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Rodney King, the man whose videotaped beating by police led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, was found dead at the bottom of his pool, police said. Mr. King's fiancée found him at the bottom of the pool on Sunday morning at his home in Rialito, Calif. He was 47. "The preliminary investigation indicates that this is a drowning and there are no signs of foul play," said Rialto Police Sgt. Paul Stella. In 1991, a video of police beating Mr. King after a freeway chase in Los Angeles rocketed across the world, stoking national tensions over race and police...

Rodney King -- the man who was at the center of the infamous Los Angeles riots -- was found dead this morning. He was 47. According to our sources, King's fiancée found him dead at the bottom of a pool.

On Friday in response to a Fox News reporter's question about Obamacare, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), a University of Virginia Law graduate, invoked the name of Rodney King calling him a "great philosopher." Not since Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) expressed concern that the addition of 8,000 service personnel and their families onto the island of Guam might cause it to tip over have Americans heard such moronic craziness. Do we really pay the Queen of Racism $174,000 per year?

Today marks the 20th anniversary of America’s last major race riot. It took place in Los Angeles following the acquittal of three white LAPD officers on brutality charges in the beating of black motorist Rodney King. Unbeknownst to the officers, King’s beatdown was captured on videotape by eyewitness George Holliday. The video went “viral” in an age long before YouTube, with repeated airings by television newscasts around the world. The L.A.riot resulted in 53 deaths and nearly 2,400 injuries. The toll also included 7,000 fires, damages to some 3,100 businesses and nearly $1 billion in economic losses suffered by the...

(VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH BOB TUR AT THE LINK) Bob Tur, the L.A. Riots’ Eye in the Sky, on Reginald Denny & More by Matthew DeLuca Apr 26, 2012 9:00 PM EDT Bob Tur invented the news helicopter—and used it to film the beating of Reginald Denny on live TV. He tells Matt DeLuca about his strange souvenir, his wife's warning, and more. Well before the Los Angeles riots broke out on April 29, 1992, Bob Tur knew what was missing from television news: images. Footage of what was happening as it was happening. Not shot from a news van or...

On tour promoting his new book, Rodney King, the Los Angeles man whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police became a flashpoint for the 1992 LA riots, is often asked to put his ordeal into contemporary terms. On the 20th anniversary of the riots, the name Mr. King often mentions is Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Florida boy who was shot and killed on Feb. 26 by a suspicious neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman. The police’s original decision to not charge Mr. Zimmerman with a crime again raised questions about the treatment of black men by police and the courts,...

Its no coincidence that CNN Cable is featuring a sort of 'Remember Rodney King Week,' especially since the Trayvon Martin case has eerily taken on the same format as those riotous days starting on April 29, 1992 that left over 60 people dead, and over 2000 injured, and causing over 1 billion dollars in damage. This was the reaction of King sympathizers who were reacting almost as badly as those who rioted in Memphis, Tennessee in April of 1968 when another King was assassinated - Martin Luther King. I was training with the Marine Corps at the Naval Air Station...

Al Sharpton, Trayvon Martin family urge peace on 20th anniversary of L.A. race riots To mark the 2oth anniversary of the deadly riots that engulfed Los Angeles following the 1992 Rodney King verdict, civil rights activist Al Sharpton and Trayvon Martin's parents are urging peace at events. Sharpton spoke to Yahoo News before he and Martin's family addressed a church on Thursday night. -snip- "I think even though people are angry and as concerned as I am, we don't feel like we have no options," he says. "Unlike [with] Rodney King, there's defined leadership in Trayvon Martin's case who have...

Henry Keith Watson remembers April 29, 1992, as if it happened just last week. History won't allow him to forget it. It was a day that marked the beginning of one of the deadliest, most destructive race riots in the nation's history, and one in which Watson's spur-of-the-moment decision to take part made him one of the enduring faces of the violence... As the liquor store at the intersection of Florence and Normandie was being looted and white passersby were fleeing a barrage of rocks and bottles, Denny stopped his big rig to avoid running over someone. He was quickly...

LOS ANGELES — Henry Keith Watson remembers April 29, 1992, as if it happened just last week. History won’t allow him to forget it. It was a day that marked the beginning of one of the deadliest, most destructive race riots in the nation’s history, and one in which Watson’s spur-of-the-moment decision to take part made him one of the enduring faces of the violence....

