Rodney King dead at 47 - The Something Awful Forums

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Fiendish Dr. Wu: Nov 11, 2010; You done fucked up now!

Just had the best conversation with my wife about this.

Me: so did you hear Rodney King died today?

Her: (eating noodles) hm. *nods* he lived a good life.

Me: ... he had a terrible life

Her: wasn't he a boxer?

Me: *uncontrollable laughter* if you call being beat to poo poo by a bunch of cops boxing then I guess so

Just wanted to share, thought it was cute.

In fairness he did do some celebrity boxing thing with a cop in 2009.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:29

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# ? May 20, 2013 20:27

Bloody Hedgehog: Dec 12, 2003; Gotta' nuke something.

Crappy Jack posted:

You have the worst f****** attorneys.

No, they were just confused. You can get your sentence reduced, but only if you dance naked at midnight around a juniper bush while chanting the name Johnny Cochrane. But that is all negated if the prosecution contacts your wife and she agrees to participate on Celebrity Jeopardy.

The american legal system is a beautiful thing.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:29

Ytlaya: Nov 13, 2005

Copley Depot posted:

Also, wow, literal apologism for the police who beat Rodney King in this thread.

I think a lot of people in this thread grew up with racist parents and are echoing what they said about the incident when it took place. Not that there's really any excuse for uncritically echoing such a terrible opinion, but I think that this is where some people are getting their impression of the case.

Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:

Just had the best conversation with my wife about this.

Me: so did you hear Rodney King died today?

Her: (eating noodles) hm. *nods* he lived a good life.

Me: ... he had a terrible life

Her: wasn't he a boxer?

Me: *uncontrollable laughter* if you call being beat to poo poo by a bunch of cops boxing then I guess so

Just wanted to share, thought it was cute.

In fairness he did do some celebrity boxing thing with a cop in 2009.

This reminds me of the time I was talking with this girl on a trip in high school and the topic of Jane Austen came up. She asks me if I like her, and I ask "Isn't that the fitness guru woman?" (thinking of Denise Austen). Needless to say, I did not make a good impression!

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:30

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Copley Depot posted:

You can. But you can't compel one police partner to testify against the other.

Also, wow, literal apologism for the police who beat Rodney King in this thread.

There's always someone to cheer for the police using excessive force on detained suspects or on protesters.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:34

Limastock: Oct 28, 2004; i just want to be ur ~*friend*~

Fenderbender posted:

haha You idiot. How could you not know. About Hahahahahaha the VH1 show. which one it was...idiot

I sincerely apologize to anyone who may have been hurt by my false memory of a Henry Winkler/Rodney King encounter

/edit Rob Van Winkle smoke weed every day

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:34

Panthrophile: May 13, 2009

Copley Depot posted:

Also, wow, literal apologism for the police who beat Rodney King in this thread.

With the exception of Devour, who's certainly not trained in apologetics and may be literally 'tarded, no-one has in this thread has attempted to justify the entire beating or anything much past the point at which it became a beating. The posts that are critical of King or sympathetic with the police have been considering King's offence, the stop, his resisting arrest and his being tazed, possibly also the first few baton swings. There is a point up until which the police, whether they were good police or bad, acted appropriately. That's part of the story and acknowledging it is not racist or approving of police brutality.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:48

Fenderbender: Oct 9, 2003; You have the right to remain silent.

The story, as told by police with a lot to lose, and with incentive to cover up for a racist brutalizer. May not make you a racist, just gullible.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:54

Wooty: Dec 21, 2002

A sad ending for a man that was run over by history.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:55

Fenderbender: Oct 9, 2003; You have the right to remain silent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=935xZdnVwq4

~*~ In Memoriam ~*~

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:56

shaitan: Mar 8, 2004; g.d.m.f.s.o.b.

Holy poo poo you people are loving idiots.

Blow the sand out of your vaginas. Guy died, just get along already.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:57

Fenderbender: Oct 9, 2003; You have the right to remain silent.

shaitan posted:

Holy poo poo you people are loving idiots.

Blow the sand out of your vaginas. Guy died, just get along already.

If only someone with your courage of voice were at calvary hill

# ? Jun 18, 2012 03:59

FreudianSlippers: Apr 12, 2010; Justified and Ancient.

If he didn't want to get beat up he shouldn't have been so drat black.

Here's a tune by some gay Texan communists set to footage of those police officers bravely subduing the savage thug:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9ANFR4zG44

# ? Jun 18, 2012 04:10

raditts: Feb 21, 2001; The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

Brotax posted:

I suppose I'm gonna listen to "April 29, 1992" by Sublime today in memoriam.

