Rodney King remembered at funeral as forgiving man
Rodney King's casket is carried out of the Hall of Liberty at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, in Los Angeles, Saturday, June 30, 2012 after a memorial service. / AP Photo/Grant Hindsley
Updated 11:24 PM ET
(AP) LOS ANGELES - Rodney King was remembered in Los Angeles on Saturday as a forgiving man who bore the scars of his infamous beating with dignity.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, said before the funeral that King never showed bitterness to the officers who beat him.
"People should not be judged by the mistakes that they make, but by how they rise above them," Sharpton said outside the Hall of Freedom at the sprawling cemetery grounds. "Rodney had risen above his mistakes. He never mocked anyone — not the police, not the justice system, not anyone."
"He became a symbol of forgiveness," Sharpton said.
The funeral came nearly two weeks after King was found dead at the bottom of the swimming pool at his Rialto, Calif. home on June 17. He was 47.
Family members held a private service early in the day, followed by a public memorial and burial. Mourners signed a guest book and surveyed newspaper clippings from the days when King dominated headlines in 1991 and 1992. A large photograph of a smiling King was set on an easel.
Daughter Laura Dene King, 28, said she was proud to have had her father in her life for as long as she did, especially considering she almost lost him when she was six years old.
"I will remember his smile, his unconditional love," she said.
Rodney King 1965-2012
Several donors helped pay for the funeral, the reception afterwards, and other arrangements. Television producer Anthony Zuiker donated $10,000, and said he was at the funeral to show support for King's family.
"We lost a symbol, but they lost a loved one," said Zuiker, creator of the CSI: series.
Lawrence Spagnola, who co-authored King's 2012 book "The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption," sat with family members at both services.
The family can be proud of the "amazing degree of grace and wisdom" with which King carried himself after being violently thrust into the media spotlight, Spagnola said.
King's death is being treated as an accidental drowning but authorities are awaiting autopsy results to determine the official cause of death.
He became famous after his beating by Los Angeles police in 1991 was captured on videotape and broadcast worldwide, as were photos of his bloodied and bruised face.
The images of the grainy video became a national symbol of police brutality. It was played over and over for the following year, inflaming racial tensions across the country.
More than a year later, four officers charged with felony assault in the beating were acquitted by a jury with no black members. The verdict sparked one of the most costly and deadly race riots in U.S. history.
During the unrest, which left more than 50 people dead and caused more than $1 billion in property damage, King famously pleaded for peace by asking, "Can we all get along?"
His famous words were embroidered on the lid of King's casket, next to a portrait of him.
"He never asked if people would remember Rodney King. But he wondered if they would remember those words," Spagnola said. "I told him, `long after you're gone, your words are going to live.' And I think he took some solace in that."
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Rodney King Funeral Conversations 4 Connecting Short
Rev. Al Sharpton Remembers Rodney King
I witnessed as CHILD a beating of a person who was on the ground, and LATER, i LEARNED he had a broken leg and fracture arm as result of the beating FROM THE START OF BEATING.. I knew in my heart what I witnessed on TV wasn't RIGHT, I thought they (police) was trying to KILL this blackman on the ground, I knew it was because he was a blackman that is why they were continuing to beat as he lay on the ground.
Anyway that was america THEN and STILL the problem with race relations and the hall of justice in america. So if Mr. King would have died as result of the lynching beating? The LA police would have said, this was his fault, but thank GOD for video tape, where that LIE would not walk in the hall of justice...and Mr. King did not died as result of the despicable lynching beating JUSTIFIED. I doubt Mr. King wouldn't fight that many police who beat him, he had a broken leg and fracture arm as result of the beating for starters, he NEVER fought the police from starters, he ran from them that is what he did, nothing MORE.. he laid out on the ground when they caught and just started beating him..nothing is new here.. run away slaves where treated the same..caught and beat to within a inch of his or her life..depending upon how much they were WORTH to the slave owner.
Its unforunate what happened with Mr. King and the LA police dept..and the TRIAL which acquitted the COPS who beat Mr. King, however, Mr. King sued and was awarded millions in civil court, which states the COPS were WRONG to do what they did to Mr. King.
..the aftermath.. only HELP improved the LA Police Dept from the overt racist attitude displayed..
..and as result of the King beating instilled a more diversed and racially BALANCED LA police dept upon representation..however at that time of the King beating, the LA police dept was mainly if not totally anglo-saxon males..neo-cons..
..so with the ever present diversity instilled from that point forward the LA police dept is BETTER..and race relations between the two has improved by leaps and bounds..
Please see my comment below. I don't feel like typing it again!
No one has ever said that those LAPD officers didn't have the right to pursue Rodney King and take him into custody. He broke the law and it was appropriate to apprehend him and take him into custody. That's what police officers do. What outraged people was the way that he was beaten into submission when he was taken into custody. The fact that he was arrested is not a license to treat him like an animal that had to be "put down" with a little "LAPD street justice."
