MovieChat Forums > Dark Blue (2003) Discussion > Regarding Rodney King......

Regarding Rodney King......

posted 21 years ago by ZacAtak83
11 replies | jump to latest

There is no doubt in my mind that Rodney King was a criminal and deserved to go to jail. However, police officers, are trained to uphold the law. They are trained to use force:
a.) proportionally
b.) only when necessary (ie: they or another party are in danger)
While the attack on King might seem justifiable given the totality of the circumstances, it is reprehensible considering it was at the hands of people who are supposed to be enforcing the law. The right thing to do would have been to subdue him and get him charged with assaulting an officer. Instead, they decided to administer "justice" on the spot in the form of a merciless beating (thereby transforming him from criminal to victim). For that, they should have been stripped of their badges and thrown in jail. That they weren't is a travesty. Is it an excuse to go looting and rioting? Hell no. But once again, given the totality of the circumstances, that might also seem justifiable. The mere fact that reason often lends itself to the comission of acts of violence is a firm basis for having laws and procedures and not doing merely whatever we feel justified to do.

[–] 21 years ago

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[–] knid 21 years ago

You are very uninformed about Rodney King.

Police are not trained to use force proportionally. They are trained to use force until the perpetrator is stopped and under their control. An example would be what happened to Rodney King. He was driving his car at over 100mph on the freeway under the influence of PCP. He was pulled over and ordered to exit his vehicle. He and his passengers exited the vehicle and were then told to lie down on the ground(prone position) by police officers. Everyone went prone except for Rodney. The police attempted to handcuff him and he resisted. The police used a taser on Rodney with no effect. Lets not forget that Rodney is 6'4" and weighed about 240 at the time. Since the taser did not work the officers used their batons. It took many blows from the officers' batons to incapacitate Rodney because he was on PCP which can raise the pain tolerance of a human being to a point that nothing will hurt, not even getting shot. The officers involved in the "beating" followed the rules until they kicked Rodney King while he was on the ground. The use of kicks as a method of incapacitation is not allowed by the LAPD or any other department that I know of. The officers who did the kicking should have received standard departmental discipline for the use of excessive force (kicking). Instead the officers were fired for their actions, even though they were found not guilty.

You mention that police officers are trained to use force only when necessary. Do you honestly believe that police officers should not use force when a perpetrator resists arrest? Rodney King endangered everyone that was on the freeway on the night in question when he drove like he did.

Do you now understand that the officers were trying to subdue him? The way they used their batons was the way that they were trained. Police do not have magic powers that allow them to gently subdue a perpetrator with a baton. A baton is a weapon and it is designed to hurt people.

You said that given the totality of the circumstances the riots may have been justifiable. This shows that you are an ignorant person. The LA riots were purely hate and race driven. The rioters, largely minorites used the not guilty verdict as an excuse to steal, loot, and kill. If the rioters believed that an injustice had been done against Rodney King they would not have destroyed their own communities and killed 58 people. How are 58 deaths justified? The riots destroyed the businesses of over 2,000 Koreans and also a large number of black owned businesses. How is this justified? How do you justify the beating and nearly killing of Reginald Denny? With your logic and justification of the riots (as shared by the rioters) I could nearly beat to death a person of a race other than my own simply because a member of their race mugged me. Would that not be racist? Your line of thinking given the totality of the circumstance is not much different than that of middle eastern terrorists who want to kill all Americans because the American government supports Israel. There are many other reasons but that is just an example.

Time for a little update on Rodney King. He has been arrested 5 times since the famous "beating". One arrest was for beating his wife and the most recent one that I know of was for running a red light while driving 100 mph under the influence of PCP. This happened in Rialto, California on August 27 2003. This man never learns. He has also spent all of the $3.8 million that was awarded to him because the LAPD "violated his civil rights".

You need to research a topic before you decide to spew your ignorant bleeding heart liberal propaganda. Learn the facts before you make a claim and a decision. All of the information that I have given you is factual. I am working on a BS in Criminal Justice at California State University Long Beach, so you know that I am credible.

[–] chrissportsnut 21 years ago

Well said. Ever since this incident, Policemen have not been able to their jobs. A baton. It's just a prop. I don't care if you're Black, White, Asian, Persian, Arabic, Mexican. If you are doing PCP AND DRIVING 100 MILES an hour, you should have the *beep* kicked out of you.....Several times, then sent to jail for a long ass time.

By the way, he was spotted at Dodger Stadium (I believe several weeks later) signing autographs to young black kids. Great role model. Hell, I'll take a beating for almost $4 million.

Please, Black America (not all; just the ones who are PRO-BLACK; By the way, you're American, not African-American (unless you're born in Africa)

WAKE UP ON THIS RODNEY KING SITUATION!

[–] ZacAtak83 21 years ago

Upon further consideration, I stand corrected and I shouldn't have leaped to the conclusion that I did regarding the officers' tactics. However....
- I said the riots were justifiable (meaning: there was reason, or justification for them). I did not say they were right. I also said that we often need to look beyond our own justification (hence the reason for there being laws). You should really read more carefully.
- For your information, the totality-of-the-cricumstances approach is most often utilized by the Rehnquist-led Supreme Court to carve out exceptions to the exclusionary rule. Are you saying its a bad approach...except when utilized by the highest judiciary power in the land?
- Your assertion that I'm "spewing liberal propaganda" is mindless. If you read THE VERY FIRST SENTENCE OF MY POST, you'd realize that I have no love for Rodney King nor do I see him as anything other than a criminal. Instead, my contention was that just because he was a criminal (and, at that time, one who had not been convicted by a court of law), the actions of the officers arresting him should not be overlooked and certainly not applauded. There are people out there who see these cops as heros and would gladly do the same thing if given the chance. My question to you isn't whether cops should be allowed to use force (they should), but whether justice should be taken from the people and replaced with vigilantiism?
- I'm working on a Law and Justice minor at the College of New Jersey. What's your point regarding credibility?
- While I'd like to thank you for providing the factual information regarding King (I was under the impression that they utilized a lot more unethical tactics than merely kicking him), I encourage you to read more carefully in the future and stop leaping to conclusions. I did not have the information when I made my error. My post was right there in front of you. What's your excuse?

