| icant |
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| Joker Uber Member |
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| Reged: 03/06/08 |
| Posts: 21925 |
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 i read it more as she wasn't 100% sure about anyone, b/c you never really know. here's an interview from march 5th & he says he's got 9 months:
03/15/09 12:56 PM
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Pat Harvey Goes One-On-One With Rodney King
Rodney King Discusses Staying Sober, Regrets
Today, Rodney King talks about how a beating captured on camera changed the course of his life.
In our rare interview, he talks candidly about his struggles with alcohol and about why people shouldn't write him off.
"People, I just want to say, can we all get along?"
In the beginning, it was a simple plea to a situation that was anything but simple.
In March of 1991, a 25-year old Rodney King is seen on grainy amateur video being repeatedly beaten, kicked and clubbed by Los Angeles Police Department officers. The footage quickly seared a guilty verdict in the public's mind of police brutality and racism.
So when a mostly white jury acquitted the officers a year later... It sparked outrage and deadly riots around the nation.
Eighteen years later, Rodney King talks about life after a violent confrontation with the LAPD.
"Oh, my life is finally at a resting point," King said. "Everything has soaked in. I understand why things happened to me why like they did. I understand a little bit clearer now. I knew it was wrong to run from them, and once I stopped the car, everything was on them then history began to arrive out fo that night."
History included the appointment of the first African American chief of the lap, Willie Williams, and reforming the racial landscape of police officers in Los Angeles, all of which came out of the historic Christopher Commission, named for the man who would later become the US Secretary of State.
These days, it's one step at a time for King, battling alcohol addiction, a disease that runs in the family.
King began drinking when he was eight, when his grandmother stilled her own whisky and made her own wine. He grew up watching his father drown himself with liquor.
"My father passed, at, um, age of 41? 40?" King said. "Dad died from alcoholism...Time moves so fast so it's scary to for me to look back at it now and see all the events that happened in my life and I'm still alive."
ALIVE AND SOBER
With three daughters, King missed out on most of their childhoods. Two are now adults.
"I'm older now, I'm a grandpa now. It means a lot to have the kids supporting me in my sobriety and all. Family is the best thing to have behind you when you're going through such a painful addiction."
Today, King also thinks about the impact he can have on others, especially children.
He says that's why he's chosen to fight his addiction openly on a reality rehab program called "Sober House."
Having his rehabilitation televised has helped King stay sober.
"You get tired of seeing your self over and over again in the same situation," he said. "Many people knowing who I am and what happened to me... it would be a real mistake on my part if I didn't find my spot in history before I leave this Earth."
A lot of people say why bother with Rodney King? He's been in and out of trouble all his life. He's not gonna change. What does he say to the critics?
"I say that we're all human. And we're gonna make mistakes. Sometimes, it takes time for some of us," King said. "Don't give up on anyone."
He's not giving up, but instead, learning to get along with his own demons.
Rodney King is going on nine months of sobriety.
As to why he ran from police that night, King says it was because he had a new job lined up and didn't want to lose it because of a DUI arrest.
If he had to do it over again...King says he would have pulled over.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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