The King is dead

Celebrated criminal Rodney King assumed room temperature early Sunday morning in California. He was found at the bottom of his pool by police officers called to the scene by his girlfriend.

Until I read an article on Yahoo, I didn't know (or care) that King had been treated by the almost famous Dr. Drew Pinsky on "Celebrity Rehab". The Yahoo article stated that King "turned to alcohol to numb the pain of what he went through'. Interesting statement as he had been drinking the night that he lead police on a high speed chase that ended with his beating by the LAPD. Why had he turned to alcohol that night? Maybe to "to numb the pain" of his earlier robbery conviction?

This from the Yahoo news article:
"King was found at the bottom of his swimming pool in Rialto, California, in the early hours of Sunday morning after his fiancée Cynthia Kelly -- who served as a juror in King's 1994 civil suit against the city of Los Angeles for his brutal 1991 beating at the hands of the police -- called 911. Kelly has reportedly told authorities that King was drinking and smoking marijuana in the hours before his death. Around 5 a.m., she awoke to her fiancé nude and beating on a window. Next thing she heard was a splash. Attempts to revive King were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead an hour later."

You just can't make this stuff up!!! He wakes her at 5:00 by beating on the window? He's nude? None of these are cause for alarm for this woman??

In a demonstration of how times have changed, the police arrived and pulled King from the bottom of the pool. Rescuers tried to revive him, but to no avail.

King's death is a reminder of the 1994 riots in Los Angeles after the acquittal of the officers involved in King's beating. The riots lasted several days until the National Guard was called in to quell the violence. There are those who point out that the riots ended because the Postal Service had suspended mail delivery and government checks could not get through until the riots ended. You pick!

In contrast to the riots of 1994, can you recall the riots after the acquittal of O.J. Simpson for killing two white people? Wait, there weren't any. Just a little more of that diversity thing.