Jason Bethurum

Cal. History 165 1856

5/21/2019
Essay #3

On March 3, 19911 Rodney King who was a felon on parole led police on a high speed

chase through Los Angeles. When he finally stopped the car he continued resisting officers from

the LAPD, who responded with a severe beating. Even after Rodney was no longer a threat the

four officers continued hitting him with batton’s. A citizen happened to catch the interaction on

camera and he released the footage of police brutality to the news media which outraged many

people in this country. Four officers that were involved were put on trial in Simi Valley, Ca and

were found not guilty by a jury of their peers, one count was dismissed as it ended in a hung jury.

This was unsettling to many and resulted in violence and destruction on a massive scale.

On April 29th rioters started blocking traffic then pulling random motorists from their cars and

beating them in the street. They were also pelting passing motorists with rocks and other debris.

A news helicopter showed the violence erupting on the streets and may have influenced others to

participate. The national guard was deployed via the mayor and the governor but they couldn't

stop more than 100 fires, 12 deaths, 100’s of injuries2. During the rioting conflicts between

African American rioters and Korean business community was fierce, having some business

owners to guard their investments with shotguns. The rioting continued into the next 2 days until

President George H.W. Bush sent the military into Los Angeles to stop the fighting. In total 60

people died 7,000 people were arrested, 2000 people were injured, 3000 buildings were torched

and there was almost a billion in damages to the city.3

1
Secondary source ​http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/riots-erupt-in-los-angeles
2
Secondary source ​http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/riots-erupt-in-los-angeles
3
Secondary source ​http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/riots-erupt-in-los-angeles

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 Jason Bethurum
Cal. History 165 1856
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In the summer of 1965 ​Marquette Frye who was a felon on parole for robbery was

stopped by police. He was driving his mom’s car and was stopped for reckless driving in the city

of Watts, Los Angeles. His brother was in the car with him but left running on foot to get his

mom. When they both returned arguments and fights ensued between Frye and police and also

involved bystanders. Witnesses claimed that a pregnant women in the crowd was injured by

police. Frye was arrested but officers were unable to disperse the crowd even after multiple

attempts because the crowd was whipped up and continually attacked officers with rocks. Riots

ensued and the national guard was deployed, also mandatory curfews went into effect in Watts

and other predominantly black neighborhoods. Many whites felt like it was an assault on them by

blacks, and the mainly black people rioting saw it as protest against the conditions they faced.4

By the end of the riots and caused 34 deaths, 1,032 injuries,3,438 arrests and $40 million dollars

in damages to the city.5 Riots also included unruly mobs commiting “​widespread looting, assault,

arson, protests, firefights, property damage, murder”.6

B.

The primary source “Watts Riots commision report and police records”7 is a

perspective from police offices viewpoint. One thing that I learned from this reading was the

amount of restraint the LAPD had in dealing with the protesters since the majority of them were

juveniles. This was reflected by the author stating that the National guard had rifles that were not

loaded with ammunition, until their checkpoint was rammed by a car in which after they did load

their rifles. The police also did not fire on protesters which is a sign they were taking it easy on

4
Secondary source ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots​ also lecture notes
5
Secondary source ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots
6
Secondary source ​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watts_riots
7
Primary source #1 W
​ atts Riots commision report and police records

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 Jason Bethurum
Cal. History 165 1856
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them. Some of the bystanders even stated that the police should shoot the protesters which

further lends to the police thinking they were being fair. The second thing is that so many of the

rioters were young with the author stating that 70% of the rioters were minors and that the rest

were young adults accompanied by only a few adults. This also seems to diminish the message

from the rioters saying that they couldn't possibly have real grievances since they were young

men who probably were ignorant and were simply acting to terrorizing the city. I kind of agree

with that perspective but I don’t discount their grievances I think that the way they acted out is

very scary situation.

In an article “the Negro after Watts”8 Time magazine does writes various ideas about the

state of black people in the united states. I think that the writer is a bit condescending when he

says” whether he likes it or not the negro has made progress.” He could have just stated his point

that some african americans were successful without making it insulting. I also learned the

political tone that was used trying to say that blacks should mobilize and vote for representation

in government. The article also recognizes that Blacks had endured a century’s worth of patience

for severe mistreatment by Americans. Many blacks had little hope for any changes in treatment

and that was shown during the riots.

