Rodney King: Why Beating Him Wasn't Enough
Rodney King, to many, is the ultimate symbol of a long, seething corruption and misuse of oppressive force that has dragged down our society and put us into a state of undeclared war with our neighbors. His beating by four white LAPD officers and their subsequent acquittal sparked massive riots, and King went on to become a touring speaker on the issue of racial discrimination and police brutality.
And what's Rodney King doing these days? Getting shot in the back while riding his bike away from would-be thieves. Drunk. I'm really hoping he parleys this incident into a speaking tour as well, because it sounds way more interesting than racial equality.
At the end of the article, you can find an exhaustive list of the ways in which King has failed to live up to his accidental role model status, but highlights include:
In short, he has done everything in his power since the time of his beating to convince me that he should have been beaten. Maybe not for the reasons he was beaten, but the point is he had a beating coming. Maybe a few shotgun pellets to the back will convince him its time to ease up, but Id put better odds on another PCP-related vehicular manslaughter attempt.
Here's something funny. Rodney King got off easy with a beating. The thing you don't see on the tape is before that he tried to grab an officer's gun. He's lucky he didn't get blown away. Silly drug-addicts.
ReplyAre u freakin serious I admit he hasent done a justice to the name he created for himself but what happened to him was wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong no if ands or butts
ReplyCRACKED MEMBER SHUT THE f**k UP YOUVE COMMENTED THE PAST 50 GODDAMN TIMES NOBODY GIVES A s**t
ebony...shut the hell up its a comedy site... and second off i don't give a damn what you think obama is...hes a damn terrorist and if youd look into the constitution which you claim to know hes taking away our right AKA the 2nd ammendment and it even goes as far as to say in doing so you are a traitor and hes a damn socialist anyways. O and fun fact regarding Rodney King and racial equality, blacks make up 1/9th of our population and manage to commit 83% of our crime. makes you think don't it?
ReplyFuck you with a molten, splintered dildo. I bet your dick's so small that you couldn't even pleasure an ant. I hope someone shoots you in the balls with a Smith and Wesson .50 cal at point blank. And also, your mom was raped and is now pregnant.
Purple Monkey Dishwasher.
ReplyWhy are people afraid of Obama? Why does it matter that his father was a Muslim? I thought there is something in the Constitution about separating state and religion...This are the kind of people blinded by hatred and armed with religion "religion extremist" that cause all the trouble in the world. There is no single word in the Bible and in the Quran that supports violence and hatred!!! Why is it so hard for some people to accept that a black person could be a president regardless of his or her religion. I thought America is the land of the "free"; we are all immigrants or children of immigrants and there is no wright full owner of this great land, except for native Americans. We are all travelers in this world, passerby's and why do we keep fighting for the world that is not rightfully ours? Why do we generate so much hatred, to intoxicate our short lives here on earth. I don't know what Rodney King did, but what ever he did the police brutality is not justified. It is not up to the police to bring justice, that's why we have courts people!!! The most dangerous people in this world are people who think that they are better that everybody else because of their ethnicity or religion. These people are the most ignorant and cancerous part of our society.
Reply"people should not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character" Martin Luther King Jr.
Rodney King was beaten because of the "content of HIS character".... I don't see a problem here. I also believe that he has a few more beatings coming because he is a dim-witted sociopath with no respect for others. Paint him any color you want, he is still a turd. If my own brother acted like Rodney King, I would want him beaten.
It's sad to know that because of this beating 50 or more people were killed during the riots. Rodney King should be beaten like that every month for is actions afterwards. Sometimes I just shake my head at this country and what it has become. America where have you gone? Where have the Americans gone? Why is Obama our president? Are we to become a Socialist country? Obama, King..........go kill yourselves you worthless bitches.
ReplyI hate to keep takin up space on here but I've noticed something else......I have noticed in some of the above comments some mention of the "N" word. .........If we want to make the "N" word a bad word that is forebade in our everyday language.., why is it that it's only brought up as being bad when white people say it? Hmm? How come it is ok for rappers to use this word so liberally and put it on record shelves for our children to buy? Sounds to me like the rappers are the ones teaching our kids how to use the infamous "N" word. If you want to make it a "bad word", then everybody should be penalized for using it...not just white people...that is fair. cut and dry..there cannot possibly be a legitamate argument about that..It is impossible.. Do you ever see on national headlines where a black guy called a white guy the "C" word (cracker)? No, you don't. I guess we are just suppossed to live with that? Starting to sound like we are the minorities here...Hmm? Sounds like we are the ones getting abused...Hmm? Oh yeah, I want my fucking money back!
