Rodney King: What Have We Learned?

The passing of Rodney King brought back the painful memory of March 3, 1991 in Los Angeles when a man was mercilessly beaten by police officers. The black community did not need conferences to understand the role that race played on that night. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of Americans of all backgrounds were shocked and appalled by what they saw.

The question is not whether King was a model citizen that night or 21 years later but whether the law applies to all citizens. My first reaction to the famous question of “can we just get along” was obviously not.   

Some within the white community with the aid of black conservative sycophants attempted to paint the picture as officers protecting themselves from a man on PCP which later blood tests proved he was not.

We should not sugarcoat the fact that Rodney King was speeding and was driving while intoxicated. Neither should we dismiss the videotape of George Holliday which depicts a group of rabid officers engaging in a violation of civil rights.   

As these officers were acquitted by a jury which excluded blacks, President George HW Bush remarked “viewed from outside the trial, it was hard to understand how the verdict could possibly square with the video. Those civil rights leaders with whom I met were stunned. And so was I and so was Barbara and so were my kids."

Fortunately the federal government intervened and two of the officers were convicted and sentenced to prison. 

The question of what did we learn from this incident suggests a common lesson. Unfortunately that was not and is not the case. The black community learned nothing. The incident simply confirmed what many already knew. The white community was split between what most called a clear case of police brutality and some thought was law and order at work.

Taken by itself the Rodney King incident can be seen by some as an isolated event.

But twenty-one years later Trayvon Martin is shot dead and what do we have. Local police failed in their duties to seek justice, small segments of the white conservative community and black conservative sycophants seek to defend the actions of George Zimmerman. The federal government had to be called in to seek justice and some commentators saying young men should simply change their attire.   

Twenty one years later we have new voter suppression attempts and stand your ground laws funded by corporate America through the American Legislative Exchange Council

Twenty one years later we have thinly veiled profiling through stop and frisk laws

Twenty one years later we have a presidential candidate whose faith once taught that blacks were cursed. Many have sat silently as Mitt Romney in his best Pontius Pilate imitation pretends to wash his hands of his surrogates like Donald Trump who have used race to denigrate the president.

Twenty one years later the Koch Brothers are  trying to segregate the schools of North Carolina.

We have heard Neil Boortz say "This town is starting to look like a garbage heap. And we got too damn many urban thugs, yo, ruining the quality of life for everybody. And I'll tell you what it's gonna take. You people, you are - you need to have a gun. You need to have training. You need to know how to use that gun. You need to get a permit to carry that gun. And you do in fact need to carry that gun and we need to see some dead thugs littering the landscape in Atlanta. We need to see the next guy that tries to carjack you shot dead right where he stands. We need more dead thugs in this city. And let their -- let their mommas -- let their mommas say, "He was a good boy. He just fell in with the good crowd." And then lock her ass up."

Alabama Republican State Senator Scott Beason calls African Americans aborigines and has intimated that we should "empty the clip" when it comes to illegal immigration.

In speaking about the assassination of Martin Luther King, the late James Brown once asked "why should a man have to die for something he should never even have to fight for"

Why is it necessary for lessons to be learned at the expense of those without power?

The actions of today are more stealth than 21 years ago but egregious nonetheless because they reflect the sentiment of some that they are more deserving of America because of their background or ideology

Rodney King did not live a life to be emulated by anyone. But that night in March 1991 showed a clear example of what happens when someone is viewed as a lesser human being.

Despite the riots that followed the acquittal of the officers in the Rodney King case, America has been blessed in that reaction to blatant violations of people's rights has been overwhelmingly peaceful.

The question is whether America will continue to be blessed in that manner. That depends on whether the important lesson of all Americans being treated fairly is adhered to.