Rodney King (famous for the Rodney King beatings and later LA riots) was found dead in a swimming pool today at the age of 47.

He's the third contestant from "Celebrity Rehab with Doctor Drew" to pass away in the past 12 months.  :-\\

Rodney King (famous for the Rodney King beatings and later LA riots) was found dead in a swimming pool today at the age of 47.

He's the third contestant from "Celebrity Rehab with Doctor Drew" to pass away in the past 12 months.  :-\\



beat you by an hour and 20ish minutes http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=46335.msg2884835#new
just didn't want to post it here cuz I don't think of him as a celebrity

Rodney, oh dear.

He put the SUI in suicide.  Swimming Under the Influence!
:\'(

RIP Rodney King.  :(

... I don't think of him as a celebrity


He was on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew so I figure that confirmed his celebrity status.

He was on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew so I figure that confirmed his celebrity status.



Have any actual celebs appeared on (So-Called) Celebrity Rehab? I think they are mostly former celebs and wannabes  :D

Have any actual celebs appeared on (So-Called) Celebrity Rehab? I think they are mostly former celebs and wannabes  :D


Well many of the contestants are down on their luck and might have been considered "former" celebs.  Some of the bigger names have been:

Danny Baldwin
Brigitte Neilsen
Gary Busey
Tawny Kitaen
Lisa D'amato  :-*
Mackenzie Phillips
Dennis Rodman
Leif Garrett
Sean Young

To give you an idea of how hard-core some of the contestants have been, two lesser-known ones were Steven Adler (who was thrown out of Guns 'n' Roses FOR DOING TOO MANY DRUGS), and Mike Starr (who was thrown out of Alice in Chains FOR DOING TOO MANY DRUGS).  I mean damn, if you get thrown out of those bands for excessive drug use, you gotta go well above and beyond the call.

Well many of the contestants are down on their luck and might have been considered "former" celebs.  Some of the bigger names have been:

Danny Baldwin
Brigitte Neilsen
Gary Busey
Tawny Kitaen
Lisa D'amato  :-*
Mackenzie Phillips
Dennis Rodman
Leif Garrett
Sean Young

To give you an idea of how hard-core some of the contestants have been, two lesser-known ones were Steven Adler (who was thrown out of Guns 'n' Roses FOR DOING TOO MANY DRUGS), and Mike Starr (who was thrown out of Alice in Chains FOR DOING TOO MANY DRUGS).  I mean damn, if you get thrown out of those bands for excessive drug use, you gotta go well above and beyond the call.



I've never heard of the two band members mentioned...hell I don't even know what Alice in Chains is...

and Danny Baldwin is that the Baldwin brother even Steven looks down on?  The others I would say warrant mention in the dead celeb section but Rodney King was more a newsmaker than a celeb.

He was on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew so I figure that confirmed his celebrity status.


The guy who invented cheeseballs is a celebrity around here!
;)

I've never heard of the two band members mentioned...hell I don't even know what Alice in Chains is...


You're not alone, I guess.  When the late Mike Starr was on CRwDD, he was always telling people he was the bass player for Alice in Chains.

beat you by an hour and 20ish minutes http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=46335.msg2884835#new
just didn't want to post it here cuz I don't think of him as a celebrity


Everyone knows who Rodney King is.  He might not be a celebrity in the sense that he has been a music, movie, or TV star, but I would consider him a famous person. 

I hope Rodney can find the rest and the peace that he didn't have in life.    :\'(

Everyone knows who Rodney King is.  He might not be a celebrity in the sense that he has been a music, movie, or TV star, but I would consider him a famous person. 

I hope Rodney can find the rest and the peace that he didn't have in life.    :\'(



It's just me. I specifically started the thread in the current politics section because I don't consider him a celebrity. Yes his name is nationally known and all but in my eyes he's not a celebrity.  I'm not saying he deserved the extent of the beating he got but people forgot that he was evading arrest and failing to comply with orders. The full extent of the beating was excessive but from an officer safety stand point the first few blows were warranted.  I just think it's unfortunate that most of America has only seen the edited tape and not the full video footage. 

I remember when it all started with him in the early 90's. The place where he was beaten (and caught on video cam) is a short distance away from where I used to live. And then the trial whose verdict sparked the L.A. riots a year later.



