20 years - LA Riots.

[GHook93]

I was living in Redondo Beach when the riots happened. LAPD asked the beach cities for help and the police departments politely told the LAPD to fuck off. Los Angeles didn't pay their salaries. The whole South Bay put up a perimeter from El Segundo to Palos Verdes. No traffic was allowed in from 6pm to 6am. Even the freeway off ramps were closed off. We had a strictly enforced curfew. During the day, every car with a black person in it was stopped and searched. Gasoline found in gas cans was put into the gas tank and the car followed out of town.

My son lived in Long Beach. We didn't have continuous telephone service, Every time one of us got a free line, we'd call the other. He watched the flames from the DMV, then the strip mall across the street from him was torched. He called to tell me that the people in his apartment building took to the rooftop with guns and rifles. That made him feel safe enough to go to bed.

I saw that video of King getting his ass kicked a hundred or more times. The first couple of times I was horrified, then I wondered why he didn't just lay down when he was told to. Why was he continually fighting back?

As far as I can tell, justice was finally served when they found King at the bottom of his swimming pool.

Good insight, but any way you put it there were enough cops on scene to hold him down and cuff him. However, Blacks made it like a White on Black thing, not a cop on civilian thing. Fact: More whites are victims of police brutality than blacks. Even back then. I remember in highschool. A friend of a friend knew of this nearly completed home with electricity, gas and running water in a secluded location and a easy to get in back door. They decided to through a party there. The cops came and everyone ran. One smart ass yelled, "fuck you pigs," thinking he was save because the cops really only appeared to want to dispurse everyone. But that set one of them off, he ran the poor kid down slammed him into the wall and face first into the cement knocking his front teeth out, with bad scraps to his face and teared lip. The kid was 5'2 or 5'3 120-130 and the cop was over 6 foot and easly 180-190. It was well excessive. The poor kid was charged with assault on a police officer, vandalism, breaking and entering. He pleaded out to pay for the damages and nothing happened to the cop. Not a charge, court case or anything. The kid needed reconstructive surgery to his mouth and lip!

 

[FJO]

I am fully convinced that O.J. Simpson was acquitted, because the jurors did not want to see another riot.

 

[WillowTree]

King was an alcoholic wife beater! Most of the time people would applaud a wife beater getting his ass kicked, but after a guy toss a punch a cop and then gets beaten by police officers on tape it's AKO to destroy your neighborhood.

Just like WATTS, the LA ghettos still haven't recovered. Many of those BLACK OWNED businesses never opened again!

King did not riot. You did not read the link. I always disliked King, but when he speaks with media for articles like the one you ignored, he grows on me.

He has many flaws, probably as many as you do.

warts grow on ewe too.

 

[waltky]

Dem cats done covered him up...

Los Angeles riots: Rodney King funeral held
30 June 2012 - Rev Al Sharpton: "He turned the tide and tried to call the country to a better place"

The funeral has taken place in Los Angeles of Rodney King, whose beating by white policemen led to deadly riots in the US city 20 years ago. At the service, King was praised for showing no bitterness to the officers who beat him in 1991. The officers involved in the beating were acquitted the following year, sparking clashes in which 50 died. King was found dead at the bottom of a swimming pool last month at the age of 47. There was no sign of foul play.

'Symbol of forgiveness'

The funeral service was held at Los Angeles' Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills on Saturday. "People should not be judged by the mistakes that they make, but by how they rise above them," Rev Al Sharpton said. "Rodney had risen above his mistakes. He never mocked anyone - not the police, not the justice system, not anyone." Mr King's famous words during the riots "Can we all get along?" were embroidered on the lid of the coffin, next to his portrait. "He became a symbol of forgiveness," Rev Sharpton said. A number of donors helped to pay for the funeral.

LAPD racism

Rodney King's beating at the hands of the police, which left him with brain damage, was filmed by a bystander and shown by media outlets across the world. He had been stopped for speeding on a dark street on 3 March 1991. The four LA police officers who pulled him over hit him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. The iconic images of his beating had a huge impact at the time on an already tense Los Angeles. Eventually, the whole chain of events had a profound impact on the way race was dealt with in the US. King recently told the Los Angeles Times that while he had come to terms with his broader legacy, dealing with the past had not been easy. "Some people feel like I'm some kind of hero," he said. "Others hate me. They say I deserved it. Other people, I can hear them mocking me for when I called for an end to the destruction, like I'm a fool for believing in peace."

A later trial resulted in two of the four officers being jailed. King sued the City of Los Angeles and won $3.8m (£2.5m) compensation. The rioting that gripped LA in the wake of the original not-guilty verdict went on for days, leaving 50 people dead and causing $1bn of damage to the city. The Los Angeles Police Department itself was shown to have serious problems with racism, and instituted an overhaul. King got engaged to one of the jurors from his trial and published a book in 2012 titled The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption. But he also struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, had several brushes with the law over the years, and he eventually lost all his money.

BBC News - Los Angeles riots: Rodney King funeral held