Since it's breaking news, and since even veteran journalist Howard Kurtz is misquoting Rodney King's most famous line, it seems worth reminding ourselves of what he actually said. He didn't say "Can't we all get along?" or "Can't we all just get along?" He said "Can we....can we all get along? Can we get along?"
Small difference, I know, but when when you're remembered for a specific incident, and for your one-sentence plea when a city goes up in flames, it seems important to get the sentence right.
Here's the YouTube clip, which itself has a headline that gets the sentence wrong:
@Clyde....not that I would be presumptuous enough to speak for att1chgo, but he probably means, at least in part, violations of protocol in gathering and handling evidence as well as possible perjury. You'll remember the judge said the lead detective had a reckless disregard for the truth. I'm not saying I agree with the verdict, but I saw it coming a mile away.
after the footage of this convention was shown,I developed a great contempt for cops...6 months later I was drafted into the army and the contempt also was for army officers,who treated me like a farm animal @times
fmwoodeye, i am sorry to take this off topic and i believe that the events with king were tragic.
i do not believe that the judges statements stood the test of time and if there was misconduct the police involved should have been prosecuted. as were the police in the king beating.
It would be ironic, I hope you'll all agree, if my effort to set the record straight about King's plea for peace led to a thread in which everybody went apeshit.
How about we tone down the politics and attitudinizing just a hair, folks? Would that be OK? I hesitated before starting this OT thread precisely because I wasn't sure folks here would be able to keep things peaceable. Please prove my wariness to have been unfounded. Thanks.
"It would be ironic, I hope you'll all agree, if my effort to set the record straight about King's plea for peace led to a thread in which everybody went apeshit."
Quite.
As much so, if the broadest cast possible were used to actually attempt to tie OJ Simpson and his set of circumstances to Rodney King for some editorial agenda.
Please folks, can't we all stay on a single OT at a time?
This is a damn shame. Rodney King deserved a better life. ---------- Ted Burke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPUDjK-ibQ&feature=relmfu www.ted-burke.com
this will be my last comment on the subject. you have no idea what my thoughts are about o.j. simpson. i never mentioned him or my opinion. my thoughts were soley on your police statement. i have read many and heard all of baileys comments on the case and at the time i did learn something. we all need to learn something ... don't you think
@ Clyde - you are correct, I don't know what your real opinions are. But your comment on playing of the race card, and the question in your response implied that no police misconduct existed in the O.J. Simpson case, and I pointed you to some articles which state some pretty clear facts pointing to police misconduct. That's why I posted the link. Whether you care to look at them is up to you. I have done my part to attempt to educate you on that specific issue. Have a better one.
And I apologize to Adam for making a broad historical statement about a correlation between Rodney King and O.J. Simpson and the LAPD in the early 1990's. I should have known that the mere mention of O.J. Simpson being innocent would elicit such emotional reaction and hijack the thread. Sorry.
Last Edited by on Jun 17, 2012 3:15 PM
Well I hope that my tone reads as mindful and respectful, but let me know. At least I don't feel attitudinal or apeshit today. Yesterday yeah, but not today.
I'm 54 years old and I grew up in the south. Where I grew up wasn't even the deepest darkest side of dixie by any means and yet when I was growing up around there easily the most common word in the english language was the word nigger. It got used as a verb, an adjective, personal pronoun, you name it. I heard it just everyday all the time.
The black people in our town, almost all of them lived in a separate section of rundown houses and apartments that were purposefully set aside for the blacks who could be used by the white population as housemaids, lawn boys, and dishwashers.
As time passed I watched as me and my white friends and relatives went on to decent colleges and jobs while many of the blacks in our community struggled with the lingering effects of american apparthied.
Some of the cops that I ran into down there were openly and overtly racist. I distinctly remember numerous incidents bearing that out that I experienced personally which involved my black friends and myself. Even when there was no immediate, outward hostility shown to black people down there by the cops the infection of racism was just below the surface. ALL blacks knew this and knew it better than anybody.
Looking back I see my own role back then as being degrees too complacent. Although I thought I was an enlightened dude, not prejudiced, etc., I should have at least spoken up more often and talked back to all that ignorance. Sometimes you only have one chance to get it right but you have the rest of your life to do things the wrong way - be thereby advised.
Starting from when I was very young I watched as some of the very best people in this country were assassinated, jailed, or beaten simply for acting on their desire to improve their own lives and often the lives of many others.
To deny that race, or a strident discussion of race and american history is relevent to Rodney King, the LA riots, the blues, a blues forum, or life in general seems silly.
In a forum thread discussing Rodney King you could go for the facts, history, or even discuss trivia if you prefer, but delving into the substance of the thing is just plain basic to what the blues , art, and a good discussion are all about.