ReplyBy the way,...when is the next census? Hmm? I'm ready to see who the real minorities are. I'm so fucking tired of hearing " We are minorities, we need help, give us free money". Here is the simple yet effective solution; Get off of your lazy dead-beat ass and get a fucking job! You will find that this may help support the 15 head of kids you now have. Oh yeah, and does everybody remember when some idiot wanted to pass a law to get "ebonics" (the black language I guess) in our school system? To make it a part of our childrens education to be forced to learn a type of language to communicate with people too goddamn lazy to open their mouthes and fully utilize the english language? What the fuck are you thinking? The American language is ENGLISH. Learn it or get the fuck out! I don't care what color you are. Let's talk of how Rodney King was abused....I don't fuck with anyone here where I live. I give eveyone the benefit of the doubt no matter what their color until proven wrong.....I garauntee you that if I walk through the black section of town I will get mugged...maybe even killed...If this happened do you think I would make national headlines? No. Why? Because America is so scared that making a big deal out of something like that would case another fucking riot and cost billions of dollars( just like the LA riots). DUMB FUCKING PEOPLE ARE WHAT CAUSE THE PROBLEMS IN THIS WORLD. Believe what you will, I am not racist. Like I previously stated, I give everyone that benefit of the doubt no matter what their color.
ReplyI'm sorry but I have to say again...how can you, in your right mind think that "hey, I bet if we burn down the places we eat and shop at that will teach em" is an idea from a person with any common sense, you are sadly mistaken. By the way......I feel that the President of the United States of America should be patriotic and believe in what the flag stands for....In short, Obama is a fucking Muslim. Obama showed just how American he was when not standing for the National Anthem at that baseball game. Here is another case of lack of common sense.."I will vote for Obama just because he is black. That will surely teach the white man. Who gives a fuck that he may as well wrap a towel around his head and speak a different language. Just as long as he is black. That is all that matters." God forgive that we vote for someone like John McCain who is a fucking Vietnam war hero, shot down in the jungle and later became a POW trying to protect the very country that he BELIEVES in. Yeah, fuck John McCain. Why would I ever vote for him? Let's just all vote for Obama because he is black, or for Hillary because she is a woman. This is the future of our country people! Get your head out of your asses and think about some long term shit, not just what makes you feel good to say!!
ReplyMichael I totally agree with your article, however I feel that you have only scratched the surface. In some of the other comments left here I have noticed that some say he was beaten because he was black. I don't bloody think so. Let's for a moment pretend that we were one of those police officers that night, and for kicks and gigles let's pretend that the suspect was white. If it would have been me and I instructed that suspect to get on the ground and he resisted arrest, I would follow protocol. Why, I would'nt know what kind of weapon he had on his person or anything. Furthermore, after I or one of my fellow officers hit him with the stun gun and he continued to get up, I would very much give him a baton to the head! Now with all that being said, we all know that he was not an upstanding , law abiding citizen before or after the beatings so let's forget about him for he is a useless waste of breath. Let's talk about the idiots who burned down their own damn city! What a bunch of dumb fucks. I'm just glad I was'nt cruising through one of those intersections that day because I would probably be in prison right now for defending myself! You see, that's why you never hear of shit like that happening here in Georgia. We live by an honest creedo here..."Don't start no shit, won't be no shit". If I catch you stealing my t.v., vcr, or anything else that belongs to me, I will gun your ass down. If I catch you trying to burn down my business, I will gun your ass down. I could go on and on so I will stop now. Just remember, dumb ignorant ass people cause problems like this.
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ah, looked up godwin's law. i take your point (that i'm going to the most extreme comparison), but in this case it's an appropriate analogy. we're discussing police brutality and racism, and thus comparisons to the Nazis are reasonable. at any rate, there are many other examples of dominant or near-dominant cultural/religious/political groups horribly mistreating others precisely because they believe the state must reflect their values or identity (look at the english civil war, the thirty years' war, iraq today, rwanda or yugoslavia a few years ago). i think minorities and people with mixed identities especially have a role to play in blurring the lines of identity and undermining the idea that the state should support any one group's identity or values at the expense of everyone else's. for instance i'm inclined to vote for Obama *because* he's black and there are Muslims in his family (or whatever), regardless of his actual policies.
Replywhat i don't get is, why would anyone identify with a conservative sense of group identity, given the choice of a more liberal outlook? do you guys actually think that jesus loves you better for your chaw, baseball bats, and giant pickup trucks?
For the record, I'm not a conspiracy theorist (that's Crazy Cody). I also don't worship Gore. I don't particularly have a close relationship with trees. I do consider communism an interesting philosophy, but I realize that it doesn't work in practice. I don't think I'm particularly sanctimonious. I don't claim to be a good guy or more holy than anyone else. I'm just honestly afraid that the Republican party is going to start taking steps to terrorize and oppress anyone who doesn't fit their concept of what an American is. I don't really know why you're trying to argue with me, and I don't know what Godwin's law is. Can you explain to me why I SHOULDN'T see Republican redneck assholes as a threat? I can't understand why anyone would wave an American flag (or for that matter, get off on Rodney King's degraded state) for any other reason than to ostentatiously display hostility to the rest of the human race. I am pretty clear that there are terrorists and other types "out there" who would harm me just for being an American, but I'm also clear that there are vicious, sadistic assholes living right down the street from me who would harm me for not living up to their White, Christian, Conservative, Patriotic worldview. They're the real threat, and I'm willing to make common cause with anybody who is not White, Christian, Conservative, and Patriotic to fight these fucks. I don't know if you guys are just baiting me to show your cynical cleverness and superiority, but how about taking a risk and declaring where the fuck YOU stand, douchebags?
