Something is extremely suspicious here, I expect the girlfriend will face murder charges.

Rodney King -- the man who was at the center of the infamous Los Angeles riots -- was found dead this morning in Rialito, CA. He was 47.

According to our sources, King's fiancée found him dead at the bottom of a pool.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ they responded to a call at 5:25 AM PT. We're told they physically removed King from the pool and attempted CPR.

Our sources say he was pronounced dead at 6:11 AM.
http://www.tmz.com/2012/06/17/rodney-king-dead/

Drunk drown, good riddence to this useless individual.

Quote from: lessthantolerant on June 17, 2012, 02:25:51 PM
Drunk drown, good riddence to this useless individual.

Why all the hostility to King? He didn't start the riots. He didn't encourage the riots. He didn't take the infamous video. He didn't stand over himself laughing while he was tazed. If you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at the police. It's stupid to abuse your authority in the era of cell phone cameras.

Quote from: mdgiles on June 17, 2012, 03:21:36 PM
Why all the hostility to King? He didn't start the riots. He didn't encourage the riots. He didn't take the infamous video. He didn't stand over himself laughing while he was tazed. If you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at the police. It's stupid to abuse your authority in the era of cell phone cameras.

True, but to my knowledge, cell phone cameras weren't available. I believe it was police car cameras that recorded the scene. Keep in mind, the cops were acquitted once on state charges, but Poppa Bush had the Federals indict them then.

Quote from: Shooterman on June 17, 2012, 04:16:24 PM
True, but to my knowledge, cell phone cameras weren't available. I believe it was police car cameras that recorded the scene. Keep in mind, the cops were acquitted once on state charges, but Poppa Bush had the Federals indict them then.

I think it was a bystander with a video camera that got the whole thing on tape.the sad part is the police were 100% in the wrong on that one and that's the only time I'VE ever said that

Here's a video of the Fullerton police killing Kelly Thomas last year if you haven't seen it - it's soup to nuts - initial encounter with Thomas until they finally stopped, or until, in police terms  he complied.
Kelly Thomas - 33 minutes.   

If you haven't got a half hour to spare, here's just the 18 minute part where they kill him.
[Kelly Thomas - 18 min.

The video is by a surveillance camera mounted at the Fullerton Transit Station and is remotely operated and monitored by the Fullerton PD at the police station.
The audio is from individual audio recorders that the police officers wear.

Two of the cops are currently awaiting trial.

Quote from: REDWHITEBLUE2 IRISH REBEL on June 17, 2012, 04:55:56 PM
I think it was a bystander with a video camera that got the whole thing on tape.the sad part is the police were 100% in the wrong on that one and that's the only time I'VE ever said that

Maybe you'll have to change this to (at least) twice.

Quote from: mdgiles on June 17, 2012, 03:21:36 PM
Why all the hostility to King? He didn't start the riots. He didn't encourage the riots. He didn't take the infamous video. He didn't stand over himself laughing while he was tazed. If you want to get mad at somebody, get mad at the police. It's stupid to abuse your authority in the era of cell phone cameras.

You're absolutely right, Giles. King was abused illegally, and the cops involved should all have been jailed. 

But Rodney King was never exactly a model citizen. The entire case in 1991 came about because he was trying to avoid a probation violation for driving under the influence of alcohol. (He had been convicted two years earlier of robbing a store of approximately $200, during which robbery he clubbed the store's owner with a "pole.") His night of fame started with a high-speed chase that exceeded 90 mph, an effort to avoid serving the unserved year on his robbery conviction.

His post-robbery years were filled with stints at rehab clinics and brushes with the law. I harbor no hostility toward King, and mourn his death, but only in passing. I don't think Rodney King is an important person. I think what happened to him in 1991 is important, but King himself was nobody, a loser.

Probably Fkd up on PCP.... again.


Billy

Quote from: REDWHITEBLUE2 IRISH REBEL on June 17, 2012, 04:55:56 PM
I think it was a bystander with a video camera that got the whole thing on tape.the sad part is the police were 100% in the wrong on that one and that's the only time I'VE ever said that

I do believe you are correct, RWB.

Quote from: Shooterman on June 17, 2012, 04:16:24 PM
True, but to my knowledge, cell phone cameras weren't available. I believe it was police car cameras that recorded the scene. Keep in mind, the cops were acquitted once on state charges, but Poppa Bush had the Federals indict them then.

You are correct, sir. There was no such thing as a cell-phone camera then. Cell phones were still physically wired to a power source -- generally a vehicle -- in 1991. Mine took two circuits in my truck's fusebox -- one for the handset and the other for the massive transceiver mounted under the seat.

Quote from: tbone0106 on June 17, 2012, 06:32:47 PM
You're absolutely right, Giles. King was abused illegally, and the cops involved should all have been jailed. 

