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WATTS & RODNEY KING RIOTS LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA This article is about the Watts riots and the racial segregations

Watts is a neighborhood in the area of south Los Angeles, California. It is known as the city where the riots occurred in 1965 and lasted for about 7 days but then later occurred again in 1992. For example in the book southland some parts of the story described how the riots began and it also talked about how the riots and discrimination became very intense throughout time. However the book Southland is based on a true story because it tells how many people in parts of Los Angeles had to face discrimination and drama.

CONTENTS

1. Background 2. Residential Segregation 3. Police Discrimination 4. Subject related to Southland                                                                                                                             https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wattsriots-burningbuildings-loc.jpg 5. The riot 6. History of the 2 riots

BACKGROUND

The Watts riots occured on August 11-17 in the year 1965 and many people were discriminated, injured and even murdered during the event. However many African-Americans had to relocate different cities such as New York, Chicago or Detroit in order to escape racial segregation and discrimination in the southern states. Therefore in the 1940s many African Americans migrated to the west coast in large numbers in response to defense industry recruitment at the start of World War II.

RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION

During the riots, most parts of Los Angeles had to be segregated by ethnicity meaning certain areas in the city should only include a certain race and other races would not be permitted to enter the areas. There was also discrimination when people wanted to rent apartment buildings or live in areas where they weren't allowed to due to their ethnicity. In fact in the 1950s South Los Angeles became one of the most significant and racial violent cities in LA due to the violence and the racial discrimination towards African Americans.

POLICE DISCRIMINATION

Not only were African Americans being treated unfairly by the other citizens, but they also had to face discrimination by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Many of the police officers have been pulling over black people and arresting them due to their ethnicity and even for other issues such as not having proof of being US. citizens, and the cops wanted all of them out of the neighborhood or they would be kicked out of the neighborhood or even killed. Therefore the cops have also been using excessive force against black people and many of the people in the neighborhood have been reporting the brutality, but even though the abuse was said to be reported, the police were still free and were not suspended from the police force due to all the damage they have done to people around the neighborhood especially Rodney King.http://colorlines.com/archival_images/watts_0965.jpg

SUBJECT RELATED TO SOUTHLAND

In the book Southland in chapter 7 it described how Jackie had a conversation with James Lanier about a police officer who was said to be discriminating and using excessive force against many people around the city, and James Lanier had told his partner Robert Thomas about the issue and both of them had to investigate the crime that has been commited by the racist police officer.

THE RIOT

The riot was basically a dangerous event that led many people to injury and even death due to all the chaos and brutality that has been going on during the 1965 riots and the 1992 riots. In fact about $4 million dollars had to be estimated due to the damage of buildings, homes and even stores that have been looted by thieves. Many stores have been looted because there wasn't any money to pay for expenses or other payments and all this was a big crisis. Here is the total of how many buildings were damaged and destroyed and how many stores have been looted.

BUSINESS AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS   PUBLIC BUILDINGS                        TOTAL Damage/burned: 258                      Damaged/burned: 14                      272 Looted: 192                                                                                            192 Damaged Burned and looted: 288                                                           288 Destroyed: 267                                Destroyed: 1                                    268

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100165971/rodney-king-saved-my-life/la-riots-1/

HISTORY OF THE 2 RIOTS

The 2 riots known as the Watts riots and the Rodney King riots are known as one of the most dangerous and intense events in history. Currently many people still remember when the riots began and how depressed feel about how many people have been murdered. These 2 riots made south Los Angeles a very unpleasant neighborhood to live in because of all the trouble that has been going on and gangs that have been making the neighborhood even worse for people to live in. However many people had to relocate areas far away from Watts to live in that way people can feel safe and sound and to avoid the violence in the neighborhood.

SOURCE http://allpower.wordpress.com/teaching/teaching-activities-2012/the-controversy-of-the-watts-riots-by-luis-diaz/

RESOURCE http://crdl.usg.edu/events/watts_riots/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my3doRW-HWA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv3-EBiGw4o

DESCRIBED CONNECTION

One of the deciptions of Southland was as we said before when in chapter 7 about the discussion about the police officer who has been intensely discriminating others due to their ethnical backgrounds, and how James Lanier and his partner Robert Thomas had to further investigate the issue. This was technically a real event because its based on police brutality that actually occured during both the Watts and Rodney King riots.

HUBERT GOMEZ 11-7-13 ENGLISH 100 PROF. OGDEN