Rodney G. King (1965–2012) was an African-American man.
He also happened to be a victim of police brutality.
On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) officers during his arrest, which followed a high-speed chase on I-210.
The event was videotaped by a disinterested 3rd party. That tape was sent to local TV news station KTLA.
What transpired was for all to see and irrefutable evidence of what some suspected happens all too often.
The riots that followed, following the acquittal of 3 LAPD police officers and the jury’s failure to reach a verdict on a 4th, lasted 6 days.
During the rioting, 63 people died and 2383 were injured.
Estimated costs of the riot ran as high as $1B.
King himself suffered fractures as well as soft tissue injury during his arrest, and later won a $3.8M verdict as well as attorneys’ fees.
In an interview on May 1, 1992, perhaps in an effort to pour oil on troubled waters, King asked, “People, I just want to say, ‘Can’t we all get along?’”
Two decades later, King was to die of accidental drowning.
But his memory lives on.
The Soviets launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I (‘Sputnik’ = ‘fellow traveler’), on October 4, 1957.
A metal sphere 58 cm in diameter and weighing 85 kg, it was to orbit Earth at 29K km/hour…
