It's Rodney King Day in L.A.!

Twenty years ago tonight I was watching the KTLA Evening News when a videotape was first shown of police administering a little justice to a belligerent drunk guy who had just led them on a pursuit at speeds of up to 117 mph.  That drunk was Rodney King, a perennial loser who was on parole for a previous robbery conviction.  It's estimated that his blood alcohol level was nearly 2 1/2 times the legal limit and his failure to comply with the cops earned him a pretty good thumpin'.  Here's the broadcast as the tape first appeared on TV:

 

King, who is black,  immediately became a hero to both the civil rights agitators and the anti-police rabble as the beating was shown over-and-over on every news program in the nation.  King actions in the high speed pursuit, the fact he endangered hundreds of innocent people, and his lifetime of loserdom were basically ignored by the press as they focused solely on the events once the car was stopped.  Had that videotape not existed King would have just been another drunk who tried to fight the cops and lost.

Unfortunately, the tape did exist and King's legacy because the riots that occurred in 1992 following the acquittal of the officers involved.  South Central L.A. was turned into a war zone for several days and the locals decided to burn and loot their own neighborhoods.  It was a fitting way to commemorate the lifetime of criminal activity that is Rodney King's life.

Of course, it didn't end with the riots.  Federal officials couldn't stand the idea of the officers being acquitted by a jury of their peers, so they brought civil rights charges against the officers and effectively subjected them to double jeopardy - trying them twice for the same crime.   Because of the lower standards of proof required for civil rights charges, and a downtown jury that was far more likely to be anti-cop, the feds got their convictions.

Since then King has continued to careen from one criminal charge to another.  Apparently the $3.8 million he was awarded from the city didn't change the man.  He was just a rich loser.

The whole saga was unfortunate.  It's too bad some guy in an apartment in Lakeview Terrace had gotten a new video camera.  Without that tape a lot of ugly stuff wouldn't have happened.