Rodney King, symbol of LA Riots, bailed after DUI charge

GlobalPost
The World

Rodney King has been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, the latest in a long line of offenses since he became a symbol of police brutality in 1990s Los Angeles.

Officers pulled King, 46, over Tuesday afternoon in in Riverside County in California, the BBC reports. 

He was reportedly driving a 1994 Mitsubishi when officers observed him committing "multiple infractions," according to the Chicago Tribune.

"No word on what substance King was allegedly under at the time of the arrest," the Tribune reports.

In 1991, King's vicious beating at the hands of four LAPD officers after a police chase through the San Fernando Valley was captured on videotape. 

An airing of the video on TV caused outrage across LA and the officers tried.

Their acquittal sparked the LA riots of 1992 which lasted four days and left 55 people dead.

Meanwhile, the Tribune has listed King's run-ins with the law, namely:

  • 1991 — Arrested on suspicion of trying to run over a vice officer who allegedly found him with a transvestite prostitute in Hollywood.
  • 1992 — Arrested for DUI, but again no charges were filed.
  • 1993 — Entered an alcohol rehabilitation program and was placed on probation after crashing his vehicle into a block wall in downtown Los Angeles with a blood-alcohol level twice the legal limit.
  • 1995 — Arrested for DUI in Pennsylvania. He was tried and acquitted. Later that year he was arrested for allegedly hitting his wife with his car. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail after being convicted of hit and run.
  • 2001 — Arrested in Claremont and charged with being under the influence of the psychedelic drug PCP.
  • 2005 — Arrested after allegedly threatening his daughter and ex-girlfriend.
  • 2007 — King told authorities he was sprayed with pellets from a shotgun while riding his bicycle near the border of San Bernardino and Rialto. Rialto police, who were the first to respond, said King was intoxicated when they arrived and that it was difficult to decipher what had happened.
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