Did you hear that Rodney King died?
He drowned, and of course they claim
King was loaded.
I wonder if he’s finally at peace?
I wonder if God put him on a special list
of people who really got it bad
while serving their Life Sentence,
a list for the one’s chewed up and spit out
by the white supremacists wearing
badges and carrying guns 
Treating people like animals

I saw the tape
I was a child and saw the tape because
my dad watched the trials every day.

“See! He’s getting up he’s getting up!!” he said
as Rodney’s limp body bounced off the concrete from
blow after blow by the cops who were later aquitted.

“But dad they are using excessive force! Why are they hurting him?!”

(I’d like to think I knew that word when
I was hairless and confused;
confused on why my dad hated Rodney King).

“Because he’s trying to get up!”

“But there are so many of them and he’s barely moving!”

“He’s trying to get up Jon.”

When I saw Rodney King
on Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab,
about twenty years later,
smiling with his two daughters
who he tried to have a relationship with,
and to the best of his ability,
I knew his soul was good.
I knew all along that
Rodney was no different than
Yours Truly:
a man with problems
issues
with tons of damaged love in his heart.

I watched those white cops beat the
be-jesus out of King while my dad
claimed he was trying to get up
(get up and do what? I can only imagine what he presumes)

Rodney King is not dead.
I think about him every day and wonder if his
Daughters are doing well.
I wonder if he forgives those officers and judge
And jury who found these officers
Not Guilty of an act that even a 10 year old knew was more than wrong

 

Even then I knew my dad was worse off than King
as he held his pom-poms
And taught his little boy the
true meaning
Of what I call…Futile Hate.

Rodney King Is Not Dead

By: Jon Vreeland