17 replies to this topic

[Chavez]

http://www.cnn.com/2...king/index.html

[tazinib1]

"The violence ceased, but the...."

[BeeR]

Quote

"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."

:vomit:  Could someone pls throw this circus clown off a cliff already.   Gee funny how Al doesn't mention all the riots etc.  I guess they were OK.  

It was his beating that made America focus on the lunacy/idiocy that is L.A.

[tazinib1]

Somebody needs to beat Al Sharpton inches from death just out of principle.

[Big John]

If spain was still here

[Ditkaless Wonders]

Rodney king was a scum bucket.  He was a dreg.  He was stupid, dangerous, and useless.  That he became an accidental tourist, a sidenote, to the civil rights story is nothing more than cruel irony.

[moneymakers]

It was Bush's fault.

[Trojanmojo]

BeeR, on 17 June 2012 - 02:01 PM, said:

:vomit:  Could someone pls throw this circus clown off a cliff already.   Gee funny how Al doesn't mention all the riots etc.  I guess they were OK.  

It was his beating that made America focus on the lunacy/idiocy that is L.A.

And it's your posts that make the huddle focus on the idiocy that is BeeR.

[tazinib1]

And of course Sharpton makes no mention of Reginald Denny. Typical Sharpton....scumbag.

[untateve]

Quote

The 25-year-old, on parole from a robbery conviction had been drinking, which he later said led him to try to evade police. He was finally stopped by four Los Angeles police officers who struck him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. He was left with 11 skull fractures, a broken eye socket and facial nerve damage.

[bushwacked]

Ditkaless Wonders, on 17 June 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

Rodney king was a scum bucket.  He was a dreg.  He was stupid, dangerous, and useless.  

I was never a fan of Rodney King, but I don't think I've seen such harsh personal criticism subsequent to death on these boards directed to the likes of Saddam or Osama Bin Laden (I'm pretty sure that BeeR guy complained about Bin Laden being killed).

A crack head was illegally beat and became a generational symbol; I fail to see how this generates such personal vitriol and hatred towards him, but it obviously does.  

I can only come to the conclusion that some of you guys have a very tiny penis and have been gang raped by George Clinton and the P-funk All Star Band.

[SayItAintSoJoe]

tazinib1, on 17 June 2012 - 09:01 PM, said:

And of course Sharpton makes no mention of Reginald Denny. Typical Sharpton....scumbag.

Did Reginald Denny die too?

[TripleW64]

The man just died. Can't believe all the venom coming out. I'm pretty sure Rodney King did not ask police officers to kick his ass so that he could get 15 minutes of fame. Just as Reginald Denny didn't ask to be smashed in the head with a brick so that he could be on TV. And as far as I can remember, Rodney did not yell "Let's riot!" I don't see how he can be labeled as "stupid, dangerous, and useless". Bottom line is the guy died at a young age.

[Ditkaless Wonders]

bushwacked, on 18 June 2012 - 04:46 AM, said:

I was never a fan of Rodney King, but I don't think I've seen such harsh personal criticism subsequent to death on these boards directed to the likes of Saddam or Osama Bin Laden (I'm pretty sure that BeeR guy complained about Bin Laden being killed).

A crack head was illegally beat and became a generational symbol; I fail to see how this generates such personal vitriol and hatred towards him, but it obviously does.  

I can only come to the conclusion that some of you guys have a very tiny penis and have been gang raped by George Clinton and the P-funk All Star Band.

An interesting conclusion based upon the data.  I believe it speaks to your personality and to your reasoning abilities.

[detlef]

Ditkaless Wonders, on 18 June 2012 - 05:01 PM, said:

An interesting conclusion based upon the data.  I believe it speaks to your personality and to your reasoning abilities.

Either that or very few people have been crapped on like that upon dying around these parts.  Perish the thought that you kind of acted like an ass?

[Ditkaless Wonders]

You are certainly entitled to your opinion.

