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 it’s time to ease up, but I’d put better odds on another PCP-related vehicular manslaughter attempt.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 8:00 am and is filed under News, Rodney King. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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August 18th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
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?
March 25th, 2009 at 7:00 am
Purple Monkey Dishwasher.
November 29th, 2008 at 4:49 am
Why 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.
“people should not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character” Martin Luther King Jr.
November 9th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
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.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I 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!
February 5th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
By 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.
February 5th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I’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!!
February 5th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Michael 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.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
windows vista ultimate logo…
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January 20th, 2008 at 8:09 am
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.
what 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?
January 18th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
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?
January 8th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Hey Matt, you’re wasting your time here. Too much fluoride in these people’s water.
Just out of curiosity, how people here realize Al-Qaeda is part of the CIA?
watch some Alex Jones documentaries.
January 7th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
“as can clearly be seen from the example of Nazi Germany”
I 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.
December 14th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
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.
oh, 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.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
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.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:04 am
Matt: 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.”
December 11th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Swaim: 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.
Let’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.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
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.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Dude…matt levy is a douchebag…I guess I forgot how much I wanted america to explode because there were right wingers there…knuckleheads lol…I love your diatribe on “equality” which is then followed by a complete intolerance for anyone who is of a different political persuasion, even a wish for them to die…and whos the Hitler here? Fucking douchenozzle.
December 4th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
This sort of ties in with the likes of the Jema 6, I don’t care if you are white or black, if you don’t want to be punished by law enforment then as famously said “Quit breaking the law, asshole!”
December 4th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Sorry Michael, I do understand that this site carries the intention to be as tasteless as it can be and I don’t mean to be patronizing or self-righteous about race (given that I am white). But I do have a sensitive emotional reflex to any comments about race or rape and I get frustrated when I hear a lot of tasteless jokes regarding either. Otherwise my sense of humor is pretty broad. Again, not to be patronizing but I’m sure on some level you know where I’m coming from on the issue of race. Thank you for your clarification
December 4th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
I was out of town all week and JUST read these comments. Awesome.
To anyone who hated the thing, know that I wrote it in twenty minutes to try and make some people laugh during their morning coffee break. I am a black man myself (CRACKED editors asked me to use a different photo as my avatar; they don’t care for “darkies”), and I think the fact that you’re on a humor site that constantly states things like “Pope Benedict rode a car made of skulls” and “Zombies are going to kill us all” is preface enough that we’re all just douchebags recycling stale nigger jokes without me having to apologize for it.
Sympathy for the just cause of racial equality is not mutually exclusive with a sense of humor, no matter how often you masturbate to your own self-righteousness. If you really want to get rid of me, shut the fuck up. The success of a blog post is generally measured by the number of comments it receives. So, thanks for the publicity!
To those who liked the article, tune in next week for my piece about how some of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were actually money-grubbing shysters (sorry, Matt, but you should have copywrited that one; welcome to the industry).
December 4th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
PARANOOIIIIIAAA!!!
December 4th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Loudmouth Jew? I thought we’d finished with Amy Winehouse earlier in the week.
December 4th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Yes, a novel where the loudmouth jew just WON’T shut up.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Attempting to read these comments is like being forced to read a really bad novel.
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Matt ,No I completely got your point. I was stating that by using the N word you were undermining you’re own argument. Also, because I agreed with you for the most part I was nice enough not to point out that your statement that , “And if you can’t get behind the basic principle that we all need to work for a society that is rational and fair, then I’d rather see you get shot by thugs, or beaten by cops, or blown to bits by Al-Qaeda, because I don’t want to have to share my country with right wing dumbasses who don’t understand what America is really all about.” So basically you are saying that if you don’t agree with me and my opinions I don’t want to live in the same country as you?!! WTF
Yeah, that sentiment really typifies the American ideals of equality and a fair, tolerant and a reasonable society.
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
UH, If we can’t all get along ,can someone please tell me where I can score some PCP?
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:59 pm
DesertElephant? Equality? Do you really buy that? Yeah, of course slavery (in america) is something of the past. But you obviously haven’t been looking closely enough at american society (or the criminal justice system for that matter) to realize that those past injustices are still alive today. Do you think that just because there is some amendment in the constitution endowing universal civil rights that everything has become magically egalitarian? Because that’s what I’ve construed from your arguement. I used to hold this same naive belief that you do until I lived and worked in the worst poverty stricken black neighborhoods on the east side of Buffalo NY and let me tell you, shit is not equal.
