Monday, 18 June 2012 09:08
Share Link: 
Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the US history, has died, his publicist says.
King was 47.
King's death was confirmed to the Associated Press news agency on Sunday by Suzanne Wickham of Harper Collins, who published King's 2012 book The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.
His fiancee found his body at the bottom of a swimming pool, but there was no sign of foul play, the BBC reported.
The 1992 riots, set off by the acquittals of the officers, lasted three days and left 55 people dead, more than 2,000 injured and portions of Los Angeles on fire.
At the height of the violence, King pleaded on television: "Can we all get along?"
King was stopped for speeding on a darkened street on March 3, 1991. Four Los Angeles police officers hit him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns.
A man who had quietly stepped outside his home to observe the commotion videotaped most of it and turned a copy over to a television station.
It was played over and over for the following year, inflaming racial tensions across the country.
It seemed that the videotape would be the key evidence to a guilty verdict against the officers, whose trial was moved to the predominantly white suburb of Simi Valley, California.
Instead, on April 29, 1992, a jury with no black members acquitted three of the officers; a mistrial was declared for a fourth.
Violence erupted immediately, starting in South Los Angeles.
Police, seemingly caught off-guard, were quickly outnumbered by rioters and retreated. As the uprising spread to the city's Koreatown area, shop owners armed themselves and engaged in running gun battles with looters.
During the riots, a white lorry driver named Reginald Denny was pulled by several black men from his cab and beaten almost to death.
He required surgery to repair his shattered skull, reset his jaw and put one eye back into its socket.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
Main_Menu
Other articles in Americas
Avalanche kills snowboarders in Colorado 21 April 2013
Texas state officials lower blast death toll 20 April 2013
Maduro sworn in as Venezuela president 20 April 2013
Second Boston bombing suspect captured alive 20 April 2013
Search continues for Texas blast survivors 19 April 2013
Astronomers find most Earth-like planets yet 19 April 2013
Police swamp Boston as manhunt continues 19 April 2013
Teen 'fearful' after portrayal as US bomber 19 April 2013
Maduro to be sworn in as Venezuela president 19 April 2013
FBI releases photos of Boston blast suspects 18 April 2013
Related
Featured_Author
Opinion
|
Alan Hart and What It Takes to Struggle On |
| Lawrence Davidson | |
|
The UN, Integrated Systems & American Intransigence To Accountability |
| Clive Hambidge | |
|
On Political Precondition |
| Richard Falk | |
|
LGBTQ exclusion of anti-capitalism |
| Soheil Asefi | |
|
Russia Catches CIA Spy Red-Handed |
| Stephen Lendman | |
|
Abolish the IRS -- And the Income Tax with It |
| Sheldon Richman | |
|
Francis A. Boyle, Destroying Libya and World Order |
| Ludwig Watzal | |
|
'Daddy, what is a Drone?' |
| William A. Cook | |
|
The collapse of journalism and the journalism of collapse |
| Robert Jensen | |
|
Buckling to Bigotry |
| Nima Shirazi | |
|
Kurdish Clouds Over Darkening West Asia Horizon |
| K.Gajendra Singh | |
Login