Everyone knows who Rodney King is.  He might not be a celebrity in the sense that he has been a music, movie, or TV star, but I would consider him a famous person. 

I hope Rodney can find the rest and the peace that he didn't have in life.    :\'(

Well said; I hope the same thing. On the local news this morning there was archive footage of him stating that he wanted to live a better life.

It's just me. I specifically started the thread in the current politics section because I don't consider him a celebrity. Yes his name is nationally known and all but in my eyes he's not a celebrity.  I'm not saying he deserved the extent of the beating he got but people forgot that he was evading arrest and failing to comply with orders. The full extent of the beating was excessive but from an officer safety stand point the first few blows were warranted.  I just think it's unfortunate that most of America has only seen the edited tape and not the full video footage.


I understand that he was evading authorities, but I cannot FATHOM why it was necessary to kick and continue hitting him when he was already down.  IMO it was an American tragedy. 

I understand that he was evading authorities, but I cannot FATHOM why it was necessary to kick and continue hitting him when he was already down.  IMO it was an American tragedy.


Like I said at some point it did become excessive but there are parts of the video where's he's trying to get back up...unfortunately that's an officer safety issue. the truth is officers want to lay one the ground flat out with your hands and legs apart but as he kept moving there was no way to know if he had a gun or not.  The problem with the video is it picks up in the middle. He didn't come out of the car right away and he didn't lay down right away.  The full video is like 12 minutes but there doesn't seem to be a full version online...only a minute or two...you can't form an informed opinion from a minute or two of excerpted video...it just doesn't cover all the variables.

Like I said at some point it did become excessive but there are parts of the video where's he's trying to get back up...unfortunately that's an officer safety issue. the truth is officers want to lay one the ground flat out with your hands and legs apart but as he kept moving there was no way to know if he had a gun or not.  The problem with the video is it picks up in the middle. He didn't come out of the car right away and he didn't lay down right away.  The full video is like 12 minutes but there doesn't seem to be a full version online...only a minute or two...you can't form an informed opinion from a minute or two of excerpted video...it just doesn't cover all the variables.


You can tell King was down on the ground for quite while with those cops laying into him at will.  He's lucky he didn't die right there on that roadside.  I'm not saying King was an innocent victim of random brutality, but if the officers were not able manacle and immobilize him without so much mayhem, they sucked at their jobs.

You can tell King was down on the ground for quite while with those cops laying into him at will.  He's lucky he didn't die right there on that roadside.  I'm not saying King was an innocent victim of random brutality, but if the officers were not able manacle and immobilize him without so much mayhem, they sucked at their jobs.



Not denying some mistakes were made but I'll still lean more on the cops side than Rodney King. 

Not denying some mistakes were made but I'll still lean more on the cops side than Rodney King.


"Mistakes were made!  We were invited! There was punch and cake!"  (Well, there was a double helping of punch.  Cake, not so much. :)

Ever notice how when this stuff happens, "mistakes were made", in the passive voice?  I love reading press releases in these cases.  They're so predictable.  I keep a copy of my favorite essay handy and I just tick off the offenses against language as they come along.  (I'm not partisan on this - anything written by a lawyer, bureaucrat, politician, or businessman is subject to the same analysis.  Higher the score, the less I'm inclined to believe them.)

" ... the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds ("by examination" of instead of "by examining"). The range of verbs is further cut down by means of the -ize and de- formations, and the banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of the not un- formation. Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as with respect to, having regard to, the fact that, by dint of, in view of, in the interests of, on the hypothesis that ; and the ends of sentences are saved by anticlimax by such resounding commonplaces as greatly to be desired, cannot be left out of account, a development to be expected in the near future, deserving of serious consideration, brought to a satisfactory conclusion , and so on and so forth."
  - George Orwell, Politics and the English Language.

For what it's worth, I think you're both right. 

Rodney King was a bank robber who didn't comply when arrested.  Despite his efforts to clean up his act after the trial, he exhibited poor impulse control for the rest of his life.  And four LAPD officers grossly abused their powers when they assaulted him. 

Can't we all just get along?