When Rodney King learned of the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the news triggered a flashback. “The horrifying sound of a young black male screaming for his life on a 911 call reminded me of my horrifying scream on a videotape 20 years ago,” King, 46, said in a statement released Wednesday by his publicist. "At that time, I thought I was going to die. Very, very gratefully, I survived. Unfortunately, Trayvon Martin did not." It remains unclear -- and a matter of debate -- whether the voice in the background of the...

Rodney King tells TMZ ... he sincerely hopes Trayvon Martin's family will eventually get justice ... but says Trayvon's case makes him realize how lucky he was to have his beating captured on tape. Just days before the 20 year anniversary of the L.A. riots, King was in NYC promoting his new book in which he describes his journey through the violence ... from the infamous beating at the hands of LAPD officers ... to his public plea for peace. "It's not one day that goes by that I don't think about the incident ... I get these headaches ......

One of my favorite pieces of writing to emerge from the 1992 Los Angeles riots is a poem by a writer named Nicole Sampogna, called "Another L.A." In it, the poet traces the odd dislocation of living on the Westside while so much of the city burns. "They send us home early, again," she begins, "supposedly for curfew sake, / but I know it's to beat the traffic." And then: "over there the smoke rises, / horns blare, streets scream, / shoot, loot, / bash windows, bash heads, / lights out / knocked out / by a black & white...

When Florida authorities announced they were charging George Zimmerman with second degree murder in the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, Rodney King told CNN he was not surprised. "The justice system takes so long but it works and I am waiting, like the rest of us, to get to the facts and carefully, thoroughly, get to the truth without drawing conclusions," he said Thursday. While many of the facts in the case are not yet clear, King said he's sure about one thing: the identity of the person whose screams were heard on a 911 call made by...

Rodney G. King Jr. was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon by Riverside County sheriff’s deputies on suspicion of driving under the influence. King, 46, was the subject of the infamous videotaped beating by Los Angeles police in March 1991 that resulted in four officers being tried. Their acquittal led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Since then, King has had frequent run-ins with police across Southern California on a variety of allegations, including domestic violence.

Moreno Valley police have detained Rodney King this afternoon on suspicion of driving under the influence. King, 46, was the subject of a Los Angeles police brutality case in 1992. The outcome of the case and the videotaped beating by officers, sparked the L.A. Riots. Moreno Valley police stopped King on Frederick Street near the Moreno Valley town center. He was taken into custody at the Moreno Valley police station. He is being evaluated for possible intoxication, but has not been booked in Riverside County jail.

I've meant to write about this for sometime but the recent verdict with Casey Anthony was what brought me into writing it. This incident is disgusting and shows that the jury trial, which was considered an important right and cornerstone in our nation's founding HAS been undermined. It shows how far we have drifted from our Christian values and the philosophical values of our godly founders who gave us this great nation. My view of why this happened can be summed up by Rush Limbaugh who pointed to the so called pro-choice movement that advocates legal murder for babies... "You...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRjKWq4NRdkThis is going to be politically correct and albeit offensive to some but tax payer funded police DOES NOT WORK. Like other positions in government there is no incentive that exists for employees to do good most in fact tag along for free handouts from the taxpayers. Add to this liberal communists in power expect us to be solely dependent on them for assistance. Our founding fathers NEVER expected us to be fully dependent on them. This is one of the reasons we have the 2nd amendment. The other thing is that government control means more of an attachment and...

LOS ANGELES - Police beating victim Rodney King is engaged to one of the jurors who awarded him a $3.8 million settlement, RadarOnline reported Tuesday. King and Cynthia Kelley said they first felt a romantic spark when they met in a Newport Beach pizzeria the day after the controversial 1994 jury award. Both were married at the time, which complicated the blossoming relationship. They later separated when King joined the cast of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" after multiple arrests for being under the influence of PCP. Four months ago, King, 44, called Kelley on a whim.

LOS ANGELES - Police say former Los Angeles police Chief Daryl Gates, who resigned in the wake of the Rodney King beating, is seriously ill. Current Chief Charlie Beck told the city Police Commission Tuesday the 83-year-old Gates has a serious malady but provided no details.