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The Watts and Los Angeles Riots

If they were offered they came at a high price. Many of these neighborhoods did not retail shops, grocery stores. They often had to travel outside their community for goods. The neighborhoods didn't have a short supply of fast food restaurants. Stores like Food 4 Less often charged higher prices citing the increased cost of doing business in these regions, including security expenses and losses from theft (Starr). .
             Besides not having any stores being offered in their communities the people of South Central had a poverty rate that surged to over thirty percent. More than forty percent of adults there were listed "not in labor force" (Saul). Many were disadvantaged when it came to working. Many had to compete with other low-skilled workers. For those who had anything less than a high school diploma finding a job was near impossible. .
             The use of excessive force by police officers added more fuel to the fire. Residents of Los Angeles County had made many complaints on LAPD officers for using excessive force on them. These complaints generally came to nothing when brought before a police review board dominated by officials from the police hierarchy. The Rodney King beating was the confirmation of everything community members had made complaints about. The LAPD earned the prize for being, statistically, the most trigger happy police force in the nation responsible for killing civilians at a rate more than double that of the next most lethal police force (Saul). Since the LAPD is known for being trigger happy this just shows how they would be willing to use excessive force without a problem or remorse. .
             The relationships of community members had been shaped due to race and ethnicity in South Central LA. Many of the stores in South Central were Korean owned and operated. There were cultural misunderstandings and language barriers there. A significant event that added to the misunderstandings and tension of both groups happened in 1991.


Essays Related to The Watts and Los Angeles Riots

1. Discrimination and the L.A. Riots

... , has been an underlining reason for riots. Within the United States there has been a total of 13 riots that were associated with racism (rowen 2015). As seen within society there is a clear distinction between those who enforce the law and those who are to abide by the law. In 1992 the Los Angeles Riots were described to be the most deadly and costly riots. The L.A. riots were a catastrophic event, the product of conflict between police enforcement ... ; specifically white police enforcement and those of color over the corruption of the judicial system. The main cause of the L.A. riots w...

  • Word Count: 1042
  • Approx Pages: 4
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2. The City of Angels Los Angeles

... on crack and shrilly racist evocations... (the media) foments the moral panics that reinforce and justify urban apartheid (226)." The image of Los Angeles as a divided, white vs. black city has been around for some time, with areas like south central and Watts becoming household synonyms for the bad part of town. Media images of the L.A. riots and the O.J. Simpson trial have portrayed Los Angeles as the dark city- the city of fallen angels. On the other hand, Los Angeles is ... also often seen as "one of the true archetypal experiences in American Civilization" (Queenan 20). The image o...

  • Word Count: 1815
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Blaming the Victim - The Crips and the Bloods

... all the traffic stops" (Crips and Bloods, 2008). The Watts riots destroyed a lot of Los Angeles; the city called in the military and declared war against the blacks killing a lot of them. However this war brought the black community closer and saw the rise of groups such as the Black panther party and various other black leaders. These programs and groups brought social awareness and togetherness into the black community. That was until the FBI stopped it "The FBI ... launched an investigation into these groups and Director ... ...

  • Word Count: 1355
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

4. From the Jailhouse to Harvard

... of several racial disorders touched off by charges of discrimination and police brutality. In his work, Rubin Hurricane Carter and the American Justice System, published by Rutgers University Press, Paul Wice effectively sets the tone of America and Patterson in 1966. "In June of 1966 America was tensed for a summer of racial unrest. The watts riots in Los Angeles, California, in August 1965 served notice that other urban centers would ... likely undergo similar disturbances. The poverty and racism underlying these outbursts had not abated, and the long, hot summer about to commence was...

  • Word Count: 1639
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

5. War Between Races

War Between Races The Los Angeles Riots of 1992 marked a recurring problem facing the people of the city as well as the country. Rising racial tension and a police force that justifiably deserved the label "racist", plagued the city of Los Angeles. The lack of policies of chief Daryl Gates and the vicious beating of Rodney King ignited a powder keg. The raw feeling of despair and ineptitude swept through the streets of Los Angeles like wildfire, leaving men such as Greg Alan ... heroes, Gregory Alan Williams, came to the rescue. He dragged Tak through the violent streets of Los Angeles, at th...

  • Word Count: 1634
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Recipe For A Riot

... by an innocent verdict handed down to white police officers in the beating of a black motorist named Rodney King during April of 1992.# This could be the destructive Watts riots of 1965, in which thirty-four people lost their lives during the civil rights movement.# This could also be the "Zoot-Suit" riots of 1943, spurred on by a highly publicized murder, sensationalized ... in a racially biased press. Is racial discord all the city needs to partially destroy itself every couple ... , a bad situation as the result of the formation and activities of youthful gangs, the members of which,...

  • Word Count: 4735
  • Approx Pages: 19
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Gangs

... in the 1940's the geographic location of people became the main contributing factor of gang formation. Not until after the Watts Riots of 1965 would black gangs truly make their stake in Los Angeles. Rivalries began to spring up across the city and violence against one another erupted. In the summer of 1972 the world bear witness to the birth of a monster, the birth of the "Crips" gang. Founded by Raymond Washington the Crips took Los Angeles and the LAPD ... by storm. Due to the media exposure of these true original ... ...

  • Word Count: 2819
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Grade Level: High School

8. 1960s'

... march to Montgomery. They were accompanied by 2,900 military police, U.S. Marshals, and FBI agents. The goal of the march was to serve the governor with a petition protesting voter discrimination. When the crowd reached the capital the governor reneged and blandly told them "the capitol is closed today." By August of 1965 riots began to erupt in Los Angeles. At the end of one week there were 27 dead, almost 600 injured, 1,700 ... funding. Though losing funding many schools were still segregating students. In Louisiana only 1 in 28 black students attended school with whites, 1 in 31 in M...

  • Word Count: 1407
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

9. 1965

... . My father was also one of these soldiers over in Vietnam. And here we are today in the year 2003 getting ready to go to war with Iraq. Another news story which happened on July 1, 1965 was the race riots. For 6 days blacks rioted in the Watts section of Los Angeles: 34 dead, over 1,000 injured, nearly 4,000 arrested, fire damaged was put at $175 million. Those race ... riots were going on all over the United States. As a matter of fact, my uncle was driving down a city street in York ... , Pa that year during a race riot and a brick was thrown through the window of his vehicle. He was ...

  • Word Count: 687
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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