ReplyHey Matt, you're wasting your time here. Too much fluoride in these people's water.
ReplyJust out of curiosity, how people here realize Al-Qaeda is part of the CIA?
watch some Alex Jones documentaries.
"as can clearly be seen from the example of Nazi Germany"
ReplyI invoke Godwin's law. But only because my ribs hurt like hell, and the only thing more annoying than "flag-waving Bush-voting pseudo-Christian crypto-Nazi assholes" are tree-hugging, Gore-worshiping, self-sanctimonious, faux-Liberal, closet-commie asshats.
kyle: what's the deal? seriously. are you trying to say that there should be a safe space where you can enjoy racism without getting called on it? or are you trying to say that this whole thread didn't start off racist, fascist, and plain dumb? you're calling me a sad dork for lecturing you, but your first post was to call me a nerd and a homosexual. you haven't shown any evidence of actually having anything to say, only that you want me to shut up. i've been figuring that puts you in the same category as apocowarg, who called me a loudmouth jew. i'll grant that i could have been misreading swaim's original intent, but you're not even making a case for yourself as anything other than a bigot and a bully.
Replyoh, except you do complement me on my "eloquence" and then envision me jacking off to my own intellect. do you really think my point here was to lecture or to talk over somebody's head? i think i made myself pretty goddamn clear. yes, i have an education but i'm making a really practical, down to earth point: a lot of white Christians in this country have the mistaken attitude that this country belongs to them alone, and these people are fucking dangerous. they're the same kind of people who historically have made oppressive dictatorships possible. there are plenty of ignorant and vicious people around who are not white or Christian, but they don't have significant enough numbers to directly threaten me (Al Qaeda or the boys in the hood notwithstanding).
i don't know who you are or what you're all about, and i don't really care what you think of me personally - i just hope that if it came down to a civil war in this country between conservative white Christian fascists and everybody else, you would make a decision just on basic liberal principles and common sense to step up on the right side.
How about this - the blog was about what you said, "Yes, Rodney King is probably a useless piece of shit..." What else is there to discuss on a CRACKED comment board? Why don't you shut the fuck up about it? King was given power to advance the ideals you so beautifully and eloquently write about, and he squandered the shit out of it. That's it. What else is the blog about? Never was it about the police's over-use of force and whether it was justified. Dude, are you such a fucking sad dork that you come on to this site and lecture everyone about our misguided feelings toward racial equality? Seriously, I really envision you unloading all over the computer screen every time you hit enter and show the world, er, CRACKED blog, how smart you are.
ReplyMatt: Insofar as your arguments are considered on the merits, I concede they are not without value. However, I believe we must heed the words of Heidegger, who famously stated, "you are a big poopy-pants."
ReplySwaim: your response is actually interesting. Giger once said that "art is a lie that makes us realize the truth". comedy is a form of art, but your comedy apparently fails to make anyone realize anything. not sure why you bother. i'm not asking anyone to apologize for being "offensive" - that's not the point at all. I'm saying that if you can't think your way out of the bullshit of racial ideology, you don't deserve to draw breath. And to all the sophomoric comebacks that accuse me of inconsistency, I simply say that it's not inconsistent to be intolerant of intolerance. A belief that Blacks or Jews are inferior or that fascist policies are justified isn't just a political persuasion, it's a direct threat to me. Equality is an important and valuable political goal that requires the willfully ignorant to be forced to submit to the truth.
ReplyLet's be clear here - crime by young black men is a threat to the social order; I myself was mugged by two young gangster wannabes with a gun. I want the cops to catch them and send them to jail. But I also want the cops to be overseen by judicial and other restraints, because young white men with badges are an even bigger threat to the social order, as can clearly be seen from the example of Nazi Germany. This isn't about my feelings being hurt or who used a taboo word; it's also not about me being self-righteous (my position is as compromised and impure as anybody's); this is about the constant, everpresent danger from potential fascists (like many of the assholes who post here) who honestly don't understand the nature of the society they find themselves in, and fall back on self-justification or pseudo-humor out of laziness and a basic hostility to intellectual effort. Yes, Rodney King is probably a useless piece of shit, but so are most of those who think of themselves as solid hardworking Americans. Anybody who cares about making America a decent place to live needs to take sides against all the flag-waving Bush-voting pseudo-Christian crypto-Nazi assholes who think America belongs to them. Probably I am in the minority, and this country is totally fucked. Like most countries in the world. But for a few hundred years we had a shot at being better than Iran or Germany or Israel or Serbia or any of these other ridiculous places. I'm just stating for the record that if you think the current system is fair or that America belongs to white Christians, you are part of the trend that will eventually turn this place into an unlivable fascist shithole.
I don't think the problem with Matt is so much that he's Jewish or a complete nerd, but the fact that he's gay.
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