Rodney King Dead at 47

At the bottom of a pool? I envisioned a high speed car chase.

From  Fox News.

Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation’s history, died Sunday. He was 47.

King’s fiancé called 911 at 5:25 a.m. to report that she found him at the bottom of the swimming pool at their home in Rialto, Calif., police Lt. Dean Hardin said.

Officers arrived to find King in the water and unresponsive, with no signs of foul play. He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m, Hardin said.

The San Bernardino County coroner will perform an autopsy within 48 hours.

The 1992 riots, which were set off by the acquittals of the officers who beat King, lasted three days and left 55 people dead, more than 2,000 injured and swaths of Los Angeles on fire. At the height of the violence, King pleaded on television: “Can we all get along?”

King was stopped for speeding on a darkened street on March 3, 1991. Four Los Angeles police officers hit him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns.

A man who had quietly stepped outside his home to observe the commotion videotaped most of it and turned a copy over to a TV station. It was played over and over for the following year, inflaming racial tensions across the country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w-SP7iuM6k

The video was filmed by George Holliday; a resident of the Lake View Terrace apartments, right across the street from where the incident took place. Holliday filmed it from his balcony.

George Holliday

Too bad Holliday wasn’t on hand to video the batshit stupid behavior that got King an ass wupping in the first fucking place.  High on PCP and cocaine, refusing to stop, high speed car chase, refusing to exit the car… I would have beat his dumb black ass too.

After the LAPD officers were acquitted, the urban vermin in Los Angeles promptly rioted, looted, shot up, and burned their own neighborhoods.  Typical lowlifes. More anger than brains.

King’s maudlin “Can’t we all just get along?” tripe was answered by Derrick Bell, Obama’s radical leftwing professor/friend, with a resounding “NO”.

The LA animals also almost beat to death a truck driver, Reginald Denny, who got caught in the middle of the violence:

Of the six thugs who attacked Denny–Damian Williams, Henry Watson, Antoine Miller and Gary Williams, Anthony Brown and Lance Parker, all but two had extensive criminal records.

All of the cases involving the Denny assault resulted in a hung jury except a felony count of mayhem for Eight Tray Gangster member Damian Williams, who was sentenced to a maximum of ten years in prison, but released on “good behavior” after serving just four years.  In 2003, he received a life sentence for murdering a drug dealer in July, 2000. He’ll be eligible for parole after he serves 47 years. So much for good behavior.

Antoine Miller was shot and killed in a Hollywood nightclub on February 1, 2004.

Gary Williams (no relation to Damian Williams) plead guilty to charges of robbery and assault in the spring of 1993 and was sentenced to 3 years.  He was an habitual crack addict and is usually seen panhandling at a local gas station.

Anthony Brown was also a member of Eight Tray Gangster Crips.  I’m sure he’s either in prison or dead.

Henry Watson is an ex convict who did time for robbery prior to the attack. He now operates a limousine service, and is wallowing in race victimology as an excuse for his hate crime.

King himself had a lengthy criminal record before and after the beating:

Source: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.

The Arrest Record of Rodney King

Rodney King’s criminal history played a large role in the high-speed chase that led to his arrest, in his controversial and violent arrest, and in the trials that followed.  King explained his decision to flee–at a speed exceeding 110 mph–from CHP officers as resulting from a fear that his arrest for speeding would lead to a revocation of his parole and a return to prison: “I was scared of going back to prison and I just kind of thought the problem would just go away.”  Sergeant Stacey Koon, the supervising officer at King’s arrest, concluded (correctly, it turned out) from King’s “buffed out appearance” that he was most likely an ex-con who had been working out on prison weights–and assumed therefore that he was a dangerous character.  Finally, it was King’s criminal history that explained the decision of prosecutors to keep him off the witness stand.  If King testified, defense attorneys would be allowed to present the jury with his record of arrests–a record that might influence their deliberations.

Many of King’s problems with the law stem from his serious drinking problem.  According to his parole officer, Tim Fowler, King “was a basically decent guy with borderline intelligence….His problem was alcoholism.” (Cannon, p40.)

King’s Trouble with the Law Prior to His Beating

July 27, 1987:  According to a complaint filed by his wife, King beat her while she was sleeping, then dragged her outside the house and beat her again. King was charged with battery and pleaded “no contest.”  He was placed on probation and ordered to obtain counseling.  He never got the counseling.

November 3, 1989: King, brandishing a tire iron, ordered a convenience store clerk to empty the cash register.  The clerk grabbed the tire iron, causing King to fall backwards and knock over a pie rack.  King swung the rack at the clerk and fled the store with $200.  King was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, second-degree robbery, and intent to commit great bodily injury.  In a plea agreement, King pleaded guilty to the robbery charge and the other charges were dropped.  He was sentenced to two years in prison, but was paroled on December 27, 1990.

The Arrest of Rodney King on March 3, 1991

March 3, 1991:  After being seen speeding on the 210 freeway by CHP officers, King led them on a chase at speeds estimated at up to 110 to 115 mph.  When finally stopped, King refused requests to get into the prone position and appeared to charge one of the officers.  He was beaten and arrested.  King was charged with felony evading.  Charges were later dropped.King’s 3/3/91 Arrest Record

King’s Trouble with the Law After March 3, 1991

May 11, 1991:  King was pulled over for having an excessively tinted windshield.  Although King was driving without a license and his car registration had expired, King was not charged.

May 28, 1991: King picked up a transvestite prostitute in Hollywood who happened to be under surveillance by LAPD officers.  King and the prostitute were observed in an alley engaging in sexual activity.  When the prostitute spotted the officers, King sped away, nearly hitting one of them.  King later explained that he thought the vice officers were robbers trying to kill him.  No charges were filed.

June 26, 1992:  King’s second wife reported to police that King had hit her and she feared for her life.  King was handcuffed and taken to a police station, but his wife then decided against pressing charges.

July 16, 1992:  King was arrested at 1:40 A.M. for driving while intoxicated.  No charges were filed.

August 21, 1993: King crashed into a wall near a downtown Los Angeles nightclub.  He had a blood alcohol level of 0.19.  King was charged with violating his parole and sent for sixty day to an alcohol treatment center.  He was also convicted on the DUI charge and ordered to perform twenty days of community service.

May 21, 1995:  King was arrested for DUI while on a trip to Pennsylvania.  King failed field sobriety tests, but refused to submit to a blood test.  He was tried and acquitted.

July 14, 1995:  King got into an argument with his wife while he was driving, pulled off the freeway and ordered her out of the car.  When she started to get out, King sped off, leaving her on the highway with a bruised arm.  King was charged with assault with a deadly weapon (his car), reckless driving, spousal abuse, and hit-and-run.  King was tried on all four charges, but found guilty only of hit-and-run driving.

March 3, 1999:  King allegedly injured the sixteen-year-old girl that he had fathered out of wedlock when he was seventeen, as well as the girl’s mother.  King was arrested for injuring the woman, the girl, and for vandalizing property.  King claimed that the incident was simply “a family misunderstanding.”

September 29, 2001:  King was arrested for indecent exposure and use of the hallucinogenic drug PCP.

King’s crime spree and sorry excuse for a life has finally come to an end.

Good riddance.

Related articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Oliver_Denny
http://www.thefullwiki.org/Reginald_Denny_incident
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1614117,00.html
http://www.american-partisan.com/cols/2001/rollins/qtr4/1116.htm