[–] 21 years ago

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[–] ZacAtak83 21 years ago

You obviously have no grasp of how the law works. Rodney King deserves to be sitting in a prison cell (for the rest of his life if California has a 3 strikes law), NOT having the crap kicked out of him by police officers who were armed AND outnumbered him. If anything, the cops kicking him into submission made him a sympathetic figure, which he clearly would NOT be otherwise. I'll concede that his case was overly politicized, his injuries exaggerated and his illegal conduct mitigated by the media. However, can you honestly tell me that if a white person was driving recklessly and resisted arrest, the cops would have kicked him or her too? Hell, Rebecca Gayheart (actress....see her bio on IMDB) committed vehicular homicide and I don't think she even served any jail time! Believe me, Rodney King is NO hero....but neither are the cops who arrested him! The following words are not my own, but come from a professor of mine who was with the Trenton PD for 28 years (most of the time, as a street cop): "The officers in the King case were not justified in beating him. When you have cops acting like criminals, what's the point of having cops?"

PS: I'm just curious: do you think the blacks played the race card in the Diallo case as well?
PPS: I have respect for police officers of any gender and ethnicity. I realize its a dangerous job and force has to be used sometimes. However, I have a big problem with cops administering justice on the spot: that's for a judge and a jury to decide. "Innocent until proven guilty" is a pillar of US Law. Yes, beating King might seem "reasonable" to you and to me and to many others perhaps, but that doesn't make it right!

[–] 21 years ago

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[–] ZacAtak83 21 years ago

-There is a difference between being sensitive towards matters of race and "playing the race card." People like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton pretty much always play the race card in the sense that they take stances on issues only inasmuch as it benefits their race for them to do so. Contrarily, questioning racial implications is not "playing the race card" in the sense that the purpose isn't to GAIN anything for a race but merely to raise questions regarding the role of race in what happened. In other words, to definitively say that Rodney King was beaten because he was black would have been ridiculous, but to wonder if race MIGHT have had something to do with it is considerably less so.

-For your information, whites play the race card consistently as well. Look no further than Rush Limbaugh's comments that Donovan McNabb only recieved praise because he is black (the Eagles had a losing record at the time...funny how Rush didn't say anything when McNabb was leading them through the playoffs the season prior. Also funny how Rush ignored the fact that Warren Moon assembled a hall-of-fame carreer with relatively little media attention, but I digress). Or, look at the reactions of some white people when they don't get a job and a minority candidate is hired in their place: "he/she only got it because of affirmative action!" Yeah...and they have no way of knowing what that person's qualifications were, but they nonetheless just assume its because of race. I'm against affirmative action, by the way.

-Yes, your point regarding Diallo was well-taken. If they honestly thought he had a gun, then they honestly believed their lives were in danger and hence had reason to discharge their weapons.

[–] 21 years ago

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[–] Tenaciousd1212 21 years ago

Well i think that it was not so mcuh racist, much he did resist arrest and if you look, he did actually fight back. But, i don't think they shoudln't have beaten him THAT bad. P.S. THIS MOVIE WAS AWESOME:
"ET MOTHERF*CKING COPS DO WHAT MOTHERF*CKING COPS DO"
Best russell since the thing.

It's not as much as it's illegal as much as it's wrong...

SHAKE THE CRIME STICK!

[–] chrissportsnut 21 years ago

The media just magnifies this whole thing.(just like it does on EVERYTHING regardless of topic) My point was that in L.A. (race card or not) policeman can no longer do theie jobs in dealing w/ hard criminals. Especially if there Black. Jackson and his entourage just make matters worse. They make Blacks look bad via the media. Thus, creating more racism. Everybody can sue everybody. It's total *beep*.

If my dad (who is white) suddenly shoots up and drives 100 mph on the streets, I would not care if he was severely beaten to a pulp. I would understand, though I would be sad. And I love my dad. Everybody, every citizen must be held accountable for his or her actions. Excessive force is needed when dealing w/ a big man who is definitely under the influence of a designer drug. For he feels less pain, and has the toughness/is fearless (at the time) of several men. This isn't 2 kids in the street where they make it one on one to keep it fair. All races, when putting other's lives at risk, must suffer consequences. I'm not talking 'Fight Club' here. I'm just saying shatter the LAWBREAKER/POSSIBLE MANSLAUGHTER'S LEGS and throw his ass in the cop car, regardless of race. Consistency is the key. Notice all the car chases that have spawned since the King case. Notice cops are in the bushes w/ radar guns instead of out on the streets busting bad guys. (they know where sh it is going down; Black cops white cops, they can't do their job, especially a white cop V. a Black criminal; cops nowadays just turn a blind eye) Policemen can't draw their weapons. The word 'FREEZE' doesn't mean a damn thing. People don't listen, then a lawsuit is ensued. Obey the law (especially when innocent people's lives are at stake) or suffer the consequences. But that won't happen. The media will just blow it out of proportion and there's nothing but red tape.

Mr. ZacAttack, you might be technically smarter than me when it comes to criminal law. BUT YOU KNOW (ON BOTH SIDES OF THE FENCE) WHAT IS AND WHAT IS RIGHT ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.