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Rodney King Anniversary: Beating, Police, Riots & Celebrity

by Sudha Krishna | March 2, 2010 at 07:58 pm

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Rodney King Beating Anniversary: March 3rd 1991: Police Beating, The Riots, Celebrity Boxing and Celebrity Rehab.

Rodney King's Beating by a group of Los Angeles police officers was captured by a plumber George Holliday with his video camera. On that fateful day in March, Rodney King had been speeding and allegedly resisting arrest but the evidence of Rodney King being beaten, captured on video tape told a different story

The Rodney King beating video tape, in the pre-Youtube and a still new internet, spread like wildfire on TV, a grim testimony of police brutality in Los Angeles and a lightning rod for politics and race in America.

Ultimately four Los Angeles police officers were charged with assault by the Los Angeles district attorney.

On April 29, 1992, the jury acquitted three of the officers, but could not agree about one of the charges for Powell.[1]

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said, "the jury's verdict will not blind us to what we saw on that videotape. The men who beat Rodney King do not deserve to wear the uniform of the L.A.P.D."[18]

The acquittal of the L.A. Police Officers triggered a series of awful race riots the consumed Los Angeles for days.

It took the U.S. Military to restore order after the Rodney King Riots which resulted in 53 deaths, over 2 thousand injuries and a $1 billion in damages. The death, damage and destruction that hit Los Angeles caused the celebrity King to utter the now famous phrase "...can't we all just get along?"

On the 15th anniversary of the Rodney King beating and LA Riots that resulted, Time magazine described what became of Rodney King this way

His sudden fame didn't make things much easier for King. He did win $3.8 million in damages from the City of Los Angeles for the beating incident, but much of it went into starting a rap record label, Straight Alta-Pazz Records, which soon folded. Over the next several years, he was arrested for various charges, including convictions for drunk driving and domestic abuse. He moved from Los Angeles to suburban Rialto to live quietly with his family.

More recently, Rodney King returned to the spotlight in a celebrity boxing match where he fought a police officer and Kind did a stint with Dr, Drew in celebrity rehab.

More Rodney King Stories

Rodney King Shot

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Rory Cripps

at 21:15 on March 2nd, 2010

And the best part is:

People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids?...It’s just not right. It’s not right. It’s not, it’s not going to change anything. We’ll, we’ll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to work it out

YankeeJim

at 04:02 on March 3rd, 2010

Rodney King was not a personally great example, except in his role of victim of police brutaility and his emergance with a plea for people to get along. That plea transcended beyond the police and community relationship to all people in the Los Angeles area. Many people felt sorry for Rodney King and felt disdain toward a police department that had become out of control and unresponsive to civilian governance.

That incident was a tipping point toward improvement. It changed peoples attitudes, and I suspect because we are still discussing it, the audience impacted by King's appeal has grown extensively.