A song about a bunch of scuzzy white guys using a race riot as an smokescreen for robbery sounds like an awesome way to remember Mr. King.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 04:14

Modern Day Hercules: Apr 26, 2008

shaitan posted:

Holy poo poo you people are loving idiots.

Blow the sand out of your vaginas. Guy died, just get along already.

You are totally cool. I want to be like you when I turn 16.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 04:42

Supreme Allah: Oct 6, 2004; Your flesh mother used to bring me pudding.

He's being beaten by angels in heaven now.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 04:52

LingcodKilla: Dec 28, 2002; BUY MORE CRABS

The initial head strike with the baton could be considered lethal force. He may as well shot him.

Also when the four went to "swarm" him somebody could have easily kicked or thrown a knee that set him off in the first place. If he was complying with some of the verbal commands they could have just as easily asked him to turn around and single person cuff him. Instead they chose a different route.

It was all down hill and poo poo city when the first strike was at the dome though.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 04:58

mookface: Jun 7, 2009; Diane ...

raditts posted:

A song about a bunch of scuzzy white guys using a race riot as an smokescreen for robbery sounds like an awesome way to remember Mr. King.

But if you look at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King
It's this hosed-up situation and these hosed-up police
It's about comin' up and stayin' on top
And screamin' 1-8-7 on a mother fuckin' cop

Also about robbing liquor stores and setting cars on fire.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 05:09

assfucker420: May 13, 2012; by T. Mascis

In all honesty did how many white rioters were there? Why did Sublime try and co-opt the riots?

# ? Jun 18, 2012 05:19

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003; ^{~i liek 2 poste~}

The following is relevant.

somebody on metafilter posted:

somebody else posted:
When the video first went to KTLA (the first news channel to get it), an editor decided the first few seconds were too blurry, and so he cut it; there was no real malice there or anything, just a video editor's concern for clear pictures. Yet those first few seconds showed Rodney King rushing/approaching (pick your descriptive verb) the cops. He appears much more aggressive in those first few seconds.

I can personally attest, under oath, that this is not true. I did a forensic analysis of those first few seconds of video, it was the decisive evidence in the second trial.

During the first trial, the defense argued that King charged the police officers, during the first few seconds of blurry, shaky video. They introduced a computer animation of stick figures that showed this scenario, but it was disallowed as it was speculation and had no probative value.

In my opinion, the reason the first trial ended in acquittal is the prosecution showed the video over and over, so many times that the jury became immune to its horrors. The videotape was analyzed in front of the jury, in slow motion, blow by blow, until it became an abstraction. There was no way they could empathize with the victim. They empathized with the LAPD officers, since they were asked to put themselves in the officer's place as each blow was shown on video, to determine what the officers' motivations were.

During the second trial, the Federal prosecutors used a smarter strategy. They would limit the viewing of the video so its impact would not be diluted. They also had something new: my frame-by-frame rotoscope of the first 12 seconds of blurry video. I will now release for the first time ever, a downloadable, low rez version of my enhancement of the video.

I noticed that the video contained a few reference marks that did not move: the tiny running lights on the side of King's car. I captured the video, frame by frame, then manually repositioned each frame so the light was in the same spot. The frame moves around the centered action, now the scene is stabilized and the frame shakes. The video is still blurry, I was asked not to deblur, so it would not induce bias or break the chain of evidence. But despite the blur, you can see what happened. This video catches the start of the incident, where things went wrong.

The defense claimed that during the blurry section of the video, King was aggressive and charged them, butting into one of the officers and trying to grab him in a bear hug. The stabilized video starts with King on his hands and knees, being tazed, as the officers stood several feet away. The tazer stops for a second, then King gets up and tries to run away from the officers, towards the back of his car. King is barely on his feet, when an officer moves forward and hits King with a nightstick blow to the throat, dropping him to his knees again. Then the beating starts, as the camera snaps into focus.

Clearly the 4 LAPD officers were lying. King never had an opportunity to charge at the officers. During jury deliberations of the second trial, the only evidence the jurors asked for was a copy of the videotape, including this enhancement, and a videotape machine with a slow motion replay mechanism. The verdict: 2 guilty of civil rights violations, 2 not guilty.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 05:26

Chinatown: Sep 11, 2001

As a middle-upper class white male youth I would like to say that I think that...

# ? Jun 18, 2012 05:41

Dick Bitchwhistle: Oct 28, 2007; I'll find my own Raightning

Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:

Just had the best conversation with my wife about this.

