Rodney King

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rodney King in April 2012

Rodney Glen King (born April 2, 1965 in Sacramento , California - † June 17, 2012 in Rialto , California) was an African-American US citizen who was known in 1991 as a victim of disproportionate police violence. After the police who brutally beat him with a stick and kicks were acquitted a year later, violent riots broke out in Los Angeles .

Notoriety through police violence

On March 3, 1991, King got into a car chase with the Los Angeles police due to overspeeding and was eventually stopped. King was intoxicated and had tried to escape because he feared his own words, because of drunk driving against probation to violate that were imposed because of a previous robbery offense. During the arrest, against which King resisted, and which was accidentally filmed by a local resident, the officers were so brutal that the four non-black police officers (three white and one Latino ) were brought to justice. The amateur recordings made it possible to reconstruct that they hit him more than 50 times with a stick and six kicks. They continued even when King was overwhelmed.

The following criminal case against the accused police officers took place at the request of the defense not in Los Angeles County , but in neighboring Ventura County in Simi Valley . The jury consisted of ten whites, one Latin American and one Asian, according to the statistical population distribution there (65% white, 25% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 2% African-American), so one African-American was not represented. On April 29, 1992, the police were acquitted.

The verdict sparked the 1992 Los Angeles riots of where property damage of more than one billion US dollars emerged. 53 people died and at least 2,000 other people were injured. At the request of the then California Governor Pete Wilson , President George HW Bush also used the armed forces to end the mass unrest.

In a second trial, two of the four previously acquitted officers were found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison each.

In 1994, King obtained $ 3.8 million in damages in a civil lawsuit from the City of Los Angeles.

Private life and death

King had three daughters and was married twice. Even after the police beating, Rodney King came into conflict with the law on several occasions, particularly in connection with drugs in traffic and domestic violence . He took part in the 2nd season of the reality TV show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew participated and was escorted during a drug rehab.

In April 2012, the 20th anniversary of the riots, King published the book The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption (roughly The inner turmoil - My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption ).

Two months later he was found dead in his pool in Rialto . An autopsy confirmed that his drowning in the pool was an accident. He was under the influence of alcohol, marijuana , cocaine and phencyclidine (PCP). King was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills , and the funeral speech was given by American civil rights activist Al Sharpton . King's daughter Lori King tries to reach an understanding between the black population and the police.

Processing in films

The 1992 film drama Malcolm X shows the amateur filmmaker's Rodney King video in the opening credits. In Tony Kaye's drama American History X , published in 1998, the main characters deal with the subject in a heated conversation. The 2002 thriller Dark Blue starring Kurt Russell is set against the backdrop of the mass unrest that followed the King trial. The 2005 LA Riot Spectacular by director Marc Klasfeld deals with the issue in a satirical way. The title of the 2008 film Lakeview Terrace is named after the environment in which Rodney King was struck down. His name and his saying “Can't we all just get along?” (Eng. “Can't we all get along?”) Can be heard in the film. In the banlieue film La Haine from 1995, the protagonist Vinz refers to Rodney King and thus legitimizes his resistance to the police. The incident was also discussed in the 2015 movie Straight Outta Compton . In the comedy Hip Hop Hood , the cops on the station play a video game called "Rodney's Ride". On the screen you can see how several white policemen hit a black one and get points for it. In the middle of the game, another person appears with a camera. Rodney King is also mentioned in the movie " The Stand " (1994).

Fonts

  • with Lawrence J. Spagnola: The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption. (Something like The Inner Turmoil - My Journey from Insurrection to Redemption. ) HarperOne, 2012, ISBN 978-0062194435 .

literature

  • Edward W. Knappman: Great American Trials: From Salem Witchcraft to Rodney King . Visible Ink Pr, 1993, ISBN 0-8103-9134-1 .
  • Los Angeles Times, Shelby, III Coffey: Understanding the Riots: Los Angeles Before and After the Rodney King Case . Los Angeles Times, 1992, ISBN 0-9619095-9-5 .

Web links

Commons : Rodney King  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Telegraph
  2. ↑ "RODNEY KING DEAD AT 47" , tmz.com, June 17, 2012
  3. ↑ Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD by Lou Cannon, p. 43
  4. ↑ The Rodney King trials - The Videotape that Marked History ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.seeingisbelieving.ca
  5. ↑ 81 seconds that shook the world in: the Friday of May 3, 2002
  6. ^ Judgment: Stacey Koon in: Der Spiegel, August 9, 1993
  7. ↑ Rodney King - Sacrifice of his helpers in: Die Welt from September 25, 2000
  8. ↑ Rodney King Funeral: Memorial Set For June 30 At Forest Lawn Hall In The Hollywood Hills (UPDATED) , The Huffington Post, June 25, 2012
  9. ^ Rodney King Dies at 47; Police Beating Victim Who Asked 'Can We All Get Along?' , New York Times , June 17, 2012
  10. ↑ Rodney King arrested in California in: Spiegel Online, July 13, 2011
  11. ^ A b c Susanne Janssen: There are still gaps in South Los Angeles. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from April 28, 2012
  12. ↑ Rodney King's death was an accident. In: Spiegel Online from 23 August 2012
  13. ↑ Police: Rodney King's 'accidental drowning' involved drugs. In: CNN of 23 August 2012
  14. ↑ Rodney King's Daughter Stands With LAPD 25 Years After Dad's Beating . In: Huffington Post , September 19, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016. 
  15. ↑ a b Background information on Lakeview Terrace according to the Internet Movie Database
personal data
SURNAME King, Rodney
ALTERNATIVE NAMES King, Rodney Glen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION African American citizen, victim of police violence
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Sacramento , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH 17th June 2012
Place of death Rialto , California, United States