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Tragic.

Having heard a few interviews with Rodney King over the last couple of months, he struck me as a guy with some terrible demons, but underneath was probably a decent sort of guy who just couldn't get a grip on his life. For people like this, I truly hope they find some peace in an afterlife.

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He sold out when he said "Can we all get along?"

We obviously can't.

RIP Rodders

An alcoholic- when he got his million dollar payoff he basically could drink and drive and will.

The LA police certainly didn't want to press charges.

If that film had never been taken- King would have stayed in a prison hospital for a week- then released - probably to go drink himself to death.

Instead, 50+ people were killed, neighborhoods burned down, stores looted to close forever, and King just drank himself to death anyway.

Can we all just get along?

I truly hope they find some peace in an afterlife.

How did you manage to put "god"· comment on this article.

You die and that's it.

Instead, 50+ people were killed, neighborhoods burned down, stores looted to close forever, and King just drank himself to death anyway.

Do you believe Rodney King personally caused the L.A. riots and killed the 50 people himself?

As I recall the riots broke out because the police officers who beat him got off and a section of the public reacted badly. King's plea to 'get along' actually dampened the rage at the time.

I doubt anyone is say he was a saint, but the guy had serious problems, and who among us hasn't some things we're ashamed of in our lives. Please show a little compassion.

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How did you manage to put "god"· comment on this article.

You die and that's it.

I didn't put God in anything.

I merely said if there is such a thing as an afterlife, I hope he gets some peace there.

It irritates me no end when others jump on innocuous comments to push their own agenda.

Here's an alternative view of the infamous King beating:

Pumped up on alcohol and drugs, King led officers on a high-speed chase across L.A.’s freeways and residential streets far north of South Central. When the officers finally stopped him, they tried nonviolent means of arresting him—verbal commands, a group tackle, handcuffs, and, finally, a taser—but he fiercely fought all of them off. Only after King lunged at the officers did they resort to the baton. A civilian video captured much of the stop, but the media edited out the nonviolent prelude to the baton blows. The loop beamed around the world thousands of times appeared to show an unprovoked beating of King, agonizingly prolonged because the main protagonist, the diminutive Laurence Powell, was physically overmatched by King and incompetent in use of the baton. (King’s two passengers, by comparison, complied with the officers’ orders and were arrested without incident.)

http://www.city-journal.org/2012/cjc0427hm.html

<<If that film had never been taken- King would have stayed in a prison hospital for a week- then released - probably to go drink himself to death.

Instead, 50+ people were killed, neighborhoods burned down, stores looted to close forever, and King just drank himself to death anyway.>>

then again if that film had never been taken then another, similar, one would have been--because of the deep racial fault lines involved.

<<You die and that's it.>>

but the only way in which you could actually know this ('affirm the truth of this proposition', if you will) would be if you had died and come back...to tell us that there wasn't anything after death--but there would have to have been for you to come back to tell us there wasn't anything....oh dear, all a terrible muddle...best to tiptoe quietly away....or perhaps quote Wittgenstein out of context, but fairly appositely: 'whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.'

@piffedoff

In the absence of any evidence whatsoever I choose not to believe in the Celestial Teapot, fairies, or life after death.

I'm reminded once again why it's never good to read the "bottom half" of the internet.

Hi MsBH

I merely said if there is such a thing as an afterlife, I hope he gets some peace there.

Actually there was no 'if' in your original post:

For people like this, I truly hope they find some peace in an afterlife.

Sunset Boulevard......

dead body in the pool......

......

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Rodney King is one of those you know where you were events.....together with 911, Aryton Senna's and Princess Diana's death.....for me anyway.

Feel sorry for the guy but at at the end of the day he was on parole for robbery.....someone else was a victim from his actions and were probably scared to death.....karma is hard to fight against. But RIP anyway Mr King.

Captain Cheesebones probably took the great Bill Hicks routine about the beating seriously...

'Oh that Rodney King beating tape, it's all about how you look at it.... that's right, it all depends on how you look at it...'