My memory of King is not as a civil rights symbol but as a man who came to public notice for striking a Korean store owner with a pipe in a strong arm robbery.  He was sentenced to jail and emerged on parole with the condition of no alcohol use and of course no further violations of the law.  He celebrated his release by becoming intoxicated and going out for a drive with two other fellows.  When noticed by the police he lead them on a high speed highway chase and then a high speed chase through residential neighborhoods endangering himself, his passengers, the police, and the residents of those neighborhoods. He did this to avoid the consequences of his actions knowing it would violate his parole, which is, after all, something he agreed to but he was not as good as his promise.  When he finally stopped his passengers followed lawful orders and were detained without incident.  Mr. King, by comparison, chose to fight with the officers.  Those Officers, in my opinion, used poor tactics  and employed excessive force.  That the situation was precipitated by King's choices does not excuse their behavior, but his unlawful behavior was a fact.  He was clearly a victim of the police, but he was equally a victim of himself.

In the ensuing years I remember Mr King coming to public attention another three or four times for driving under the influence thereby endangering lives yet again.  I am fine if a man wants to medicate his own demons, but I am most certainly not fine when he repeatedly puts others at risk while doing so.  I remember another time where he was involved in a hit and run incident, but not with another vehicle, the incident involved him running into a woman, his wife I believe.

Nope, Rodney King is no symbol of the civil rights movement.  He is a symbol of a life wasted and of a burden to society and a danger to those around him.  I feel no compunction to sugar coat his actions upon his death.  Were I speaking to his loved ones I would hold my opinions out of respect for their feelings, but I will not do so in a general discussion.  I have noticed the trend here to this false sense of propriety involving respect for the dead as if one were directly slapping family members of the deceased during their time of grief.  I don't subscribe to that propriety as I don't believe anyone here is grieving over this man, or if they are I believe it is false grief to try to establish some false moral high ground.  Death, which is inevitable, does not change history nor require that it be ignored.

Just my opinion, and one to which I am as entitled as you are to yours.  You will notice that I don't question your personality for disagreeing with me as I did with Bushwhacked.  Your disagreement was straight forward and even tempered by the modifier "sort of".  His disagreement and disapproval devolved rather quickly to thinking about genitalia size and gang rape by 70's Funk bands.  There is a qualitative difference in the approaches.  

BTW, as to Bootsy Collins, well in his case it just might not need to be rape.

Edited by Ditkaless Wonders, 19 June 2012 - 07:32 AM.

[SayItAintSoJoe]

Ditkaless Wonders, on 18 June 2012 - 11:47 PM, said:

Nope, Rodney King is no symbol of the civil rights movement.

To you he is not, but to many he is.  Maybe not so much the man as the incident itself.  The incident brought to light police brutality and the racial divisions that often exist between the police and the African-American community.  I don't believe that RK was the first black man to ever be treated with excessive force by the LAPD, just the first one to be caught on tape in that manner.

IMO, he is no hero or someone to look up by any stretch of the imagination.  I don’t dispute your characterization of the man at all.  Odds are that if a citizen was going to be part of an incident that exposed excessive force being used by police it was going to be someone with either a criminal past or engaging in some type of criminal behavior.  However, if the incident helped to improve the treatment of African Americans by the police, a relationship that many feel has been very oppressive throughout our country's history, then I can see why many would consider the incident a symbol of the civil rights movement.

Besides, symbols are subjective.  What is a symbol to one man, may mean nothing to another.

Edited by SayItAintSoJoe, 19 June 2012 - 10:10 AM.

[Ditkaless Wonders]

SayItAintSoJoe, on 19 June 2012 - 10:09 AM, said:

To you he is not, but to many he is.  Maybe not so much the man as the incident itself.  The incident brought to light police brutality and the racial divisions that often exist between the police and the African-American community.  I don't believe that RK was the first black man to ever be treated with excessive force by the LAPD, just the first one to be caught on tape in that manner.

IMO, he is no hero or someone to look up by any stretch of the imagination.  I don’t dispute your characterization of the man at all.  Odds are that if a citizen was going to be part of an incident that exposed excessive force being used by police it was going to be someone with either a criminal past or engaging in some type of criminal behavior.  However, if the incident helped to improve the treatment of African Americans by the police, a relationship that many feel has been very oppressive throughout our country's history, then I can see why many would consider the incident a symbol of the civil rights movement.

Besides, symbols are subjective.  What is a symbol to one man, may mean nothing to another.

I would not dispute a single word of your well expressed posting.