According to TMZ, the fiancee of Rodney King, he knocked on their window at 5am after a night drinking and smoking pot and then she heard him jump or fall in the pool. The next thing she knew he was dead in the bottom of it. Some of Rodney's friends don't believe her story and have told detectives but at this point, the police don't suspect foul play. It's hard to believe its been 20 years since the riots. You would think he would be way older than 47, but he was so young when he was beaten by the police. For the one season he was on Celebrity Rehab I was glad the show was on the air because it gave everyone a chance to kind of know him and what he has gone through in his life since the beating and what he dealt with on a daily basis. I just wish he had a chance to really get clean and enjoy life.
His season was the only one I watched and I'm glad I did. He showed a side that a lot of folks never saw. He was tormented every day of his life, I hope he finally has peace.
ReplyDeleteI found him to be the most likable and genuine person ever to appear on any of those celebrity rehabs. He wanted to be afforded a chance to get clean and change his life and mend his family relationships, not just get screen time. I was really saddened when I heard this yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI wish people would stop feeling sorry for this jackass. He was not a nice person, he was a manipulator and a wife beater. Everything that happened to him was his fault. In addition, his drug of choice was PCP. If he hadn't died, he probably would have moved onto bath salts. He should have been thrown into prison amny times over but people were afraid to be called racists. Goodbye, you POS.
ReplyDeleteThank you skydives1! I didn't want to be first this time. He was a psychopath, plain and simple. All psychopaths will make you feel sorry for them over and over and over again. This is a perfect example of the costs of psychopaths to society.
DeleteRemember kids - serial killers destroy families. Psychopaths destroy societies.
I'm glad he will cause no more harm. I hope his gf gets some PTSD therapy. She has to be reeling right about now.
I wish people would stop feeling sorry for this jackass. He was not a nice person, he was a manipulator and a wife beater. Everything that happened to him was his fault. In addition, his drug of choice was PCP. If he hadn't died, he probably would have moved onto bath salts. He should have been thrown into prison amny times over but people were afraid to be called racists. Goodbye, you POS.
ReplyDeleteWhat's so old-fashioned about peace, love and some empathy?
ReplyDeleteWhat @Brenda Love said. May Rodney rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteI will feel sorry for skydives1, instead.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm with Brenda as well. That was really harsh, skydives. You may believe, or know, what you speak of, but it doesn't put you in a very nice light to be speaking that way. No doubt about it, Rodney was a flawed guy, as most of us are, but despite (or in spite of) those flaws, he touched something in a lot of people. This is sad, any way you slice it.
ReplyDeleteSurfer - don't get sucked into this. All his troubles were of his own making. Look at the resources expended and stop to think what if those resources were spent on someone that could actually get better. Look at all the normal people that need a little help but get nothing. And Dr Drew is no saint or savior in all this either. He should well know there is no helping plenty of these people Michael Lohan.
DeleteI knew him. I stick by what I said.
ReplyDeleteMay he RIP....I was a child when that happened, but I remember the huge impact. He might have done some terrible things, but that is what we have prisons, courts, judges, and juries for. Vigilante justice by government paid employees is never right.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree NaNa LaLa. More of what I'm talking about. You would have to be without conscience to beat another human like that.
Deleteso sad to hear this yesterday. i was really rooting for him to turn his life around.
ReplyDeleteit's not good karma to speak ill of the dead. if you have nothing good to say, don't say it at all.
Cosette - I thought about that. Fact is that more people need to save their empathy for those who have the same. And more people need to be called out on it. I'm willing to do that in the name of education. Look at Mask of Sanity. Everyone should know this - especially those who are going to breed.
Delete@ skydives1- sorry that you knew him, I just don't know what else to say. Enty, he really did have a chance to get clean , this is your SECOND post re this. Why?
ReplyDeleteI am a correctional officer and EXTREMELY skeptical when I hear a sob story from an individual with a history rich in substance abuse and felonious activity. With that being said, after watching his season of Rehab I was impressed with the person he appeared to be. I'm not talking about his counseling sessions with Dr. Drew or anyone else for that matter. I focused on his dealings with the other patients when he himself wasn't the focal point of the issue. He seemed genuine about his sobriety, forthcoming with his faults, and sincere in his attempts to come to grips with everything that happened. Idk.....For once I was baffled by the fact that my bullshit meter wasn't off the charts. i felt for him. May he rest in peace. His scumbag tendencies did not excuse the actions of my fellow law enforcement brethren.
ReplyDeleteLiteNOTSObrite - I believe that's termed glib and superficial charm. Take a look at the wiki page for PCL-R for more guidelines. There are special classes for LEO on this. HALO
DeleteI have spent over a decade on death row. I'm confident it has given me first hand knowledge and the tools to recognize an insincere sociopath. But thank you for the education you have attempted to give me.