When I first heard the news, I also thought they were talking about Don King as well.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 05:47

Meowbot: Oct 12, 2005

raditts posted:

A song about a bunch of scuzzy white guys using a race riot as an smokescreen for robbery sounds like an awesome way to remember Mr. King.

Sublime is pretty loving terrible and I don't know why people think this song should have anything to do with this poor man's death.

Wonder how he died anyway maybe he was swimming and he was beat haha get it its a joke about this man's life

Seriously though, I hope his family is doing ok - we tend to forget these people are human just like us.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 06:08

Hammerite: Mar 9, 2007; And you don't remember what I said here, either, but it was pompous and stupid.

Fenderbender posted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=935xZdnVwq4

~*~ In Memoriam ~*~

That was painfully unfunny. I thought Bill Hicks was one of those stand-ups that goons and other nerdy types fall over themselves to praise, but it's hard to see why after listening to that. Although the "if you watch it in reverse, you can see him get up and walk away" line was good.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 06:38

cthulusnewzulubbq: Jan 26, 2009; I saw something
NASTY
in the woodshed.

Fiendish Dr. Wu posted:

Just had the best conversation with my wife about this.

Me: so did you hear Rodney King died today?

Her: (eating noodles) hm. *nods* he lived a good life.

Me: ... he had a terrible life

Her: wasn't he a boxer?

Me: *uncontrollable laughter* if you call being beat to poo poo by a bunch of cops boxing then I guess so

Just wanted to share, thought it was cute.

In fairness he did do some celebrity boxing thing with a cop in 2009.

She was probably thinking of Don King, the boxing promoter.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 07:14

Saga: Aug 17, 2009

Rogue Elephant posted:

Also it even says King complied when the gun was drawn, and only started resisting when 4 LAPD officers literally "swarmed" him. Everything probably would have been fine if they had just cuffed him while Singer had the gun on him.

To be clear, the cops' actions were awful and unjustifiable.

However, these specific techniques are taught to police to allow them to safely incapacitate potentially dangerous suspects without injuring them. If (as was not apparently the case here) they are used by officers who are not actually trying to beat the subject's skull in, this and similar tactics are much safer for the offender (and probably the police) than some Marquess of Queensbury rules one-on-one contest of manliness. That's especially the case if you're in a country where police carry guns.

For all I know in this case the four officers all wanted to put the boot in, but these techniques, when employed by people who aren't massive shitstains, are much safer than risking a fistfight, a stabbing or a shooting.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 10:45

Tori CMOS: Apr 7, 2003; Cronflake Girl

The responses in this thread are great supporting evidence that racism has gotten worse in the past twenty years.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 14:35

l33t b4c0n: Aug 19, 2000; King of E/N

But you see he deserved to be beaten that way because...

It will never cease to surprise me how many people try to rationalize awful events.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 15:13

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

l33t b4c0n posted:

But you see he deserved to be beaten that way because...

It will never cease to surprise me how many people try to rationalize awful events.

Or buy into the police story.

It's pretty obvious why police don't like getting filled.

I wonder what sort of story they would have sold if the beating wasn't documented on video?

# ? Jun 18, 2012 15:27

Limastock: Oct 28, 2004; i just want to be ur ~*friend*~

etalian posted:

I wonder what sort of story they would have sold if the beating wasn't documented on video?

As an aside, there was a cop here who was recently convicted in a similar scenario. Basically he got into an argument with the manager at a U-haul center and when the manager tried to get his badge number/license plate so he could file a complaint against the officer, the cop put him in a choke hold, beat him up and then arrested the guy for assaulting a police officer. The only thing that saved the uhaul manager from jail time was a video recording because literally all cops lie or lie by omission to protect themselves.

Check it out

# ? Jun 18, 2012 15:57

Earwicker: Jan 6, 2003

Tedious_Bastard posted:

The responses in this thread are great supporting evidence that racism has gotten worse in the past twenty years.

How so? What do imagine people in GBS would have been posting 20 years ago in response to the actual beating or the riots? Enlightened commentary?

# ? Jun 18, 2012 16:16

raditts: Feb 21, 2001; The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

Earwicker posted:

How so? What do imagine people in GBS would have been posting 20 years ago in response to the actual beating or the riots? Enlightened commentary?

I imagine it would be largely the same, only with more liberal use of the n-word.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 16:50

etalian: Mar 20, 2006

Limastock posted:

As an aside, there was a cop here who was recently convicted in a similar scenario. Basically he got into an argument with the manager at a U-haul center and when the manager tried to get his badge number/license plate so he could file a complaint against the officer, the cop put him in a choke hold, beat him up and then arrested the guy for assaulting a police officer. The only thing that saved the uhaul manager from jail time was a video recording because literally all cops lie or lie by omission to protect themselves.

