuck-up who is frequently reminded of that time they were at the center of (and am I responsible for?) that time the city burned and all those people got killed and injured. Apart from that, you have a bunch of stuff like more than a decade ago he was “arrested for” indecent exposure and use of PCP. Not “convicted,” mind - just “arrested.” He was alleged to have been on PCP on March 3rd, 1991 - that’s what justified the extreme force. (You’ll recall that the drug tests came back negative.) ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/25 "2012-06-17T20:27:39Z")
I think the fairest assessment of the “big incident” with Rodney King is he started off in the wrong by resisting a valid arrest, but the police improperly assaulted him after he was essentially subdued. I can’t really feel sorry for anyone who victimizes other people (and King did that), but his life was pretty sad. There was an article about him in the Atlantic probably a year or so ago that basically talked about how he had none of his settlement money left any longer and he was just living in the house (with the pool) that he bought with the settlement money, just hoping to avoid having it seized for not paying any property taxes. I think he may have even had most/all of his utilities turned off. ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/26 "2012-06-17T20:28:11Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > 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. That’s such a bizarre way to say he injured his daughter. Why did you say it that way? ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/27 "2012-06-17T20:30:40Z")
Can’t we all just…learn to swim?? (…sorry…) ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/28 "2012-06-17T20:41:29Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > (…sorry…) Well, we could dredge up all the 20-year-old jokes— Q. What did Rodney King say when asked what he was going to do with the settlement money? A. “Beats the shit out of me.” Did you hear that Rodney King was finally arraigned? The charge was impersonating a piñata. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/29 "2012-06-17T20:53:38Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Well, we could dredge up all the 20-year-old jokes— > > Q. What did Rodney King say when asked what he was going to do with the settlement money? > > A. “Beats the shit out of me.” > > Did you hear that Rodney King was finally arraigned? The charge was impersonating a piñata. Leno will just air a rerun Monday, and no one will notice. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/30 "2012-06-17T20:57:52Z")
“Hey Rodney, do your seal cub impersonation again.” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/31 "2012-06-17T21:01:19Z")
> [@ducati](#): > > He was beaten and arrested. Actually, he was savagely beaten by three to six police officers who were acting under the color of authority. Some of these were officers who engaged in rampant brutality as a routine component of their exercise of their duties. Rodney King was a run-of-the-mill drug addict, petty criminal, and lowlife. However, these officers were part of a governmental organization, one authorized by the state to use force in order to protect the populace, that instead used its power to brutalize hundreds or thousands of people and punish them extra-judicially. That makes them far, far worse than Rodney King. So if one’s reaction to news of King’s death is “fuck him, good riddance,” it should be far more extreme upon hearing of the deaths of Daryl Gates, Stacey Koon, and the like. King was an ordinary lowlife. The people who beat him and the superiors who oversaw their brutality were extra-ordinary scum. King did the entire country a favor in his role exposing them and ending their reign of terror. For that, we should thank him rather than curse him. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/32 "2012-06-17T21:08:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I was willing to give him a break, until I read how he was caught driving with an excessively tinted windshield. I’m upset about that pie rack he knocked over. _What kind of pies were they?_ What if a chocolate cream pie or a banana cream pie was destroyed? You have to understand, people, I am on a diet, and you _do not fuck_ with perfectly good pies. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/33 "2012-06-17T21:16:42Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > You notice how many times the date of March 3rd shows up in that list? It’s one thing to be a bit of a fuck-up, but it’s another thing to be a bit of a fuck-up who is frequently reminded of that time they were at the center of (and am I responsible for?) that time the city burned and all those people got killed and injured. > [@Washoe](#): > > When he was told that he had missed the entrance, he put it in reverse and _drove backwards down Madera_ to the point where he should have turned. Our indie buyer said to him incredulously “how _the fuck_ do you manage to keep your driver’s license?” King just giggled like a little girl and said “I’s jus’ barely holdin’ on to it, man—I’s jus’ barely holdin’ on to it.” Clearly just a brave front put on by a changed, remorseful man, wracked with guilt for his “minor indiscretions” and occasional stumble along the way. Afterall, he was only arrested _less than 10 times_ for beating up his wife. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/34 "2012-06-17T21:40:24Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I’m upset about that pie rack he knocked over. _What kind of pies were they?_ What if a chocolate cream pie or a banana cream pie was destroyed? You have to understand, people, I am on a diet, and you _do not fuck_ with perfectly good pies. Right on, Sister! You bring 'em to SDMB where they belong! ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/35 "2012-06-17T21:43:38Z")
King was unquestionably a gigantic dick, and the world is probably better off without him. That doesn’t mean people should be gleeful that he was beaten nearly to death a couple decades ago. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/36 "2012-06-17T21:43:55Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Rodney King was a run-of-the-mill drug addict, petty criminal, and lowlife. I think the officers involved were wrong. I won’t mourn their passing. But to dismiss King’s unrepentant violent bullying and felonic robberies as “run of the mill” and “petty” grossly mischaracterizes his actions and threat to decent society. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/37 "2012-06-17T21:53:14Z")
I think some here are missing **ducati’s** point: it appears (please correct me if I’m wrong) that he doesn’t think the LAPD officers involved in the videotaped beating did anything wrong: > [@ducati](#): > > When given a lawful order by police officers, 3 of the 4 people in King’s car that fateful night complied immediately. King chose to fight instead. \*\*He was subdued with the force necessary to obtain his compliance and effect an arrest. \*\* > > His videotaped arrest helped to widen even more the racial gap that exists, erasing decades of progress towards bringing races together. The resulting riots simply illustrate this, not to mention costing a billion dollars and 53 deaths. I submit to you that **had King simply complied with a lawful arrest instead of engaging in a life-threatening high speed chase and fight, none of that would have happened**. Emphases mine. So many of the comments here responding to him seem to miss this. (Understandable; it WAS a long post.) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/38 "2012-06-17T21:57:36Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > I think the officers involved were wrong. I won’t mourn their passing. But to dismiss King’s unrepentant violent bullying and felonic robberies as “run of the mill” and “petty” grossly mischaracterizes his actions and threat to decent society. The Los Angeles Police Department was a far greater threat to decent society than King ever was. That’s my point. King was a small-time thug. The L.A.P.D. was a violent tyranny. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/39 "2012-06-17T22:11:12Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > King was unquestionably a gigantic dick, and the world is probably better off without him. That doesn’t mean people should be gleeful that he was beaten nearly to death a couple decades ago. This is my feeling. And the fact that he was a dick doesn’t change what was done to him by those cops, nor what it says about their attitude to their authority. I don’t care what the jury said, i believe that what they did was criminal, and the fact that King wasn’t a model citizen doesn’t change that. Ernesto Miranda was an awful person, but that doesn’t change the importance of the civil rights issues raised by his case. We don’t always have the luxury of having choirboys as the central figures in debates over the criminal justice system. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434/40 "2012-06-17T22:11:43Z")
\*\*The King is dead. (Rodney King dead at 47) \*\* The world is a slightly better place today. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-king-is-dead-rodney-king-dead-at-47/625434.md?page=3)