But Rodney King was never exactly a model citizen. The entire case in 1991 came about because he was trying to avoid a probation violation for driving under the influence of alcohol. (He had been convicted two years earlier of robbing a store of approximately $200, during which robbery he clubbed the store's owner with a "pole.") His night of fame started with a high-speed chase that exceeded 90 mph, an effort to avoid serving the unserved year on his robbery conviction.

His post-robbery years were filled with stints at rehab clinics and brushes with the law. I harbor no hostility toward King, and mourn his death, but only in passing. I don't think Rodney King is an important person. I think what happened to him in 1991 is important, but King himself was nobody, a loser.

Your point being. Oh I get it, if you haven't lived a model life, than the police have carte blanche to abuse you in any manner they feel appropriate. It's not like they should really obey the law or even their departmental rules or anything. Why let's just get rid of all those expensive courts and judges and stuff. We can go to a system like they have in Judge Dredd, and simply deal out punishment on the spot. And we can "trust" the police to never, ever, get the wrong person. Or let's say, act the same way to anyone near and dear to you. You know like somebody who isn't a "nobody" or a "loser". Maybe it's just me, but I've got to figure that if the police get in the habit of behaving that way, eventually they'll behave that way toward every one.

Quote from: mdgiles on June 18, 2012, 06:11:18 AM
Your point being. Oh I get it, if you haven't lived a model life, than the police have carte blanche to abuse you in any manner they feel appropriate. It's not like they should really obey the law or even their departmental rules or anything. Why let's just get rid of all those expensive courts and judges and stuff. We can go to a system like they have in Judge Dredd, and simply deal out punishment on the spot. And we can "trust" the police to never, ever, get the wrong person. Or let's say, act the same way to anyone near and dear to you. You know like somebody who isn't a "nobody" or a "loser". Maybe it's just me, but I've got to figure that if the police get in the habit of behaving that way, eventually they'll behave that way toward every one.

Not to cause any bad blood, but I'm calling BS on this.

His point was rather clear, if I may:

Quote from: tbone0106
I think what happened to him in 1991 is important, but King himself was nobody, a loser.

Hell, if you notice he starts his post with this:

Quote from: tbone0106
You're absolutely right, Giles. King was abused illegally, and the cops involved should all have been jailed. 

His point was: While what happened was terrible, but it would have terrible regardless of who it would have happened to.  That King himself isn't some great hero, but rather just a part of a bad situation that made America think (or riot - whichever).

But his point most certainly is not "if you haven't lived a model life, than the police have carte blanche to abuse you in any manner they feel appropriate." 

His point is that NO ONE has the right to abuse you, police or otherwise, but if it hadn't been King it would have been someone else - the man isn't a folk hero.  And he wasn't randomly picked to bully by the police, they had a reason to be there - they just abused that reason.

QuoteHis point is that NO ONE has the right to abuse you, police or otherwise, but if it hadn't been King it would have been someone else - the man isn't a folk hero.  And he wasn't randomly picked to bully by the police, they had a reason to be there - they just abused that reason.

Uh last I checked, their reason is simply to apprehend the SUSPECT. Suspect , as in hasn't been found guilty of anything having to do with this situation yet. Prior bad acts don't matter. Future conviction doesn't matter. How much trouble they went to to get this knucklehead off the streets, doesn't matter. At that moment they are simply supposed to bring him in. At which point they can present what evidence they have to the proper authorities. I agree that the officers exceeded their authority, and acted badly. What bothers me is any attempt to justify or down play their actions. We expect better behavior from the police. You and I, are not trained for this type of work, so we should expect that our actions won't be the same as a trained professional. I expect the police to act better than you or I would.

King wasn't an innocent victim. He was a big, noncompliant dude, that was acting crazy. They played the story like the cops intentionally beat the hell out him, with no provocation. That's BS.

The riots resulted from the news coverage, not King getting beat up. Network television has/is attempting to create the same mayhem from the Zimmerman case.

I know cops....................they're human beings. When people act like King was acting, cops get scared for their own safety, and bad shit can happen. The lesson learned here, is that if you're breaking the law and get caught................just do what the cops tell you to do.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King

Quote from: mdgiles on June 18, 2012, 08:43:11 AM
Uh last I checked, their reason is simply to apprehend the SUSPECT. We expect better behavior from the police. You and I, are not trained for this type of work, so we should expect that our actions won't be the same as a trained professional. I expect the police to act better than you or I would.

Christ dude, that was tbone's point.

That was my point.

They had a reason to be there and they abused that reason - it was uncalled for and they shouldn't have gone so far.

We all agree on that, no one is downplaying that.

The point tbone was making was: Rodney King is incidental to the whole situation.  It could have been Jim Stevens or DeShaun Jackson or Michael Pencilletti - the point is King shouldn't be celebrated as a folk hero because he got beat up by bad cops.  It doesn't matter who the cops beat, it matters that they pushed their authority too far and should have been brought to justice for it.