Rodney King 20 years after the 1992 Los Angeles Riot

 Rodney King was interviewed by Al Sharpton on the Syndication One News-Talk Radio Network

Story by AP

Written By John Rodgers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — We saw his face a bloody, pulpy mess. And in 1992, when the four Los Angeles police officers who beat him after a traffic stop were acquitted, it touched off anger that affected an entire generation. Now, 20 years later, this is the face of Rodney King, and this is what has happened to him in the interim.

He's been a record company executive and a reality TV star among many other things.

To millions of Americans, though, he will always be either a victim of one of the most horrific cases of police brutality ever videotaped or just a hooligan who didn't stop when police attempted to pull him over.

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This file photo of Rodney King was taken three days after his videotaped beating in Los Angeles on March 6, 1991. The photo is one of three introduced into evidence by the prosecution in the trial of four LAPD officers in a Simi Valley, California Courtroom, March 24, 1992. The acquittal of four police officers in the videotaped beating of King sparked rioting that spread across the city and into neighboring suburbs. Cars were demolished and homes and businesses were burned. Before order was restored, 55 people were dead, 2,300 injured and more than 1,500 buildings were damaged or destroyed. (AP Photo/Pool,File) 

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He's indisputably the black motorist whose beating on a darkened LA street led to one of the worst race riots in American history.

It's been an up-and-down ride for King since he went on television at the height of those riots and pleaded in a quavering voice, "Can we all get along?"

He's been arrested numerous times, mostly for alcohol-related crimes. In a recent interview with The Associated Press he said, "I still sip, I don't get drunk."

He has been to a number of rehab programs, he said, including the 2008 appearance on "Dr. Drew" Pinsky's "Celebrity Rehab" program.

Still, he was arrested again just last year for driving under the influence.

It was his fear of being stopped for drunken driving on March 3, 1991, King said, that initially led him to try to evade police who attempted to pull him over for speeding.

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This March 3, 1991 file video tape shot by George Holliday shows what appears to be a group of police officers beating Rodney King with nightsticks and kicking him as other officers look on. Thursday, March 3, 2011, marks the 20th Anniversary of the video taped beating. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck says his department has gone through sweeping reforms since the 1991 Rodney King beating, and he doesn't think his officers would engage in such a videotaped assault today. 

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After he did stop, four LA police officers hit him more than 50 times with their batons, kicked him and shot him with stun guns. A man who had quietly stepped outside his home to observe the commotion videotaped most of it and turned a copy over to a local TV station.

After a jury with no black members acquitted the officers on April 29, 1992, the city's black community exploded in rage. Fifty-five people died, more than 2,000 were injured over three days.

King received a $3.8 million settlement from the city, but said he lost most it to bad investments, among them a hip-hop record label he founded that quickly went broke.

He makes money these days taking part in events like celebrity boxing matches. He's also promoting his just-published memoir, "The Riot Within: My Journey From Rebellion to Redemption."

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In this May 1,1992 file photo Rodney King, right, makes his first statement, pleading for an end to the rioting in South Central Los Angeles, in Los Angeles stating: "Can't we all just get along?". At left is King's attorney Steven Lerman. On April 29, 1992, four white police officers were declared innocent in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, and Los Angeles erupted in the deadliest riots of the century. (AP Photo/David Longstreath,File)

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A tall, physically imposing man who is disarmingly friendly, self-effacing and soft-spoken, King, 47, maintains he is happy.

"America's been good to me after I paid the price and stayed alive through it all," he says. "This part of my life is the easy part now."