The full video is like 12 minutes but there doesn't seem to be a full version online...only a minute or two...you can't form an informed opinion from a minute or two of excerpted video...it just doesn't cover all the variables.


By the way, on that point, you and I are in full agreement.  I remember the trial, and I know that the original video is much longer than the 90 second clip that's regularly aired.  I'm as surprised as you are that in an age where everything ever recorded to VHS has been upped to YouTube (this board practically specializes in finding 20-30 year old videos of commercials and TV shows!), something of this much historical significance somehow slipped down the memory hole.

"Mistakes were made!  We were invited! There was punch and cake!"  (Well, there was punch.  Not sure about cake. :)

Ever notice how when this stuff happens, "mistakes were made", in the passive voice?  I love reading press releases in these cases.  They're so predictable.  I keep a copy of my favorite essay handy and I just tick off the offenses against language as they come along.  (I'm not partisan on this - anything written by a lawyer, bureaucrat, politician, or businessman is subject to the same analysis.  Higher the score, the less I'm inclined to believe them.)

" ... the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active, and noun constructions are used instead of gerunds ("by exa
mination" of instead of "by examining"). The range of verbs is further cut down by means of the -ize and de- formations, and the banal statements are given an appearance of profundity by means of the not un- formation. Simple conjunctions and prepositions are replaced by such phrases as with respect to, having regard to, the fact that, by dint of, in view of, in the interests of, on the hypothesis that ; and the ends of sentences are saved by anticlimax by such resounding commonplaces as greatly to be desired, cannot be left out of account, a development to be expected in the near future, deserving of serious consideration, brought to a satisfactory conclusion , and so on and so forth."
  - George Orwell, Politics and the English Language.

For what it's worth, I think you're both right. 

Rodney King was a bank robber who didn't comply when arrested.  Despite his efforts to clean up his act after the trial, he exhibited poor impulse control for the rest of his life.  And four LAPD officers grossly abused their powers when they assaulted him. 

Can't we all just get along?


I owe you another Karma for Mr. O. 

Didn't Rodney get arrested for beating up his old lady a few years ago?  "Poor impulse control" is the phrase.  He was the kind of guy who would always manage to get in trouble.  I've know people like that in my own life.  It's hard to be friends with them because when you're with them, you might get in trouble too!
:o

All the riots accomplished was more scapegoating of poor African-Americans for fundamental injustice from the top.  Pat Buchanan was particularly vocal about how the black hooligans victimized the decent small business owners of "Korea Town."

Didn't Rodney get arrested for beating up his old lady a few years ago?  "Poor impulse control" is the phrase.  He was the kind of guy who would always manage to get in trouble.  I've know people like that in my own life.  It's hard to be friends with them because when you're with them, you might get in trouble too!


Pretty much.  If I read between the lines, we've got two 90-day domestic violence convictions in the late-90s.  Broke a convenience store window because they wouldn't sell him booze.  Driving on a suspended license.  Disturbing visitors at a park in 2001.  Crashed a car into a house at a high rate of speed in 2003.  Got shot while riding away from people he claimed were trying to steal his bike.  DUI arrest last July.  A lot of those are pretty hard to fake; your license is either suspended or it isn't.  The car's either embedded into the side of the home or it's not.  You either showed up at the hospital with birdshot or you didn't. 

Woulda liked to have seen him kick the habit and better himself, but in defense of the cops (and I'm typically the last to defend the cops), the cops weren't his problem.  Having had the crap beaten out of him, by all accounts he dealt with the cops calmly and professionally, and the cops, having similarly had the legal crap scared out of them, were inclined to deal with him just as calmly and professionally.

But it's hard to look at a track record like that and claim he'd cleaned himself up.  He might have tried, and many - myself included - would have loved to have seen him succeed, but in the end, he failed. 

RIP, Mr. King.

Rodney was scheduled to do a celebrity boxing match in a few months with Jose Canseco.

Back in '09 he did a celebrity match with Simon "The Renegade" Aouad, a former Philly cop, and won.

Rod's autopsy results came out today.  They found traces of THC, coke, alcohol, and PCP in his system.  The theory is that the mix of drugs caused a cardiac arrhythmia.  :-\\

Those 4 drugs are one heck of a mix, yikes.

