The officers would write in their report that due to his behavior, they suspected King of being under the influence of PCP, which was believed by the police to give people under its influence superhuman strength. [85][86] King died 28 years to the day after his father, Ronald King, was found dead in his bathtub in 1984.[87]. Videotape of the incident shot from a nearby apartment. King remained in the car. The police ordered everyone out of the car, but only Allen and Helms complied. Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965 June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. When he emerged, he was reported to have giggled, to have patted the ground and waved to the police helicopter overhead. I got ulcers. or "Can't we all just get along? People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? [clarification needed] On March 9 of the 1993 trial, King took the witness stand and described to the jury the events as he remembered them. African-Americans were outraged by the verdicts and began rioting in the streets along with the Latino communities. [26]:8 The tests also showed traces of marijuana (26ng/ml). With police brutality still a contentious, emotive issue, historian Benjamin Houston investigates. By December 1995, both Koon and Powell had been released from prison. In April 2012, King spoke candidly to CBS2/KCAL9 News anchor Pat Harvey about his life since the riots as well as his ability to forgive the officers. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.19. Thats enough!" Menudo Star Says Jos Menendez Assaulted Him. For most of the video, King would be on the ground. The judge acknowledged that the two trials did not legally constitute double jeopardy, but raised "the specter of unfairness". Armour said the riots had been followed by some financial investments in South LA, but no meaningful LAPD reforms. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. I had to let go, to let God deal with it. "[49], Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley created the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, also known as the Christopher Commission, in April 1991. Rodney King was found dead in his swimming pool in Rialto, California, on June 17, 2012. [74] King also appeared on Sober House, a Celebrity Rehab spin-off focusing on a sober living environment. No one wants to be mad in their own house. LAPD is still corrupt and violent and brutal, said Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA. [42][43], On April 29, 1992, the seventh day of jury deliberations, the jury acquitted all four officers of assault and acquitted three of the four of using excessive force. Last year, an LAPD officer fatally shot her brother, Daniel Hernandez, after he had been involved in a vehicle collision and was holding a box cutter. I'm comfortable with my position in American history. ', "Rodney King's Daughter Stands With LAPD 25 Years After Dad's Beating", "Psycho Cop Returns (AKA Psycho Cop 2) (1993)", "How Kurt Russell Redefined Heroism in 'Dark Blue,' An LA Riots Story 15 Years Ahead of Its Time", "Ice Cube: 'Police Have Become Our Worst Bullies', "In Roger Guenveur Smith's 'Rodney King,' a whispered evocation of the L.A. riots", "Springboard for the Arts welcomes writer to residency The Fergus Falls Daily Journal", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rodney_King&oldid=1152202056, Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills), Participants in American reality television series, Victims of police brutality in the United States, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from September 2010, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Pages using infobox person with multiple partners, Pages using embedded infobox templates with the title parameter, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2018, Pages using Sister project links with hidden wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Victim of a police brutality case that led to public protests, riots and police reform, Briseo, Koon, and Wind not guilty on all counts. "[On his brutal beating by L.A.P.D. He was 47. Rodney King, the Los Angeles motorist whose beating by police was captured on videotape, smiles, 01 May 1992 in Beverly Hills, during a press conference, where he called for the end of violence in the city. According to NPR, the unrest started less than three hours after the verdicts were reported. [22] She drew her pistol and pointed it at King, ordering him to lie on the ground. - Rodney King died as the result of an accidental drowning, according to the San Bernardino County Coroner's official report released Thursday. While the government thought that the sentence wasn't severe enough and appealed, according to the Los Angeles Times,after a series of back and forths, the original sentence of 30 months was upheld. King later sued the city for damages, and a jury awarded him $3.8 million, as well as $1.7 million in attorney's fees. [73], In May 2008, King checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California, where he filmed as a cast member of season 2 of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which premiered in October 2008. Though the four officers who assaulted Rodney King were deemed not guilty in their state trials, they were subsequently brought up on federal charges of violating King's civil rights. King later filed a civil suit against the city of Los Angeles and was awarded $3.8 million. 