We don’t have plantations anymore, but we do have horrible and inequitous mills, factories, warehouses and sewage treatment plants whose company policies border on criminal negligence and don’t tell me black people aren’t trying hard enough, whatever you say of that sorts is just privilege dribbling out of your mouth.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Um, Tom…. Bullshit. It’s the constant statement that the Black man is locked in his shackles still that keeps the community from enjoying the Equality they were endowed with, were granted and earned as well. We don’t have Plantations anymore. No one in the past, at least 6, generations or more in my family ever owned a slave, and no one that I know, for at least 6 generations or more in their family, were ever slaves. So put that tired shit to rest, stop making excuses, and just let people get on with their lives without the requisite bullshit attached to them to dull the merit of their own achievements.
And King deserved the beat down, not because of his color, but because the actions that occurred well before the tape rolled. Just as I’d support a white, Red, Yellow, Orange. Purple, etc. person to get their shit tore up had they done the same.
Wanker.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
A Parent: You completely missed the point of what I was saying. Whether or not we use or scrupulously avoid words like kike, redskin, nigger, or whatever is completely irrelevant to anything. Use of racial slurs has become a sort of “hip rebellion” trope (for instance South Park) precisely because of the argument you’re making, which makes them forbidden and therefore tempting. And perhaps I was using them for shock value and to draw attention to what almost everyone else here was doing, which is to basically reiterate a bunch of vicious stereotypes about African Americans, demonstrate how Rodney King fits those stereotypes, and therefore argue (somewhat indirectly) that this undermines the demand of African Americans in general for equal rights. Clearly, even though it has become a social taboo to use the word “nigger”, the forces of racism are perfectly capable of wearing away at egalitarian values *without* using it, and I wanted to point out that this is what these people were up to. Is that really so hard to figure out?
When people make anti-semitic comments around me, one of the strategies I often use is to make more and more horrific jokes about the holocaust. This doesn’t serve to dehumanize Jews, but to remind knuckleheads that racism is insane. I had hoped to make more progress here in arguing the simple point that gloating over King’s personal failings is NOT actually funny (or relevant) unless you start with a set of racist, fascist assumptions that make you a danger to yourself and others. Instead, I’m defending myself against someone else who clearly believes in racial equality but is too literalistic to understand the multiple uses of language.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:33 am
Mr. Swaim, it seems very easy for you to make this justification given that, as I assume from your picture next to the bitterly insulting link to this article, you are an american white man. Now I’m not saying that what Rodney King has been up to lately is in any way forgivable because he’s a black man living in america and that he deserves special rights, but I do believe that your criticism might be a little bit more tempered had you a better understanding that there has been no american dream for the average black man, only a 400+ year nightmare.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:18 am
Here’s the truely important question…. Is the picture really King, or just the detective from Law & Order?
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:20 am
To respond to Catnip, I have to say that I don’t think the author meant a beating from the police. If someone has something coming to them, it can end up coming from anywhere. I actually have to agree that he had a beating coming what with all the domestic abuse charges.
December 3rd, 2007 at 5:02 am
Oh I don’t know, maybe intelligent people see that by using racial slurs it dehumanizes a person and is a great starting point that allows a society where ” there are also always going to be racist, sadistic dumbasses who want to use a badge to justify their fascism” ,as Matt put it.
December 3rd, 2007 at 4:15 am
Why isnt matt over at the onion? maybe because intelligent people like us still hold some hope that given proper logic dumb-fucks might realize they’re retarded and actually listen to good reason. It seems futile but maybe someday….. oh and grow up “A parent” learn to look at someone’s overall point rather than bitching about how they presented it.
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:47 am
UH can we just all get along?
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:45 am
Uh, Matt I noticed that you did not use a racist slurs when speaking about the Jews or Native Americans, such as big nosed Kikes or drunken redskin savages. However,you had no problem using the N word, four times no less, in your postings.That kind of shoots your argument in the foot when you speak of “I think the most fundamentally important aspect of American institutions is the way that they have historically worked to promote equal rights for minorities. ” Yeah ,the cops were wrong , but you in trying to prove this , using the N word four differrent times , ain’t the best place to start.
December 3rd, 2007 at 12:54 am
Uh whatever, its still funny
December 2nd, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Maybe I am foolish to try to persuade anyone through rational argument here, but its clear to me that all of you (even those who claim to be joking) are really persuading yourselves of your own rightness. There’s nothing particularly funny in anything that anyone has said here. Rather, the various discussions of King-as-nigger (whether carefully phrased statements or just outright snickering) are very clearly attempts to take the focus off the cops and put it on King. Rodney King is not significant in any way except as a victim of police brutality, and anything he did since is irrelevant.
