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cbunt1 wrote:

57Coastie wrote:

WildBill wrote:Rodney King led a very sad and troubled life. R.I.P.

I sent WildBill my compliments on this post by PM earlier. I sent it by PM in order to perhsps discourage in advance the racist statements I was sure would follow, but which I hoped would not.

Once again my effort failed.

Jim

Did I miss something? What racist statements?

Exactly. Jim, I have to say that while I often do not agree with you, I respect you. But I think you're way out of line here. Racism has not one thing to do with this thread.

Now, let me talk as a resident of Altadena at the same time that Rodney King was a resident of Altadena, and as someone who lived through the rioting that followed the acquittal of the cops who beat him—one of who was himself a black man. Rodney King was a notorious person before his beating and had a rap sheet a mile long; he continued is notorious behavior long after his beating, and his death would have made the news, and probably been posted about on this forum, if he had been born green with purple hair. His color is irrelevant. At the end of the day, his character, or lack thereof, has everything to do with it. Martin Luther King's dream has come largely true. Maybe not at every time, for every person, in every place; but the TRUTH is that most people don't think in racial terms anymore. BUT, they DO recognize the content of a person's character. Rodney King, whether else drove him, was lacking in character. It's too bad he died before he could get his life turned around, but he's NOT the victim here. Ask his wife if she thought he was a victim when he was beating on her. Did he have a trouble life? Yes. Is he a tragic figure? No. He's not. He had ample opportunities to turn his life around, year after year after year. He didn't.

Rodney King was not a good man in life. He was a troubled person yes, but he was also a trouble-maker, a serial spousal abuser, a PCP user, a serial drunk driver, a person who flirted with the gang life. None of this is a comment on his race. My ersatz son at my church, by the way, is a fine young black man who I would be proud to call my real son if I were so blessed. Playing the race card, particularly when there have been no racist statements, is really cheesy.

If we cannot comment on a person's lack of integrity because we are afraid we'll have the race card thrown at us every time, then the result is the tyranny of the minority over good and decent people. Personally, I'm not standing for it.

The Annoyed Man wrote:...If we cannot comment on a person's lack of integrity because we are afraid we'll have the race card thrown at us every time, then the result is the tyranny of the minority over good and decent people. Personally, I'm not standing for it.

Well said, and so very timely. I'm with you!

...I swear, TAM, you could say the plane's on fire and make it sound nice...

with TAM.

People blame RK for a lot of bad things that he didnt do. He did enough bad all on his own, no need to blame other stuff on him.

Nbody threw a riot because RK got a beat down. RK didn't riot, didnt ask anybody to riot, even asked people to stop the riot stuff. The riot was after the trail, but RK wasn't on trial, the trial was for the police who beat him. Looked over the line to me, over the line to a lot of people. Looked like more of the same to the people who lived there, they saw it as police getting away with it, so they rioted.

The riot was stupid nd wrong. but it wasn't RKs fault.

Ya he lived a messed up life, so do a lot of people. I don't make fun and joke when they die, why laugh about this guy?

Bullwhip wrote:People blame RK for a lot of bad things that he didnt do. He did enough bad all on his own, no need to blame other stuff on him.

Nbody threw a riot because RK got a beat down. RK didn't riot, didnt ask anybody to riot, even asked people to stop the riot stuff. The riot was after the trail, but RK wasn't on trial, the trial was for the police who beat him. Looked over the line to me, over the line to a lot of people. Looked like more of the same to the people who lived there, they saw it as police getting away with it, so they rioted.

The riot was stupid nd wrong. but it wasn't RKs fault.

Ya he lived a messed up life, so do a lot of people. I don't make fun and joke when they die, why laugh about this guy?

FWIW, I never blamed the rioting on him. I've always blamed it on the rioters. We have the power to make decisions, including immoral ones, and that includes the decision to riot—and loot and burn—and that lays on the heads of the rioters. Also, I have not made fun of Rodney King once in this thread.