Check it out

And the whole US judicial system gives police the benefit of the doubt when they make statements.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 16:54

Fimbulvinter: Nov 6, 2008; by elpintogrande

Limastock posted:

As an aside, there was a cop here who was recently convicted in a similar scenario. Basically he got into an argument with the manager at a U-haul center and when the manager tried to get his badge number/license plate so he could file a complaint against the officer, the cop put him in a choke hold, beat him up and then arrested the guy for assaulting a police officer. The only thing that saved the uhaul manager from jail time was a video recording because literally all cops lie or lie by omission to protect themselves.

Check it out

"The criminal-justice system depends on the trustfulness of police officers. If they're not telling us the truth, then the whole system is corrupt."

Yeah, might need to look into that.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:03

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003; ^{~i liek 2 poste~}

Tedious_Bastard posted:

The responses in this thread are great supporting evidence that racism has gotten worse in the past twenty years.

Shh. Don't tap the glass.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:03

matrocious: Feb 6, 2011

Tedious_Bastard posted:

The responses in this thread are great supporting evidence that racism has gotten worse in the past twenty years.

Internet comedy forums are the perfect barometer for measuring complex cultural issues.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:06

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003; ^{~i liek 2 poste~}

Earwicker posted:

How so? What do imagine people in GBS would have been posting 20 years ago in response to the actual beating or the riots? Enlightened commentary?

Because we now have the wisdom of hindsight, analysis, and context and are (in theory) distanced enough from the emotion of the events such that we can make a proper determination of what happened.

What happened was that the LAPD beat the poo poo of a dude and then lied about the circumstances. These are court findings. Attempts to continue "Debate" on what happened are attempts to justify.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:06

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003; ^{~i liek 2 poste~}

matrocious posted:

Internet comedy forums are the perfect barometer for measuring complex cultural issues.

No, but they're great for identifying who is and isn't an rear end in a top hat shithead.

Not saying that anybody here is an rear end in a top hat shithead, but, y'know.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:07

duTrieux.: Oct 9, 2003; ^{~i liek 2 poste~}

Once again.

quote:

The defense claimed that during the blurry section of the video, King was aggressive and charged them, butting into one of the officers and trying to grab him in a bear hug. The stabilized video starts with King on his hands and knees, being tazed, as the officers stood several feet away. The tazer stops for a second, then King gets up and tries to run away from the officers, towards the back of his car. King is barely on his feet, when an officer moves forward and hits King with a nightstick blow to the throat, dropping him to his knees again. Then the beating starts, as the camera snaps into focus.

Clearly the 4 LAPD officers were lying. King never had an opportunity to charge at the officers. During jury deliberations of the second trial, the only evidence the jurors asked for was a copy of the videotape, including this enhancement, and a videotape machine with a slow motion replay mechanism. The verdict: 2 guilty of civil rights violations, 2 not guilty.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:08

Earwicker: Jan 6, 2003

dooTrieux posted:

Because we now have the wisdom of hindsight, analysis, and context and are (in theory) distanced enough from the emotion of the events such that we can make a proper determination of what happened.

What happened was that the LAPD beat the poo poo of a dude and then lied about the circumstances. These are court findings. Attempts to continue "Debate" on what happened are attempts to justify.

Not seeing how these means racism was somehow not as bad 20 years ago as it is now?

I mean yes, there's plenty of racist talk about King's beating going on right now but I don't see how that means the level of racism has increased unless you are saying there weren't as many racists saying racist poo poo 20 years ago. It's more like they just didn't have as much of a platform as they do now.

Sure there were niche things like newsletters and listserves and a places online like Usenet that a few nerds knew about, but most people had never heard of internet forums and no one could comment on articles and the like, so the absence of reams of racist posts 20 years ago indicates nothing more than the absence of a place to post them.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 17:14

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# ? May 20, 2013 20:27

Lord_ExDeath: Nov 21, 2005; That's how it's done...

Fimbulvinter posted:

Except this sort of thing happens to poor minorities all the time. Their communities have been dealing with this poo poo for decades and this was one of the few times this sort of bullshit was caught on tape for the world to see and those fuckers still got acquitted for nearly beating a man to death. To think this doesn't have anything to do with full blown racism is loving dumb as poo poo.

Get hosed you racist dick.

Yeah, because poor white people never get the poo poo beat out of them by cops, ever. Oh wait. Fullerton, CA less than a year ago and the victim didn't make it.

# ? Jun 18, 2012 18:14

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