Honestly, I think I’m looking here for a flicker of hope that random strangers on an internet discussion group can grasp a simple point instead of just falling back on evasiveness or sarcasm. As a person of Jewish descent living in the United States, I think the most fundamentally important aspect of American institutions is the way that they have historically worked to promote equal rights for minorities. It’s very easy, if you want to be a racist, to find examples of shitty people from any group who live up to shitty stereotypes (for instance, knuckleheaded rednecks who live up to stereotypes about rednecked knuckleheaded white people). It’s also true that people who have been portrayed as heroes in the media often turn out to be not so heroic. But what many of you are doing is basically saying “Aha! He *is* a nigger after all, so it’s good he got beaten” (or “Aha! Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are niggers after all too!”). I can imagine a parallel situation, for instance, if we were to discover irrefutable proof that some of the Jews killed at Auschwitz really were scheming, moneygrubbing shysters (I don’t even need proof, I’m sure than many were) or that some of the Indians the U.S. Army killed were really murderous, drunken bandits (I’m sure they were). Does that mean that Nazis really aren’t so bad, or that genocide is okay? Clearly the particular case of police use of force against King isn’t of the same degree, but police racism is absolutely a real and relevant issue.
I often fear for American society, because so few people these days seem to be able to understand basic fucking principles of equal rights and a fair and reasonable society. And if you can’t get behind the basic principle that we all need to work for a society that is rational and fair, then I’d rather see you get shot by thugs, or beaten by cops, or blown to bits by Al-Qaeda, because I don’t want to have to share my country with right wing dumbasses who don’t understand what America is really all about.
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Rodney King was so high on Totally Awesome Sweet Alabama Liquidsnake that he didn’t have to scream “Don’t Taze Me Bro,” as the cops had tried that already and it didn’t work. That’s why they did what they did– because there was no other way to subdue him short of physically disassembling the man piece by piece.
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm
Brings back memories of living in California back in the day.
This guy is a total douche. He didn’t do what the Police told him to do, which was “STAY THE FUCK DOWN DUDE!!”
I wonder if Rodney “dingaling” King was screaming “DON’T TAZE ME BRO!!”
December 2nd, 2007 at 11:06 am
Good article. I laugh when I read these people trying to defend King. OK.. we get it. His beating at the hands of the police some 16 years was unjustified. We can all agree on that. However, his behavior in the following years shows a pattern of deviant actions. Had he gone on and completely changed his life, he would have became a civil rights legend. His mishandling by the LAPD would have stood as a shining example of how bad things have gotten. But by his own actions, he has proven himself to be a repeat offender with alcohol and drug problems. I think this takes the wind out of the civil rights hero status that he proclaimed for so long. Kind of the same way when holier-than-thou Jesse Jackson was found to have an illegitmate child or Sharpton was heard on tape batering a cocaine deal.
December 2nd, 2007 at 9:03 am
Question. If the LAPD had just shot him instead of the long beatdown, would that have been an excessive force case, or would the toxicology reports have made it at least partly justifiable? And would King have ever been remembered?
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:20 am
Yes, that saying is indeed wore the hell out. Makes me wanna powerbomb infants through glass endtables. Funny article.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:08 am
Ok, the above statement, um, I am tired of that saying already.
By the way, go Mr. Swaim. Good funny, me like.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:59 am
Arguing on the internet is like winning the special olympics - even if you win YOU’RE STILL RETARDED!
CRACKEDDOTCOM!!
December 2nd, 2007 at 6:24 am
Heh. What oy said. Matt, why aren’t you over at the Onion, trying to straighten out their take on local and world news? I just know they’d benefit from your earnest insights.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:33 am
Ah, I never get tired of people make serious remarks regarding Cracked. It’s like watching someone try to nail jello to the wall. Entertaining, but ultimately futile.
December 1st, 2007 at 9:57 pm
I wonder what percentage of people would utilize the opportunities presented to this man in a different more positive fashion?
December 1st, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Everyone here other than Eugene is still full of dog shit. Any actions King committed any other time have nothing to do with whether or not the cops who beat him on the video tape were out of line or not. Either (1) Argue the actual issue or (2) preface your remarks by admitting that you’re just recycling stale nigger jokes for fun because you’re a douche or (3) shut the fuck up.
