Yesterday Rodney King passed away. His 15 minutes of fame
came back on March 2, 1991. What brings this to mind is the tragedy of the
situation. Rodney King was an ordinary man.
Like many ordinary people he lived a life that put him in an extraordinary circumstance.
We see this quite often in life. People
living their ordinary lives, then faced with a circumstance that they didn’t
seem prepared for. Mostly we hear of heroism, these ordinary people pulling strangers
out of wrecked cars or burning buildings.
Rodney King did not wake up the morning of March 2nd
thinking that this day would be dramatically different than all of the others.
He had no idea when events finally played out fifty-three people would lose
their lives. Rodney’s part on this was very small. Through his actions, he simply
made himself available. ( the same could be said for the police officers
involved)
Rodney embraced a life of alcohol and drugs. He was defiant,
living for today. He was on a trajectory of failure. He was convicted of armed robbery
in 1989, serving one year of a two-year sentence. By the time he hit the lime
light in 1991 he was 26 years old, twice divorced and the father of 3 children.
Just prior to his confrontation with police,
his alcohol level was two times the allowable limit. Had this moment in his
life not happened, we would have still read about him in the papers. We just
wouldn’t have noticed.
On that March day, Los Angeles police overreacted to a
simple situation they had been through many times. Their actions propelled Rodney
into the lime light and a new trajectory. One that he was not prepared for and
more than like would have liked to avoid. Rodney was driving a car being chased
by the LAPD at speed up to 80 mph. When stopped by several police cars and at
least one helicopter, his passengers surrendered without incident. Rodney
started acting strange. He made a move that officers interpreted as aggressive.
He later stated that he ran because a DUI would void his probation and send him
back to jail. This was the extraordinary
circumstance. This was the point that Rodney’s life and the lives of several
people would be changed forever. This one decision, we all make them, most go
unnoticed.
Rodney was tasered
and struck at least 56 times with batons. George Holiday caught all of this on
video. Video that would be used at the trial of the officers involved. The
officers were tried in state court and found not guilty of criminal conduct. The
outcome of the trial that ended on April 29, 1992 was the catalyst for the
riots that started right after the verdict. Fifty-three people were killed in
the riots. Twenty-three hundred and eight-three people were injured, there were
around 7,000 fires and 3,100 businesses were damaged. It all happened in the
very neighborhood of the rioters. They burned their own neighborhood down. Two years
later, Lawrence Powell and Stacey Koon were convicted in Federal Court of
violating Rodney King’s civil right and sentenced to 32 months in prison.
Rodney spent the next twenty-two years in notoriety, both a reluctant
symbol of the civil right struggle and the catalyst of anger and rage. Our message today… when we get up
tomorrow morning we will not know the ripple effect of our actions until they
are complete. Are we living a life that could lead to positive or negative reactions?
Are we one road rage away for notoriety? Are we one text message away from multifactorial
events that will change lives forever? The lives of people we don’t even know.
Neither the police officers or Rodney knew the people lost in the riots, yet
each had an impact on their lives and the lives of those who did know them.
