Rodney King dead

Linky

[edit]He was found at the bottom of his swimming pool by his fiancee the day this post was made. No foul play is suspected. For those that don't remember, the trial of the police officers who pulled ove King was what sparked the LA riots[/edit]

First off, he lived in my hometown? Huh.

Also, a symbol of injustice, nearly beaten to death in '91 died in what looks almost like a suicide. He did live a troubled life, and had drug problems, so I wonder if that killed him. Anyway, thoughts?

(also, I forgot, never read the comments section. Racist assholes ahoy)

edited to expand on his death and legacy

edited 18th Jun '12 2:42:55 PM by Acebrock

My troper wall

Since your OP (Opening Post) contains a link, I would like to ask you to include a summary of the article/video in the OP. That is, if the relevant information isn't already in the post.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

At least he didn't die as an unarmed black man by the side of a road, beaten to death by white police officers with battons.

edited 18th Jun '12 5:14:42 AM by Natasel

Wasn't the outcome of the court case that they in fact did not beat the crap out of him with batons? That is, after all, the implication of a not guilty verdict, isn't it?

Or that it was justified, or simply not a crime. Not guilty doesn't necessarily mean the thing never happened, but that the accused was not guilty of a crime.

edited 18th Jun '12 1:26:13 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Hah.. One of my jokes with my dad when I was growing up was "Can't we all just get along?" whenever he would be angry with me. That would piss him off so much, as he was in LAPD(Still is) when Rodney King went down. He had been a patrol cop in foothill division for maybe 2-3 years at the time.

Those cops were in the wrong and should have did lots of jail time, but people forget that Rodney King was a piece of shit too.

Oh well, we're full circle then.

Yeah. Piece of shit, no better than those cops by any means.

edited 18th Jun '12 2:04:04 PM by Barkey

Not that I approve of robberies, of course; but I would say that a cop who abuses his/her power is more worrying than a drunk on parole.

But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

King might have been not much better than the cops, but one might say that cops are supposed to be better than common criminals.

Totally disapprove of those officers actions, I just don't like it when people hold King up as being some sort of an angel.

They "hold him up" as someone who was savagely beaten by a mob of polic officers. his arrest doesn't and shouldn't have any impact of the wrongness of that action.

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

IIRC, King did have some brushes with the law since then, but it didn't justify what the LAPD did in '91. Also, I think I heard that he didn't want this to erupt into the race riots that occurred after the 'not guilty' verdict on those cops.

edited 18th Jun '12 3:37:19 PM by EarlOfSandvich

I now go by Graf von Tirol.

Slightly off topic, but does it seem odd to anyone else that the protocol for subduing a potentially dangerous animal is to use a tranquilzer dark and shoot it from a distance, but the protocol for subduing a potentially dangerous suspect is to get within striking range and use a batton?

edited 18th Jun '12 4:31:25 PM by Natasel

The animal is more likely to attack you, a human can possibly be reasoned with before you need to hit them with the baton. Also, drugs are unpredictable and might end up killing the person depending on that person's medical history or unknown allergies to certain drugs; most people are less upset when such happens to an enraged animal.

What about net guns?

Cartoonish, but they do use it on cats. Might be humiliating to be trussed up like a cartoon villain but would hurt a lot less than a beat down.

Think Roman Gladiators used something like that.

edited 18th Jun '12 5:47:53 PM by Natasel

I so want a net gun.

Anyway, my point was, some people act like King was a hero for getting his ass kicked. He wasn't. Yes, he was a victim, but he was still also a piece of shit himself.

Anyhow, an animal will almost always resist, is one reason. But honestly, people suck. I don't think you should swing your baton first and ask questions later, but as soon as someone decides they ain't coming with you, it's pressure point and joint manipulation time. Looks a lot better on camera than beating someone with a baton if you're being filmed.

Besides which, in the case of Rodney King, that many officers on one guy with batons was vastly excessive. If they were going for a legitimate arrest, you have enough people for one cop on each limb.

edited 18th Jun '12 6:42:53 PM by Barkey

I agree.

Also, in an age of Chloroform soaked rags, Roofies in your drink, and who knows what the CIA have to knock someone out, you'd think there was a better way to do the job than manual labor.

As in four police officcers worth of manual labor (it takes less people to secure a wild horse with lassos.)

Why isn't there a "Press Button to Incapacitate" device yet?

There is. It's the tazer.

Something less painfull please.

Knockout gas?

Don't Stop Me Now...

Weaponized lulaby?

So any word on how he eneded up at the bottom of his pool?

---

Chemical weapons have a number issues including unitentionally killing the target. There is a reason there are medical specialists who oversee surgery and application of said chemicals in the medical field.

Tasers have a chance to be lethal as well in certain conditions.

Someone incapacitating you is likely to be painful regardless of method used. Either pain immediately or pain after.

edited 18th Jun '12 8:58:20 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Who watches the watchmen?

My guess? Drugs.

Well, there are methods that are less painfull than others.

And probably more effective too. Rodney was one against four armed with battons and it didn't work too well.

Tazer is the most efficient with the least amount of effort or possible injury, barring some sort of weird one in a thousand heart attack that happens from time to time.

Take your pick: Tranquilizer darts, tazers, pressure points/joint manipulation, or just smacking the shit out of them.

I'm a pressure point guy myself, as a relatively small dude at 5'7 160 pounds, it's the best economy of force option for me.

Yeah, but that means you have to get close to a guy.

Not really worried about that option unless the individual has a weapon. If he has a weapon, I'll just up the ante to firearms and hope he surrenders.