The Watts Riots was a six day long civil rights riot named after a Watts, a mostly black working class neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles. It all started on August 11th, when a dispute between a white cop and a black motorcyclist went bad. The cop accused the black man of being intoxicated, a crowd gathered as the tension grew. Police brutality took place and the crowd grew into a frenzy. From there it escalated and over took the whole area. The rioters proceed to flip cars, destroy businesses while stealing and arming themselves to defend against the police. There were many confrontations over the next few days but once the situation became completely unmanageable 14,000 of the California National Guard. 3,000 arrests, 800 injuries, and 32 deaths later, the riots were over.
There were no real leaders on the side of the rioters. They did however have a unified purpose. They all wanted to see an end to housing and public service discrimination as well as police brutality.
Police Chief William Parker lead on the side of the police and local government. He lead the operations to take down the rioters until it was finally to out of hand. The police were not interested in achieving a certain goal, they were focused on putting down the disturbance.
The Watts Riots was not immediately successful in obtaining social equality. It successfully scared the police and government into fixing issues over police brutality but only to a certain degree. There was still prejudice and racism among many whites at that time, especially cops, so the change was not instantaneous. Consequently it made many whites think less of the black population of the time. It made them out to be a bunch of thugs that would destroy a city, given the chance. It was the equivalent of a stress relief for the black community but did not do them any favors in the long run.
Bibliography
"Watts Riots." Welcome to the Civil Rights Digital Library. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/?Welcome>.
"The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy." The 1965 Watts Riot (Situationist International). Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/10.Watts.htm>.
"Remembering the 1965 Watts Riots - COLORLINES." COLORLINES. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://colorlines.com/archives/2010/08/watts_riots.html>.