they arrived. and they found rodney king at the bottom of his swimming pool. the officers jumped into the pool and removed him and began cpr with mr. king. mr. king was unresponsive. rialto fire department paramedics arrived on scene and immediately transported him to the arrowhead regional medical center where he was later pronounced dead at about 6:11 this morning. we are joined on the phone now by los angeles times columnist pat morrison. pat, thanks for joining us. basically, this was a californian who was clocked by police as speeding. they tried to pull him over. it led to a car chase, topping speeds of over 100 miles an hour. when he was finally stopped, there was a brutal beating, a fight was then tape-recorded by someone who was watching and then led to a year-long tension in los angeles. i wonder if you can put this death and this man s life into perspective as far as history is concerned of race relations. i spent a lot of time with rodney king at the end of