From Watts to LA

From Watts to LA

Twenty-seven years ago, a young black person, Marquette Frye, was arrested for drunk driving. His mother and brother were arrested when they protested to the California Highway Patrol officer.

These arrests ignited a black community, ground down by unemployment, poverty and exploitation and fed up with racist police.

Around 1000 people gathered on the night of August 11. They were met by squad cars of the Los Angeles police force. Clashes erupted, and the crowd began to destroy police cars.

On August 12, shops were smashed and looted, cars overturned and fires lit. Seven thousand people took to the streets on the night of the 12th. The National Guard was called in to quell the community.

The next five days resulted in 34 deaths, 29 of them blacks killed by police and the National Guard, more than 4000 arrests and the destruction of 600 buildings.

The similarities between Watts '65 and Los Angeles '92 are striking.

Both uprisings were triggered by racist actions by police. The chief of the Los Angeles police department in '65, William Parker, was considered a symbol of racism. In '92 outgoing LAPD chief Daryl Gates has led a police force involved in brutal attacks against peoples of colour and the poor.

In '65 the conditions leading up to the explosion included unemployment, poverty, low wages and disadvantaged education. In '92 the underlying conditions are the same; the difference is that the '92 uprising is larger and includes communities made up of poor and angry people of all colours.

From GLW issue 55