Ironically its kinda like the early edited King videos where it looks like the LAPD is beating up on some law abiding random black dude.
If you really need me to explain to you why King’s death garnered more attention than the death of the average person, or the average criminal, and why he is thus different from the average criminal, then please let me know.
I was trying to give you some credit by assuming that your question was merely rhetorical, but if you truly don’t understand, and would like it explained, then i’ll help you out. If you do want an explanation, let me know if multi-syllable words are OK.
I was a prison guard at Attica. I know the difference between a legit use of force and a beat down. What happened to King was a beat down.
Was King a violent thug? Yes.
But how were the police officers who beat him up any better? Are you going to celebrate when they die?
The post that was made that brought up all of King’s transgressions… did anyone else notice that there was nothing listed between 2003 and 2011? That says to me that he was, at the very least, trying (and doing a good enough job that he stayed out of trouble for that length of time) to clean up his act. Does that count for nothing in the ‘we don’t have to wish him to hell’ department now that he’s died?
For me, I appreciate what he exposed and how he tried to reconcile the factions warring during the riots. Whatever demons he faced, I hope he’s at peace now.
Touché!
How many times did those four cops really need to hit him with their billy clubs, inasmuch as he wasn’t on drugs or whatever?
I seem to remember what the Eighth Amendment says about “cruel and unusual punishments.”
And while we’re on the subject, just what was done to Reginald Denny, who was pulled out of his sand truck near the flash point of the riots? And was he a slimeball like Rodney King is supposed to have been, or is he just guilty of 1) being white and 2) carrying 27 tons of sand in his truck?
Are you confessing to a crime?
That’s true, he was much less a menace to society than Mother Teresa [no “h,” by the way], and fewer people suffered because of him.
You forgot to correct his spelling of “Gandhi.”
Yes it does, but three strikes laws only applies to certain felonies. From the list posted earlier in this thread it sounds like most of King’s crimes were misdemeanors and several didn’t result in convictions (and some more were infractions, not crimes).
(emphasis mine)
We’re actually not on that subject. People keep bring it up to paint the cops as worse to somehow lessen the perceived ‘bad-ness’ of King. King’s worth to society (or lack thereof) stands alone and is independent of the actions of the cops.
Rodney King’s life is swimming in irony.
I think the world probably is a better place without the guy. If not better, then certainly safer. I don’t have a lot of patience for people who can own a rap sheet like his, but I do stop short of being happy about his death. For all his sins, it seems someone in his life is mourning him.
If only Bobby hadn’t beaten Whitney … oh wait. I see what you did there. I’m already on the Hell-bound bus for giggling at billfish’s observation that King’s water bill appears to have been current. I’m sure there’s room in here for you.
So should they add a “Four fouls and you’re out” law?
Is the LAPD still considering changing its motto from “To Protect and to Serve” to “We Treat You Like a King!”? :dubious:
Please, Dopers…
Can’t we all get along?
I would point out that while the videotape caused rage the riots did not start until the LA jury aquitted the cops. Which brings the questions:
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Was the videotape not the whole story? We were shown bits of it by the media, IIRC the defense showed the whole thing and I recall many folks trying to spin that Rodney was doing a lot of stupid **** the result in further blows.
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If the 2nd sentence of #1 is not even remotely true, what the hell LA jury?
“stupid ****?” When he first got out of the car, he reached for his back pocket, which is a good way to get shot. Instead, the cops holstered their weapons and tasered him. When he still resisted, they beat him down. This gave the people across the street time to point the video camera onto the scene.
But still, something else would have triggered the riots anyway.
Juh? Was there a green arrow spliced in that I missed, pointing to him with the caption “Totally random and law-abiding guy who the cops decided to beat”? We saw four cops with batons beating a man who was on the ground. There was no statement or implication of the victim being a monk. All we saw was a senseless beating, and that was all there was to it. Evidence later surfacing that he’d led the cops on a pursuit, etc, didn’t and doesn’t change that.
Post # 96 by Slithy covers it.
King wasn’t some nice guy pulled over for driving while black (well maybe he was, I forget that detail). But driving while black wasn’t wat got him in big trouble. The cops were dipshits but so was he. If he hadn’t been a dipshit he would not have had the shit beaten out of him. Did he deserve that (for what he had just done)? No. But had he reacted like his passengers it wouldn’t have happened either.
In theory I should be able to walk into a bad biker bar and call em all fat fucking loosers with tiny dick issues. I got enough sense to not do that and if I do I don’t deserve a beatdown but that is what I am likely gonna get.
King was an idiot.
I think I have different expectations from police and bikers. And even if I didn’t, it wouldn’t matter to me whether what provoked them was a dipshit.