Rodney King dead at 47

[Number23]

'Rodney King dead at 47'
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/17/us/obit-rodney-king/index.html

Rodney King, whose beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was caught on camera and sparked riots after the acquittal of the four officers involved, was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday, authorities and his fiancee said. He was 47.

..."I am saddened by the death of Rodney King," said Bernard Parks, a Los Angeles city councilman who served as LAPD chief from 1997 to 2002. "Although his beating will forever be thought of as one of the ugliest moments in the history of the city of Los Angeles and its police department, the victimization of Mr. King and the circumstances that followed created an atmosphere that allowed LAPD and the city to make historic disciplinary and community-based reforms that have made for a better police department and a better city as a whole."

"Rodney King was a symbol of civil rights and he represented the anti-police brutality and anti-racial profiling movement of our time," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in a statement. "It was his beating that made America focus on the presence of profiling and police misconduct."

I was in undergrad when the riots happened. I will never forget that video, or the one of the guys pulling the trucker out of his truck and throwing a brick at his head.

If ever anyone had a reason to be fuming and full of hate, it was Rodney. And yet, when asked to make a statement on the situation, he uttered the famous "can't we all just get along?" comments. After the beating, he lead such a troubled life. I'm really quite sad to hear of his passing.

[Skittles]

1. I caught some blurbs of Rodney on Dr Drew's show

he seemed so aware of his personal addiction demons I thought he had a chance to beat them

[gopiscrap]

2. What a tragic soul

RIP

[nofurylike]

3. RIP Rodney King.

you changed our world.

thank you for telling us this, Number23.

[kwassa]

4. I feel great sadness over this, too.

I lived through those riots, too, watched all on live TV, and saw some of it totally live in my neighborhood.

The riot can be firmly blamed on Darryl Gates, chief of police, LAPD, who at the first sign of trouble yanked ALL of his officers off the street and created a vacuum into which every knucklehead and opportunist ran.