What Ice Cube said about Rodney King

In a 1993 interview, Ice Cube was asked about the Rodney King beating and the resulting riots. His response was as follows:

“First of all, I think it’s important to understand that the Rodney King beating wasn’t the only incident that set off the L.A. riots. There were a lot of other things going on in South Central L.A. at the time, like police brutality and racial profiling. But I think the Rodney King beating was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. It was just one more example of how African Americans were being treated unfairly by the police.”

“I remember watching the news footage of Rodney King being beaten by those police officers, and I was just disgusted. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And then when the officers were acquitted, it was like a slap in the face to everyone who saw that footage.”

“I think that’s why the riots happened. It was just too much for people to take. They were already angry about how they were being treated, and then this happens, and it was like, ‘That’s it, we’re not taking it anymore.’ “