47 years (1965-2012) Rodney King/Age at death King is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles County, California. Police officers feel like they are untouchable.. June 17, 2012 -- Rodney King, the man who was at the center of the Los Angeles police brutality case that later sparked the Los Angeles riots has died. ", After the acquittals and the riots, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) sought indictments of the police officers for violations of King's civil rights. [88][89] Responding officers removed King from the pool and performed CPR on him. [35] His successor Gil Garcetti thought that by December 1992, too much time had passed to charge King with evading arrest; he also noted that the statute of limitations on drunk driving had passed. According to Famous Trials, in the early hours of March 3, 1991, King and two friends, "Pooh" Allen and Freddie Helms, decided to go out after watching a basketball game. [72] On November 29, 2007, while riding home on his bicycle,[64] King was shot in the face, arms, and back with pellets from a shotgun. [92][93][94], Rodney King has become a symbol of police brutality, but his family remembers him as a "human, not a symbol". Can we get along?". On the third day of the riots, King made a public appearance, making his now-famous plea: "People, I just want to say, can't we all get along? Who Is Suspected Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira? They pursued King with lights and sirens, and the pursuit reached 117mph (188km/h), while King refused to pull over. He was 47 years old at the time. King stayed in the vehicle until police yelled at him a second time to get out. The death of Rodney King, whose beating by white policemen led to deadly riots in Los Angeles 20 years ago, has been ruled an accidental drowning. The next day, Holliday called the Foothill Station with the intention of giving the police the video of the incident. According to Melanie Singer's testimony, whenKing did get out of the car, he displayed erratic behavior, such as waving at the police helicopter and waving his butt at the officers. (modern), A woman walks by the 1992 mural Freedom Wont Wait by Noni Olabisi in Los Angeles, created after the beating of Rodney King. Imani Perry: Rodney King, 30 years later King was still suffering more than a year later, on April 29, 1992, when a Simi Valley jury failed to convict any of the police officers who'd beaten. Burning, Let It Fall, and Spike Lee's Netflix special Rodney King. He invested most of this money in founding a hip-hop record . [29][30], Plumbing salesman and amateur videographer George Holliday's videotape of the beating was shot on his camcorder from his apartment near the intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street in Lake View Terrace. At 12:45 a.m. on March 3, 1991, robbery parolee Rodney G. King stops his car after leading police on a nearly 8-mile pursuit through the streets of Los Angeles, California. All rights reserved. After prosecutors were unable to find sufficient evidence to prosecute, King was released after having been held for four days. The Mystery Novelist Who Committed a Real Murder, Boston Marathon Bombings Survivors, 10 Years Later, A Complete Timeline of Adnan Syeds Trial, Release. District Attorney Ira Reiner believed there was insufficient evidence for prosecution. Rodney King drowned in his swimming pool in 2012 (image via Matt Sayles, The Associated Press) After the January 10 death of Tyre Nichols after a Memphis . George Holliday, a plumber who gained local and national fame when he taped the infamous LA police beating of Rodney King, has died from COVID-19, it was reported; On March 3, 1991, Holliday stood on the balcony and recorded four white LA police officers using batons, Tasers and feet to subdue a Black man later identified as King Vergara rallied in support of a new BLM campaign last week, pushing to have law enforcement unions removed from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, an umbrella group, with the goal of eventually dissolving the unions. He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, California, and was pronounced dead on arrival at 6:11a.m. (PDT) The Rialto Police Department began a standard drowning investigation and said there did not appear to be any foul play. Can't we all get along. [50], Though few people at first considered race an essential factor in the case, including