The Rodney King case did not happen in a vacuum. There was a string of cases leading up to the Rodney King case involving minority citizens of Los Angeles getting killed by LAPD officers under very dubious circumstances. The LAPD had a long history of abusing people...they just didn't have the proof of what was happening until the Rodney King videotape surfaced...
...and then that Simi Valley jury just said "Go away boy...not guilty!"
That's what caused the riot. Rodney King is no hero...but you just don't treat people like animals, take away their humanity and then dismiss the anger of an outraged community when they object and call you out on it.
White surburban arrogance and racism that was willing to justify, tolerate and excuse the mistreatment of people like Rodney King caused that riot. Rodney King just happened to be the one whose beating was caught on videotape.
He wasn't the only one.
I will have to respectfully disagree with you.
Rodney King absolutely deserved to be handled exactly as he was. King was treated like the animal he was.
Yes, the negro community was thourougly outraged by his handling. You have to remember, the entire city of LA at the time was a simmering pot, ready to explode.
The mentality within the negro community at the time was US against the system, the police, and especially whitey.
The negro community had always whined that the police had abused people, shot criminals in an unjustified manner, or had been unfair in the treatment of the vicious gangster mentality that was so popular within their communities.
The Simi Valley jury came to the correct verdict. I never had any doubt as the case played out. The police were fully justified in their handling of a violent criminal. You act like an animal, you get treated like one.
The gangster mentality that was so prominent in the negro community is the only thing responsible for the crazy riots that ensued.
The suggestion that white suburban arrogance and racism caused the LA riots is a ridiculously stupid assumption. King and those like him deserved to be treated exactly as they were. People who act like animals should be treated as such.
The people doing the complaining were responsible for allowing the gangster culture to infect their communities as well as in many cases, covered for criminal activity in an effort to keep friends and family members from landing in prison.
The fact that those cops were never in any danger from Mr. King was proved by the couple of dozen LAPD officers who were standing around and watching. The only thing that they were trying to do was to get a better view of the action. The knew that their fellow officers were in no real danger. Of course, when it came time to testify against their fellow officers, they all said that they didn't have a clear view or didn't see anything. One supervisor was even excused from testifying in court because he had a doctor's note. That was a total farce. Another officer had the arrogance to testify that the officer who beat Rodney King within an inch of his life demonstrated "a weak use of the baton."
These people were liars then and people who try to claim that Mr. King presented any danger to them are liars now. Of course, about a year-plus later, the LAPD was exposed for the routine liars that they were at that time during the so-called Ramparts scandal when dozens of criminal cases had to be dismissed because of routine and blatant perjury by dozens of police officers.
Like I said, there was a whole string of cases that led up to the Rodney King case. It didn't matter whether the victims were men or women. One of them who was killed was an elderly grandmother. The only thing that they had in common was that they were Black or Brown. Suspects in custody were dying as a result of "choke holds" that the LAPD police chief publicly attributed to the allegedly unique anatomy of Black people.
There was a search warrant that was served on about 2 blocks of apartments in the middle of Los Angeles's Bloack community where the LAPD just destroyed everybody's personal possessions and made two entire blocks of buildings unliveable...and they fould fewer drugs and guns that you would find in an half a block of any predominantly White surburb of Los Angeles.
That was the LAPD at that time. They have cleaned up their act quite a bit since then...but not because they really wanted to. They were forced to by the feds and by the political leadership of an outraged city.
The LA riots were the most dispicable display of criminality in America at that time!
Outstanding observation!!
You're the man!!
I am not trying to get him off the hook - he WAS a criminal.
But it does explain WHY the police had to use force. If he was baked, incoherent (100MPH lends credibility to this), etc, he's more likely unable to listen, and if he was in an aggressive mood, under a mind-altering substance, he would lash out and need subduing.
And, as I said below, the police unquestionably went well above and beyond lawful authority in subduing a person. That wasn't subduing, that became as much savagery as any other form of beating.
There were NO heroes that day.
Maybe police should use tranquilizer darts instead of nightsticks? Then again, if mind altering substances have been used, a tranquilizer could have a traumatic effect and be even more detrimental to the already-baked drug user. I'm not of the biological sciences, but it's theoretically possible. Bio-scientists, please chime in...
The police? Did the video tape capture sufficient context to rule out that Rodney needed to be subdued in the first place? Was he willing to go along quietly or did he start to fight, which then does authorize police to use just enough force to subdue him. Anything more becomes a different story...
And NOBODY is questioning the police went too far - that much is obvious and just as despicable. Once a guy is down, you don't continue attacking with ferocity.
There were many issues/contexts with the case.
And the race-related aspect certainly didn't help either.
There were NO heroes in that beating, what led to it, and its horrific aftermath. Yes, he said those words, about forgiveness. Did he use them legitimately, out of a sincere desire for the cause of society, or solely to put on a show to make people emote in his favor? If the former and depending on whom he was addressing, I'm likely to agree. If the latter, I'm inclined to disagree.