Christ all Friday, was it really twenty years ago???
Thats true. But I think a better way to say it would be it was GOOD for society in the long run that the King thing happened. But King himself deserves no praise (or even perhaps sympathy) for causing it to happen. It’s not like he was out to make a stand like Rosa Parks or the like.
Then again, you could argue that if the King beatdown was a good thing in the long run and therefore the LAPD also deserves some praise and credit as well for doing their part for the cause 
Complicated ninja moves? Like walking straight lines?
The ability to toss off 4 officers doesn’t mean that you can toss off 7. And getting tossed off of a drunk mean that you need to pull out your nightstick and beat the shit out of him.
Your facts are incorrect. Today is Tuesday.
I’m with Marley 23 on this one. Rodney King did good. He caused 2 career police officers to be thrown in prison. His supporters burned 1000 buildings to the ground. Koreans who defended their property from the rioters are STILL in prison. LOL That’s where they deserve to be.
700 million dollars in damages, 54 people killed. And on top of it all Mr. King was paid 3.8 million of the taxpayers dollars.
Who else could have brought so many Democrats together? Rodney, we salute you!
Yeah, that’s right. Give him the chance to grab any one of 7 guns.
Well, they could have shot him.
Since I didn’t say that, no, you’re not.
I’m with you except for the Democrat part. If beating King is a 10 on the outrage meter then driving drunk at 80 MPH on residential streets should be 100 and the riots should be about 1,000.
I would think that police officers are trained in techniques to prevent drunks from getting their guns. Techniques that don’t involve brutality.
Thats a lot of money to drown your sorrows with.
Well yes, they’re taught not to grapple which is why after the initial officers were thrown off they were told by a more senior officer to back off. That’s also why the idea of 7 officers gang tackling King is stupid Monday morning quarterbacking.
I can’t find anybody defending King’s drunk driving or rioting in this thread. Can you?
To hear some people tell it, the extremely intoxicated are abnormally fast, strong, coordinated and well-nigh impervious pain, and they’re vulnerable only to being clubbed. Without the clubs and their feet for kicking, that group of cops would have been totally at the mercy of that drunk guy. Drunks are unpredictable and stupid, which can be dangerous enough (and King’s behavior is plenty of proof). They’re not superhuman.
Go ask some cops that have fought some otherwise in shape drunks. Its my understanding they (or at least some of them) can be pretty damn fiesty.
Actually, a jury caused those police officers to be thrown into prison for savagely beating an unarmed man.
Let’s see abnormally fast, and coordinated. You’d think he might have driven better if that one were true. Hell if that were true people ought to get liquored up before driving. Why wouldn’t you want to be abnormally well coordinated, and fast? Driving sober would be dangerous, comparatively. Why driving under the limit ought to be a felony, as reckless as it is. E85 ought to include a few pure ethanol shots for the driver in the price.
Sadly, booze isn’t a skills enhancement, as reality shows. Drunk people tend to either die or kill significantly more, due to impaired coordination, and inability to control and react. A drunk guy as a cunning fighter is retarded. Most likely he was a blundering fool, who’s only advantage was reduced sensitivity to pain.
Conversely, I don’t find anyone suggesting that the actions of the officers in repeatedly beating the prone King were not gratuitous and unnecessary. But the argument–presented by several–that the police should have been able to use some exact amount of minimum force or “dogpile” as many bodies as possible onto King in order to restrain and handcuff him without rendinering injury are made from a void of actual experience in dealing with violence or restraint techniques.
Or talk to any bouncer. Drunk people lack the normal inhibitions or fear about their own self-preservation, and alcohol brings out the serious mean in some people. Put that together with adrenelin from a car pursuit, and a history of inclucated violent and criminal behavior, and you have a subject who essentially cannot be reasoned with, restrained, or controlled without knocking him unconscious or debilitated. The fact that the officers progressed through the approved escallation of use of force–first with verbal commands, then using the Taser (which was ineffectual), then attempting and failing at dual officer restraint technique–argues against the notion that the officers were out of control or bent on brutality, and the beating was a result of undertraining, lack of usable non-lethal weapons, and outright fear.
As far as culpability for the riots, I personally think the blame rests pretty squarely on the media, which in the name of sensationalization, downplayed King’s actions prior to and at the beginning of the stop which aggrevated the situation as well as his past criminal history, and “enhanced” (read: manufactured) the racial aspect of the beating, intentionally fanning the flames and resulting in the calamitous riots which destroyed homes, businesses, and lives…and made hundreds of millions of dollars for national media outlets in what was otherwise a slow news summer dominated (in the US) by Lorena Bobbitt jokes and the suicide of Vince Foster. Yeah for the Fourth Estate.
Stranger
Hey, here’s an idea: Why not just dispense with arrest, courts, etc. as they are clearly just a waste of money. Who is better to know the guilt or innocence of a suspect than the good officers of the law?
Why, since their beat-down of King was such a splendid idea, why not extend this same courtesy to all suspects? Just let the police deliver such punishment as they see fit, then and there. Justice will be served, and money will be saved.
Win win, right fumster?
I am not sure the OP agrees with you, but maybe he does.
Hey, here’s another idea. How about if the police try and arrest people? Maybe they can flash their lights and ask them to pull over. If they don’t do that and the police have to pursue them, then maybe the police can ask them to get out of the car and lie on the ground so that they can be cuffed without anyone being hurt, and of course if they don’t do that maybe several police officers can try and physically restrain them. But of course if the suspect, who the police are trying to arrest so he can be charged and tried in court, shakes all those officers off then maybe the officers might have to use force. This idea that they just beat the shit out of King as “punishment” is simply contrary to the facts. This wasn’t vigilantism, they tried multiple ways to do arrest this guy peacefully so that he could be tried. He’s the one that is responsible for the way it turned out.
Not defending, just ignoring. The narrative always starts with the beatings, not the umpteen opportunities that King had up to that point to comply with the officers.