DeleteFrom what I've read and heard, his death sounds suspicious. I don't think LAPD wants to investigate though.
ReplyDeleteThe tape of the beating speaks for itself.
ReplyDeleteThe police have an extremely difficult and stressful job, and it's unfortunate that the bad ones, make it more difficult for those who adhere to policy and procedure. The Rampart scandal a few years later exposed corruption and abuse of power within the police department that contributed to low morale within those officers who were trying to do a good job. A few bad apples can ruin it for the good ones.
I've had a lot of family memebers who were not only alcoholics and drug addicts but abusive as well. The mere fact that he attempted to get sober speaks volumes to me. Its easy to hate on those who never get rid of their demons but I hold no ill feelings for him. I wish my parent would have gotten help, not even to be sober but just to get help. When you let that hate out of your heart, life is so much rewarding.
ReplyDeleteRejectedcarebear - It was an attempt to make MONEY. That's all. Plain and simple like a psychopaths damaged mind. There was no attempt to ever stay sober. Take another look. The information is out there.
Delete__-__=__ - I'm just a softie. I'd like to believe that as he got older, he had regrets about his past behavior.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing this once: Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.
Surfer - not really. Psychopaths never change. They may put on the mask for awhile if they can gain something but then it's back to the same game. Please don't learn the hard way as I have. None of us have enough life to learn from our own mistakes. Cleckley first wrote about this in 1940. Discovery did a show about this recently with the shock treatment test. Check it out.
DeleteEveryone has a path in life, who are we to judge what his path was? And he walked a hard path. His time here is over. I guess I just don't understand hate.
ReplyDeleteIf his time on TV impressed even one kid to to give up drugs (and we just don't know, do we?), then that life is not in vain or worthless.
ReplyDeleteWhile I feel some sympathy towards him (I don't think he deserved the beating he got), it's hard for me to be sympathetic towards a known wife-beater. I don't know his story well enough to judge whether or not he's a sociopath (or psychopath). I do know that day when he said "Can't we all get along?" I felt a tremendous amount of sympathy for him as he seemed to be horrified as to what was happening and didn't wish rioting to occur because of this. He had plenty of chances - in fact, more than most addicts - to get clean and he didn't do the work necessary to stay clean. One horrific incident that happened to him does not give him a free pass on the other things he did.
ReplyDeleteMy point is this....I personally believe Lindsay Lohan is a sociopath. Yeah we all snark on her, but should really feel like she should die because she can't get her life straight?
ReplyDeleteAs a very wise friend of mine said yesterday, going through life knowing that your experience (no matter how indirectly) contributed to something like the LA riots must have been soul-crushing.
ReplyDeleteHe's treated like Rosa Parks, but he was a belligerent, PCP fueled recipient of LAPD's finest baton blows. Glad LAPD was exposed, but he's not exactly a hero in my book. Should we be discussing and mourning the loss of the other quarter of a million people who died on that day?
ReplyDeleteI'm on the side of those that didn't fall for RK's bullshit. Nope, he didn't deserve the beating he got (neither did Reginald Denny) but that one beating did NOT give him a free pass for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteI agreed Brenda Love. If one person learned from his life mistakes then they were mistakes worth making.
ReplyDeleteI do not and will never have enough facts to decide if he was a good guy, bad guy etc, so I will refrain from judging the man.
I just wish well for his family and loved ones.
Very nicely written.
ReplyDeleteI have no lack of empathy for the addicted. It's rough getting off a substance that has captured you and not going back to it is even tougher. It is, however, dishonest to say "I just wish he had a chance to really get clean and enjoy life." It's an empty feel-good sentiment. He did have that chance. Repeatedly. Also babbling on about "chance" distracts from the fact that abuse of drink and pot can be just as deadly as more notorious substances.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I heard he drown, I knew he was either drinking or doing drugs, passed out, then slipped under the water. Happens all the time.
ReplyDeleteThis falling into the pool, if true, doens't disprove this theory. Maybe he hit his head.
Sadly, his lot was cast long before the beating. He was a substance abuser and spoke openly about his struggle.
He was a visible example of the stuggle thousands of people quietly face every day.
I was such a square pre-teen, there was a supermarket that was being looted during the riots and our house was two streets across but in the line of sight of that market. I was scared the rioters would turn their attention to our house so I packed up some of my favorite stuff in a box and I was ready to book. A socially confident person would have joined in the looting, I was ready to horde and hide.