And Eugene, again, I understand that King’s beating by the LAPD wasn’t unprovoked, the issue is whether they crossed a line of restraint appropriate to police in a liberal democratic society. I can see that that’s a complex issue, but whether or not King is in general a douchebag has absolutely fuck-all to do with it.
December 1st, 2007 at 1:23 pm
glendoor42 - Well played!
December 1st, 2007 at 11:42 am
I couldn’t have said it better. I’ve never been a big fan of the cops and I definitely do not condone excessive use of force, but King’s actions are similar to preachers committing improprieties- it discredits everything they say. Actually, his actions do nothing but reverse any good he may have caused. What happened to the three strikes out there?
December 1st, 2007 at 5:33 am
The police also knew he was the sketch artist who drew the picture of Baby Grace.
December 1st, 2007 at 4:31 am
Rodney King wasn’t a victim of racism. He was strung out on PCP and attacked the cops. They had no choice but to beat to shit out of him to apprehend him, and as he has shown over and over again that he is a humongous piece of shit. I grew up in an urban neighborhood and the police get a lot more flack then they deserve.
December 1st, 2007 at 4:16 am
Someone here mentioned Rodney King joined the service a few weeks ago, it is an absolutely service for rich women to looking charming men for extramarital relationship.. I just wonder what rodaney King is looking for over there while staying with her current wife? An affair or a Sugar mommy?
December 1st, 2007 at 4:14 am
Logan, you’re my personal HERO.
December 1st, 2007 at 2:42 am
Wait so they beat a stereotype? Was he stealing a TV and eating fried chicken with watermelon and washing it down with grape soda?
December 1st, 2007 at 2:07 am
God…Matt…Shut the fuck up.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
This opinion piece is just lame. Who cares whether or not Rodney King is a decent human being or not? The issue was always whether the police used excessive force and whether they did it because of a racist culture within the LAPD. There are always going to be dumbasses in the world who drive while high on angel dust or beat up their women or whatever, and we need to have appropriate and fair laws and procedures to deal with said dumbasses (whether King is included in that category or not, I don’t personally know). But there are also always going to be racist, sadistic dumbasses who want to use a badge to justify their fascism, and those particular dumbasses are a much bigger social problem, not least because the more energy they expend indulging their racism and sadism, the less effective they will be at actually preserving order or enforcing the law.
The whole cultural trope of the tough-guy-wild-west Dirty Harry cop who could kick ass if only he wasn’t restrained by liberal rules and regulations is basically pure ideology. Look at the historical record; Miranda rights and judicial review of police procedures actually helped to cure police corruption and to make law enforcement more effective.
November 30th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
yeah, I’m sure this sort of thing is doing wonders for improving race relations.
November 30th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
He has such an inspiring face, though, doesn’t he? Always looks like he’s gazing into the future. A future where we can all “just get along,” and commit violent angel dust-fueled rampages in peace and harmony.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
“Is that what America stands for today? Yes, apparently.”
Oh boy. It finally happened. The rest of the world is learning about American policy by studying the Cracked blog…
Gentlemen, we’ve clearly been given great power with this blog, and do you all know what goes along with great power? I know for a fact that every god damn one of you does, so let’s try not to screw this up. We’re in a rare position here: we are the official spokesmen for America.
I want to see an increase in dick jokes and maybe a video of a cat falling off of something, if we can find it, by this time next week.
November 30th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Sad but true.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I just read the actual news article provided within this one and to my surprise strongly backed Swaim’s words. King is KRAP and a leech. God save the United States…
November 30th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Actually he did some of that stuff before he became a “martyr.” Being a black man I find it disappointing that pieces of shit like this dude are held in such high esteem by ignorant people and used as innocent bystanders that fall victim to racism. He didn’t deserve to get beat for being black, nor did he deserve to get beat by cops, but he did deserve an ass-kicking.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:33 pm
HA!Well written. I don’t how much truth lies in the claims, but it’s funny nonetheless. After seeing the video of his “BEATING” I can picture him going about the business describe in this article. Rodney King…what poor souls actually allowed this PCP machine to speak in front of crowds.
November 30th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
“He had a beating coming”.
Just what kind of country are you living in? In the civilized world beatings by the police are not tolerated. It is the kind of behavior expected in a police state. Is that what America stands for today? Yes, apparently.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I used to feel sorry for the guy…..
November 30th, 2007 at 10:27 am
He doesn’t even look like Alfred E. Neuman. YAWN.
November 30th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Well, Mr. Swaim, if this was your attempt to get in on the stir up the controversy action, I’m sorry to say it’s sadly deficient. Next time throw some tortured puppies or genocide in there.