'Really? Well, would you care to tell the court how you look at that? '

'Yeah ok sure, its how you look at it..... For instance, if you play it backwards you see us help King up and send him on his way."

judeanpopularfront
18 June 2012 3:45PM
Rodney King is one of those you know where you were events.....together with 911, Aryton Senna's and Princess Diana's death.....for me anyway.

No it isn't - I've forgotten alread!! Do remember that I was in an Oxford Street shop trying on a pair of jeans when Robert Maxwell was reported missing. cheered me up no end that did!!!

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Cheesearse and Phillywanker you're clearly on the wrong site.. Why put the article on if you're not prepared to back it up - police brutality exists, this was clearly filmed and documented evidence of it, whatever the 'provocation' . No excuse for the violence on King.

If we're playing at semantics, then the original post said 'an afterlife'. The use of 'an', rather than the more decided 'the', certainly implies that the person was hoping there was an afterlife in which he/she hopes that people like Rodney King can find peace. The word if wasn't there, but it was certainly implied.

No mention of God as far as I can see. But then he is supposed to be omnipresent, which might explain why you spotted him in an innocuous comment. I would rather MsBlancheHudson's optimism than your cold attitude even thought personally I do tend towards atheism rather than a belief in an afterlife.

Hi mattytruc

The use of 'an', rather than the more decided 'the', certainly implies that the person was hoping there was an afterlife in which he/she hopes that people like Rodney King can find peace. The word if wasn't there, but it was certainly implied.

'An' is certainly an indefinite article. But I suggest you are over-interpreting in 'certainly' implying 'if'. For example there is not much sign of 'if' in "This is an orange".

Being indefinite, 'an' as applied to 'afterlife' could equally mean whichever one (of several or many) King ends up in. Which certainly suggests afterlives exist (otherwise the statement is meaningless).

It is one of the charms of language that it is inherently ambiguous. Without ambiguity poetry--and much of Cif--would not exist.

Hi mattytruc

Might be just as well to check who you are quoting before quoting them in the future...You don't deny that you basically came here trolling though

You are beating up on the wrong person here. CaptC referenced Heather Mac Donald's article. Have a go at that!

I disagree with many of her positions. But, boy, she is a formidable opponent! It is not good enough simply to dismiss her because she works for a right-wing think tank.

For example:

The best hope for avoiding a repeat of the L.A. mayhem, should blacks not be satisfied with the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case, is that police forces across the country have learned the lesson of the Rodney King riots: that outbreaks of civil anarchy must be immediately and unapologetically suppressed.

We had riots here last summer. Care to argue the case for them NOT being suppressed? They weren't and unnecessary mayhem and destruction spread. Protect the vulnerble. Argue about causes and remedies later, in my view. On these I expect I would profoundly differ with HMcD.

I'm not dismissing Heather MacDonald, what I am saying is that showing up on a Guardian blog with that kind of quote is essentially trolling, especially given the context where Rodney King has just died. I'm not sure you've really read my posts tbh.

Is that really necessary? so you don't agree with MsBlancheHudson, why not try to get along?

LaughingNoam

Its slightly peculiar that you use your subjective opinion about the relevance of reference to fairies etc to a comment about "an" afterlife as though it provides a rational, objective analysis and then you contradict someone who stated their subjective opinion ("for me anyway") on the basis that other people have a different view (i.e. you). Your opinion about things may be of considerable fascination to you but it sheds little light on objective truth.

@sharik

Lack of evidence is objective truth. If there is no evidence for something that people have sought for thousands of years then, objectively, it does not exist.

Peculiar that you tried to tie my two posts together as if they were remotely connected - one was a call for rationalism and skepticism regarding the after-life (whatever that is) and the other was a put down of quite bonkers hype that seemed to be comparing King with Kennedy, Elvis, or that other far more significant King.

@sharik
"Your opinion about things may be of considerable fascination to you"

Why do people have to be so fucking unpleasant to people they happen to disagree with...

I'm tempted to say that such sarcasm means you've lost the argument....