Rod's autopsy results came out today.  They found traces of THC, coke, alcohol, and PCP in his system.  The theory is that the mix of drugs caused a cardiac arrhythmia.  :-\\

Those 4 drugs are one heck of a mix, yikes.


Yeah, you gotta ease up on the partying when you get into you forties because your ticker starts getting tired!
:o

Dr. Drew REALLY needs to stop "helping" people. Rodney is like one of three or four of Dr. Drew's former patients that have died in the last few months. Him, Jeff Conaway and then some musician.

Dr. Drew REALLY needs to stop "helping" people. Rodney is like one of three or four of Dr. Drew's former patients that have died in the last few months. Him, Jeff Conaway and then some musician.


So you think it's partially his fault? ???

Dr. Drew REALLY needs to stop "helping" people. Rodney is like one of three or four of Dr. Drew's former patients that have died in the last few months. Him, Jeff Conaway and then some musician.


Mike Starr (bass player for Alice in Chains)
Jeff Conaway (cast of Grease)
Rodney King (of the Rodney King beatings)
Joey Kovar (reality show dude)

Starr, Conaway, and King were absolute hard-hard-core addicts, nobody coulda helped them (but themselves). Kovar, I forget his story.

I am surprised that Shifty Binzer and Steven Adler have not made the list by now. Those are two more hard-core users.

Steven was thrown out of Guns n Roses for excessive drug use; same story with Mike Starr and AIC. To get thrown out of THOSE bands for doing drugs.... well you have really distinguished yourself as a user's user.

I wouldn't finger Dr. Drew for it.  The good lord himself can't help you if you don't stop using them drugs!
::)

Dr. Drew REALLY needs to stop "helping" people. Rodney is like one of three or four of Dr. Drew's former patients that have died in the last few months. Him, Jeff Conaway and then some musician.


Now, now, now... as has been said here, those people were hard hard-core addicts, progressed in their addictions to the last stages. Do you think they would have allowed themselves to be on that show if they had not been on their last legs anyway? 

No, the people that get help from programs like that are addicts and their families who watch it.

It's an educational show.  :)

(And do we know anything about people who have been on that show who ARE doing well? I don't, I haven't looked into it.)

::)  I personally think Steve Adler is another Keith Richards. He just WON'T DIE!

And I feel sorry for the people that get tied up in stuff liek that. Maybe I'm just too frugal or something. But it's a waste of money and it only destroys/kills you. If they wanted to die, instead of lingering with shivers and the vomits and flying poops of withdrawal, pick out a nice tall skyscaper, ride the elevator to the top, say a prayer and jump.
Saves money.  :(

Now, now, now... as has been said here, those people were hard hard-core addicts, progressed in their addictions to the last stages. Do you think they would have allowed themselves to be on that show if they had not been on their last legs anyway? 


Jim Conaway would feign all sorts of ailments and then find a doctor to prescribe him "pain killers".  That's one of the sad aspects, there was no shortage of physicians ready, willing, and able to prescribe him more drugs.  >:(

Mike Starr, by the time he got on CRw/DD, was in my opinion beyond all help.  The moment nobody was looking, he'd score dope.  He didn't want to listen to anybody and did not give one crap.  In one episode he puked on the hardwood floor of his bedroom  8-P and thought nothing of it and made no attempt to clean it up.  I have no doubt that the very day he exited the Sober House set, he walked right on to the nearest dealer and scored more dope.  He was a particularly sad character because while he had been kicked out of Alice in Chains like 20 years ago, he made it a point to introduce himself to everybody as "Hi, I'm Mike Starr, bass player for Alice in Chains".  Seems to me after he got kicked out of the band, the only things he had in his life were his former fame and his dope.

At least he got to paint a bikini onto Kari Anne Peniche.

Rodney King, well while he was on CRw/DD he was pretty much a model contestant.  Followed all the rules, did all the work, the whole bit.  But his history was one of constant recidivism with alcohol.  He was an alcoholic and PCP user before the LA Cops put the smack down on him, and due to his fame he could walk into pretty much any bar or party and people would "buy one for Rodney".

In the end, none of these guys can blame Dr. Drew for their demise.  Dude is not a miracle worker.  :-\\

Okay, maybe I jumped the gun.  I'm sorry.