What I did was speak the truth about him. Heck, I'm not even mad at him. The people I'm mad at are those who, with the enabling of the media, speak of Rodney King as if he were a hero the civil rights movement. He's NOT, and he NEVER was. In real life, Rodney King was a screw up. The fact that he drowned was most likely just another screw up in a long chain of screw ups. That's not humor, that's truth.

And again, whether the beating he received at the hands of the LAPD was righteous or not (I've never actually decided one way or the other for myself), it was DEFINITELY not racially motivated..........not when one of the guys doing the wuppin' was himself a black man. A case of excessive force? Could be....maybe was. OTH, if King had complied with officers from the get-go, he would not have gotten beaten—because random squads of LAPD don't just drive around looking for people to beat up. That's another truth. But all of that said, King got pulled over because he was driving under the influence (again) and it showed in his driving. He was lit enough that he would not cooperate with officers in a legitimate arrest effort. I don't know what else they could have done, except either let him go, or shoot him. Neither of those possibilities was acceptable. The ONLY choice they had was to subdue him. He resisted being subdued. He could have ended it all simply by giving up. He didn't.

None of that is very funny. In fact, it's pathetic........which is a good word to describe Rodney King's life: "pathetic." Not "pathetic" as in being an object of pity; but "pathetic" as in a waste. People can choose to criticize my words because he's dead now and cannot defend himself, and I'll acknowledge (but disagree with) that criticism. But I'll be hanged if I'm going to let someone label me as a racist because I speak truth about someone. Truth and clarity are what I seek, and to be very clear, every single thing I've said about him would be true regardless of his color, and his color did not make him what he was. The most insidious thing about casually thrown charges of racism is that it implies that people of color are limited by their race and therefore unable to rise to the standards of society. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that we have had in recent years a black President of the United States, two black Secretaries of State, two black National Security Advisors, multiple black members of the House of Representative and the Senate, black Supreme Court Justices, etc., etc., etc., not to mention state legislators, mayors, judges, doctors, lawyers, law enforcement officers, firemen, and other local and state officials is proof of the fact that we are for the most part a POST-racial society. The only people who keep trying to call us a racist society and who try to censor truth when it comes to the politics and sociology of race are the race hucksters; and I bitterly resent it when the race card gets thrown because the only thing it does is to alienate people one from the other, divide us into racial camps, and undoes the last 60 years of progress in race relations.

Playing the race card is disgusting, and it is even more disturbing when it is played by someone whom I normally respect very much. I sincerely wish he could see that.

Oldgringo wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:...If we cannot comment on a person's lack of integrity because we are afraid we'll have the race card thrown at us every time, then the result is the tyranny of the minority over good and decent people. Personally, I'm not standing for it.

Well said, and so very timely. I'm with you!

TAM, that's probably one of the most profound statements I've seen in a while...you managed to put succinctly into words much of the frustration I've been dealing with around the "politically correct" movement lately. Thank you!

The Annoyed Man wrote:

Bullwhip wrote:People blame RK for a lot of bad things that he didnt do. He did enough bad all on his own, no need to blame other stuff on him.

Nbody threw a riot because RK got a beat down. RK didn't riot, didnt ask anybody to riot, even asked people to stop the riot stuff. The riot was after the trail, but RK wasn't on trial, the trial was for the police who beat him. Looked over the line to me, over the line to a lot of people. Looked like more of the same to the people who lived there, they saw it as police getting away with it, so they rioted.

The riot was stupid nd wrong. but it wasn't RKs fault.

Ya he lived a messed up life, so do a lot of people. I don't make fun and joke when they die, why laugh about this guy?

FWIW, I never blamed the rioting on him. I've always blamed it on the rioters. We have the power to make decisions, including immoral ones, and that includes the decision to riot—and loot and burn—and that lays on the heads of the rioters. Also, I have not made fun of Rodney King once in this thread.

Just being clear here TAM, I din't mention you, wasn't even thinking about you. I din't call names because I wasn't replying to anyone in particular. Just hear a lot of comments around the water cooler about his death that were in bad taste and blaming him for burning down south central.

I just reminded everyone that what a lot of people blame him for he din't do. He was no saint for sure but only give him credit for what he really did.