ReplyDelete@_-_=_: WHAT is with your obsession with psychopaths?!? I've noticed this for several months now--whenever you post, 99% of the time it's to rant about psychopaths and how they're everywhere, how every other person out there is one, books that talk about them, etc. etc. etc. Please understand, I'm truly sorry if you were badly hurt by one (or more); nobody deserves that (OK, another psychopath might, but they never do go after each other...). However, there are other things to talk about, other ways to look at the world, and other filters to use in so doing, and IMHO it feels as if you've been beating this particular dead horse so much and so long that it's gone beyond dead, to decomposed, to completely skeletonized, and you're still bashing away at the dry bones...and for what? Your relentless hammering away at the topic runs the risk of turning off those who might otherwise be your supporters, and then where will you be? Please, enough!
ReplyDelete*******************
As for the late Mr. King: while he wasn't exactly a model citizen, I don't think he was evil, either--he had his good and bad qualities, with sometimes one coming to the fore, and sometimes the other one. His place in history isn't for changing things himself, but for unintentionally being a catalyst for change; it was through his case that the public at large became aware of issues w/the LAPD, and I don't believe he neither had any idea that he was an inadvertent match to a powderkeg until it was too late, nor condoned any of the resulting violence. I, for one, will leave his judgment to whatever Supreme Being is out there (who, presumably, would know his true nature much better than I ever would, and would therefore be in a far better position to judge him, using both justice and mercy), and will merely wish that he rest in peace.
(tl;dr: Yes, he was a fuckup, but he was still a human being who was both good and bad, so I'm going to leave the judgment to God. "Judge not lest ye be judged" and all that, you know...)
*steps down off soapbox* *whew!*
Glad you noticed! It's not just me but goverent, big pharma, financial institutions, LE and more. So when people buy into this, and I have opportunity, I will continue.
ReplyDeleteThat's all for today. Carry on.........
True psychopaths are extremely rare. Maybe you're confusing them with 'just' sociopaths? MUCH more common diagnosis. MUCH more functional in every level of society also, etc.
ReplyDeleteThank you Robin and libby!
ReplyDeleteThe psychopath crap the is seriously starting to piss me off. Psychopaths and sociopaths are pretty rare, people with antisocial personality disorder or narcissistic personality disorder are more common, and there are studies that show that all can be treated. Maybe you went through some really tough shit in your life with someone who was, or who you believed was, a psychopath, but your repeated acusations of psychopathy are grating and lack any basis.
Another Josh please enlighten me in regards to the "other quarter of a million people who died on that day".....
ReplyDeleteWow some people in this post! Just Wow! RIP
ReplyDeleteDr Drew must be freaking out!!! The rate he is losing his former patients is scary!!!
ReplyDeleteI realize they are all addicts, but STILL.
Ya know...having read everyone's comments I come away with this. Unlike the average drug addicted scumbag who has had multiple chances to deal with his immediate family and issues that arise from his/her addictions, RK had to deal with whatever issues got him hooked to begin with, compounded with the end result of an entire city and it's residents having to feel the wrath of his circumstances as well. I know that was a giant run on sentence as grammar isn't my strong suit. lol! But I can't even begin to fathom the weight of that burden he had to carry on his shoulders.
ReplyDeleteLove him or hate him the Guy was a part of American history. TRUE, he's no George Washington, but he still managed to cement his name in American history. He was high on crank (or something) and speeding on the highway when caught, which IMO, deserves a bit of a beating. But when I learned of his passing, couldn't help feeling a bit sad for him. After all his quote was one of the most memorable and mocked quotes of all time. I don't even need to mention it cause we all remember it.......RIP Rodney. SMH
ReplyDeleteJust want to correct a popular myth perpetuated in the LAPD's defense - he was NOT high on PCP the night he was beaten; this was proved by the tox screening. He was drunk and had smoked pot.
ReplyDeleteWhether he ever did PCP before or after that night, I'd have no idea, but he was proven not to be on it that night. It really irks me to see that lie perpetuated, like it helps justify his near-fatal beating.
RIP Mr. King, hope you finally do find some peace.
RIP Rodney King
ReplyDeleteBuh-bye, wife beater, abuser and PCP addict.
ReplyDeleteApproximately one in ten people are sociopaths. Some sources say it's even more than that. They are, by nature, VERY good at hiding what they are.
ReplyDeleteThe Sociopath Next Door by Dr. Martha Stout. Worth a read.
Loving to Survive by Dr. Dee Graham. Also worth a read.
@Robin, thank you so much for expressing what I too feel about __-__=_ constantly labeling people as psychopaths and/or sociopaths. Enough is enough! We get that you've (__-__=_) been in school learning about these personality disorders but playing armchair psychiatrist is lame and potentially irresponsible. No credible professional in the mental health field would throw these terms around in such a cavalier manner, especially in order to diagnose people they have never had actual contact with. So __-__=_, please stop. Or maybe you should consider speaking to a professional and getting help for your constant and irrational need to diagnose celebrities with (perceived by you) personality disorders on a gossip blog.
ReplyDelete