Features

LOS ANGELES — His name is known throughout the country, and a decade after his notorious beating he remains a potent symbol of police abuse and racial unrest. 

But Rodney King never sought that role and he’s never known how to play it. 

In the years since he uttered his famous plea – “Can we all get along?” – King has seldom spoken in public, even though he has repeatedly found himself in the media spotlight. 

His life after the beating has been marked by run-ins with the law and squabbles with attorneys over the $3.8 million settlement in his lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles. 

He flirted with a music career and started a rap recording label, but quickly abandoned it. He earned his high school-equivalency degree, went to work for his brother’s construction company and honed his surfing skills. 

“Rodney never chose to be an icon,” said Renford Reese, a political science professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona who has counseled King and brought him in to address his classes. “He got beat one night, and all of a sudden he becomes a symbol for racial reconciliation and police reform. But he was never trained to be a change agent.” 

King, now 35, declined to be interviewed for this article. 

Renee L. Campbell, one of his attorneys, said the memory of what happened on March 3, 1991, still brings flashbacks and remains too painful to revisit. 

That night, a bystander videotaped the surreal scene as four white Los Angeles police officers beat King, who is black, after a car chase. The events captured on the tape, shown repeatedly on television, eventually forced Police Chief Daryl Gates to resign and made King a household name. 

When the four officers were acquitted a year later, the city erupted in riots. Two of the officers were later found guilty in federal court of violating King’s civil rights. 

Before the beating, King’s missteps went unnoticed. He was on probation the night of the beating, but who knew or cared that a janitor’s son and one-time Dodgers Stadium usher had been convicted of robbery? 

After the beating, King’s life has stayed under the microscope. 

“Rodney is an ordinary guy, he has the same kind of typical problems that everyone has, normal family problems, what have you,” Campbell said. “To his misfortune, because of his celebrity, whatever happens to him, be it an argument or a shouting match, it can get escalated and turned into something completely different than what it was.” 

Just two months after the beating, King was arrested on suspicion of trying to run down a police officer after officers in Hollywood allegedly saw him pick up a transvestite prostitute. No charges were filed. 

He’s been pulled over by police and convicted once of drunken driving. He also was convicted of hit-and-run driving for an incident involving his wife and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor spousal abuse in a separate incident. He’ll be on probation until 2003. 

Through it all, King has made stabs at giving his life a positive direction, handing out gift certificates on Martin Luther King Day, starting the rap label and exploring plans for a book and a youth foundation. He lives in Pasadena, spending time with his three daughters and doing construction work. 

For now, his grand plans have faded. King lost about half his settlement money in ongoing litigation with former attorneys over payment of legal bills. Those who hoped he’d emerge as a civil rights figure or a force behind police reform have been disappointed. 

“I’ve thought about what an opportunity (was) lost,” said Milton Grimes, King’s attorney between 1992 and 1994. 

Grimes later sued him over legal bills. 

“Racism and police brutality was captured on a $300 video camera. We’ve spent millions of dollars trying to prove it exists, and here we’ve captured it on tape,” Grimes said. “Had it been someone more worldly, more articulate, more insightful, the public might have benefited from it.” 

King is described as gentle and thoughtful, a person who values his privacy. Campbell said King still believes in what he said during the riots – that people need to get along.