Rodney King's attorney, Steven Lerman,[51] the Holliday videotape was at the time stirring deep resentment among black people in Los Angeles, as well as other major cities in the United States, where they had often complained of police abuse against their communities. In 1991, Rodney King was brutally beaten while being arrested for drunk driving on the I-210 by four Los Angeles police officers. July 16, 1992: King was arrested at 1:40 A.M. for driving while intoxicated. And uh, I mean, please, we can, we can get along here. On August 4, the grand jury returned indictments against the three officers for "willfully and intentionally using unreasonable force" and against Sergeant Koon for "willfully permitting and failing to take action to stop the unlawful assault" on King. Upon the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots, King told CNN he had forgiven the officers who had beaten him, saying, "Yes, I have forgiven them because I have been forgiven so many times. King was charged with violating his parole and sent for sixty day to an alcohol treatment center. Its the same old disproportionate stops, targeting, harassment, brutalizing and killing., We were hopeful that this kind of confirmation of our experiences would mean that there would be justice and meaningful change, Abdullah, of BLM, said of the King footage. I didn't want to be angry my whole life. Demonstrators protest against the verdict in the Rodney King beating case in front of LAPD headquarters, on 29 April 1992. King, who died in 2012 at age 47, was awarded $3.8 million in damages. The low sentences were controversial and were appealed by the prosecution. Where Is Acquitted Murderer Candy Montgomery Now? But when he talked with the desk officer about having witnessed an incident of police brutality and asked about the state of the driver, he was met with disinterest and dismissal. In November 1989, he was arrested for assault and robbery and sentenced to two years in prison. After repeatedly spending time in and out of rehab, King would continue to waver between sobriety and relapse. [32], Several "copwatch" organizations subsequently were started throughout the United States to safeguard against police abuse, including an umbrella group, October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality. Very little has changed, other than theyve gotten better at PR.. King was born in Sacramento, California, in 1965, the son of Ronald and Odessa King. Suzanne Wickman, a representative . [58] The jury found Officer Laurence Powell and Sergeant Stacey Koon guilty, and they were subsequently sentenced to 30 months in prison. [48], Outside the Simi Valley courthouse where the acquittals were delivered, county sheriff's deputies protected Stacey Koon from angry protesters on the way to his car. Riots, a slew of documentaries were released in the spring of 2017. The LAPD initially charged King with "felony evading", but later dropped the charge. King, who was on probation for a robbery conviction, exited the freeway and. I had to let go, to let God deal with it. We've got to quit; I mean, after all, I could understand the first upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like this and to see the security guard shot on the ground it's just not right. At this point, Koon, the ranking officer at the scene, told Singer that the LAPD was taking command and ordered all officers to holster their weapons. LAPD in recent years has faced scrutiny from a new wave of activists who have organized against police killings of civilians, discriminatory arrests and traffic stops, harassment and surveillance of Black and Latino residents, and militarized responses to protests. They'd all been drinking, and King was behind the wheel when two California Highway Patrol officers, Tim and Melanie Singer, spotted them speeding down the 210 freeway. There were no smartphones at the time, but a witness filmed the beating from his balcony and gave the footage to a local news station. According to police who responded to the scene, there were no preliminary signs of foul play. Photo: Douglas Burrows/Liaison/Getty Images, G. Gordon Liddys Wild Career After Watergate, Name: Rodney King, Birth Year: 1965, Birth date: April 2, 1965, Birth State: California, Birth City: Sacramento, Birth Country: United States. Rejecting that offer considering that he'd almost lost his life, King sued the city for $56 million, amounting to approximately $1 million for every strike by the officers. Davies said that only the final six or so baton blows by Powell were unlawful. The acquitted police officers were later convicted of violating Rodney King's civil rights in a federal court trial. Image Credit Birthday: April 2, 1965 ( Aries) Born In: Sacramento, California, United States 45 32 Quick Facts Also Known As: Rodney Glen King Died At Age: 47 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Crystal Waters (m. 1989-1996), Danetta King (m. 1984-1988)
