Forums dot lukpac.org

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030415&Category=APN&ArtNo=304150642&Ref=AR

King recovering after slamming his vehicle into house

The Associated Press


Rodney King, whose videotaped beating led to the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, remains in a hospital after he lost control of his car and crashed into a house over the weekend, police said.

King, 39, of Rialto was spotted Sunday by a Rialto police officer, who said King was weaving through traffic in his 2003 Ford Expedition and traveling about 100 mph when he slammed into a utility pole, a chain-link fence and then the home, police said. No one in the home was injured.

King broke his pelvis in the accident and was taken to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton where he was listed in fair condition Monday afternoon, hospital spokesman Jorge Valencia said.

Police said they suspect that King was intoxicated at the time of the accident, and a blood sample was drawn to determine his blood-alcohol level. Test results have not yet been released.

King was not arrested, but a report detailing the crash circumstances will be submitted to the district attorney's office, Rialto police Lt. Kathy Thompson said.

King, who is black, was chased by police through the San Fernando Valley in 1991 and was captured on videotape being beaten by four white officers, who were later acquitted. Riots broke out that lasted four days and left 55 dead and more than 2,000 injured. The mayhem caused $1 billion in property damage.

King later received a $3.8 million settlement from the city of Los Angeles in 1994.

He was convicted of spouse abuse in 1999 in San Bernardino County and received 90 days in jail and four years on probation. Claremont police arrested King for being under the influence of PCP in August 2001, and a month later, Pomona police arrested him for being under the influence of PCP and indecent exposure after visitors at Ganesha Park complained about a man jumping on an ice chest.

King pleaded no contest to three counts of being under the influence of PCP and a count of indecent exposure in October 2001. A judge gave King a year in a drug treatment center even though a prosecutor argued King should spend a year in county jail.

Rodney King may be a screwup, but a viewing of that videtape of his beating indicates he could easily have been subdued and handcuffed, though not without him kicking and screaming as he was loaded into the patrol car. He was beaten excessively, no mistake; and, he was outnumbered considerably; it wasn't one cop there, but many. Had he been arrested by the book, the guy gets convicted for, among other things, resisting arrest, winds up in the pokey for a while, but no lawsuit, no jury verdict that resulted in riots, no racial hassles, etc. King is no saint--apparently, his life is still troubled and he hasn't learned much--but
evil he wasn't, and I doubt that he's really changed much.

Strange world, isn't it? I just try to keep my own ass out of trouble.

ED

Interesting article, Patrick. Confirms a lot of what I suspected, including moving the trial to Simi Valley, the worst possible scenario, as it turned out.

A few thoughts:

There is no doubt Rodney King was guilty of a rash of charges: OUI, disorderly contact, assaulting a police offer, resisting arrest, you name it.
Yet as the most damning portions of the tape proved, the police used excessive or, at the least, inappropriate methods to subdue the perp.
A screw-up mess.

That it became a trial where the police were(erroneously)exonerated and King later was awarded(unjustifiably)a cash settlement, well....fucked up justice at work, bottom line. This, depressingly, seems to be the norm with so many hi-profile cases: by the time the press and everyone else gets done with them, the original point of the trial, of what went down, gets lost.
I don't want to say L.A. is prone to this sort of thing more than most other areas of the nation, but, again, when it happens it's much more visible, and therefore more depressing than ever to anyone who wants equal justice under the law. Nothing, at times, seems to be equal.

ED

Yet as the most damning portions of the tape proved, the police used excessive or, at the least, inappropriate methods to subdue the perp.

I'm not sure it's quite so clear-cut as that. It's far too black and white (no pun intended).

The problem is that "the most damning portions of the tape" are really the only portions of the tape that the public saw. We didn't see the erratic, dangerous driving of an individual clearly under the influence of controlled substances. For the most part we weren't aware of his history of prior offenses. And, perhaps most importantly, we didn't see, in person, or on tape, a man hopped up on PCP resist not one, but two 50,000-volt shocks that would knock 99% of people on their asses. At this point he runs directly toward one of the officers, his intentions unknown.

I think the biggest problem lies in that the officer who initially struck King did not use a disabling blow. Excessive? No. Inappropriate? Perhaps so. But under the circumstances, I'm not sure I would have been quick enough to deliver a well-aimed, disabling blow in place of one instictively struck in self defense.

Things obviously got out of hand quickly, and there was clearly some kind of problem in the LAPD, but I don't think it was a race issue at all, and it's a damn shame it was ever perceived that way.