In the article “Letters to Time Magazine by Readers in Response to the Watts Riots”9

readers of the magazine sent in their feeling on the violence that happened in Los angeles. I was

kind of shocked to learn how much division there was between races at this time. Some of the

letters were very angry African Americans who feel that their rights were not being upheld and

that they had been held down by the whites systematically for 200 years. One in particular

8
​ primary source #2 titled “the Negro after Watts”
9
​primary source #3“Letters to Time Magazine by Readers in Response to the Watts Riots”

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sounded very irritated that a white man would patronize the blacks talking about progress that

they had made. I was also very shocked to see the amount of open hatred toward the blacks when

one entry stated that blacks were “unstable subhuman savages”10. I don’t know if how common

that type of thinking was. Also the source had some people who were more in the center of

things with one African American saying that he was embarrassed by the way that the black

youths had acted in Los Angeles, but at the same time he didn't like the unfair culture that existed

in the country.

In the article“New Negro Riots Erupt on Coast,3 Reported Shot”11 the New York Times

lays out different events with commentary. One interesting thing that I learned was that civil

rights and church leaders tried to talk to the rioters and told the to stop the violence, this was

received with little enthusiasm as it showed little effect as they continued to riot. Another

interesting thing is that the people rioting were also injuring themselves with throwing stones as

it was real mayhem. The police chief described them as young hoodlums with no respect for the

law and also dismissed any grievances. The people had judged and instead of seeing civil unrest

or disobedience he only saw criminals. I think that rioting hurt their position of saying that they

were disenfranchised.

C.

In “La Riots Highlights”12 which shows excerpts of an ABC news broadcast during the

riots. It was intense to see how violent the rioters were pulling people from their vehicles and

beating them in the street. I felt bad for the people because they were just driving down the road

10
​primary source #3“Letters to Time Magazine by Readers in Response to the Watts Riots”
11
p​ rimary source document #4 titled “New Negro Riots Erupt on Coast;
12
Primary source 7
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=primary+sources+rodney+king+riots&qpvt=primary+sources

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 Jason Bethurum
Cal. History 165 1856
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and really had done nothing to deserve to be assaulted. Also the number of people causing

disturbances was amazing, the lawlessness was definitely apparent. I also learned that Rodney

King appealed to the public to stop the violence when he said “can’t we all just get along”. I

Thought like it was heartfelt but the people did not take him seriously.

In the cartoon entitled “Free at Last”13 which shows officers beating a black man with

clubs is a sarcastic reference to martin luther King Jr. speech where he says black people are free

in this country. The police officers look happy and singing while administering violence to the

man who has been beaten unconscious. In the background a bird can be seen telling the black

unconscious man that “the President would like him to remain calm” which shows the frustration

of people at the time saying how can I calm down when I am incapacitated. Feels like the people

they were telling to be calm were stuck between a rock and a hard spot.

In the ​The Province cartoon 14 a fat police officer states that”the rodney King and Zhang

feng Hua cases are as different as black and yellow. Which is referring to the color of the

plaintiffs skin in these two cases which strikes me as racist as all people should enjoy equal

protections under the law. Upon googgling the name Zhang feng Hua I found thousands of like

chinese names that have overrun any previous search results so it was very hard to find context.

In the Article by the NY Times15 the story talked about the 92’ riots from the perspective

of race relations between Korean and African Americans in Los angeles. It was very hostile

13
​Primary source #8 cartoon entitled “Free at Last”
14
p​ rimary source document #9 ​ Bob Krieger, The Province, 1992: “The Rodney King and Zhan Feng
Hua cases are as different as black and yellow. [hint: Google Zhang Feng Hua]
15
​ rimary source document 6
P
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/03/us/riot-los-angles-pocket-tension-target-rioters-koreatown-bitterarme
d-determined.html

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 Jason Bethurum
Cal. History 165 1856
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between the two groups which is puzzling because the korean community had little to do with

the oppression of blacks. It seems like rioters were just trying to go after easy targets and the

closest thing was korean minorities. The Koreans that were featured in the article responded by

arming themselves with guns, and I think responded a little harshly since even the police were

not shooting the rioters. I also sensed some racism with one korean man in the article saying that

blacks were “lazy” and they “deserved” their economic situation.

The 1965 Watts Riots and the Rodney king Riots 1992 shared many similarities, but also

had some big differences. In this paper I will compare and contrast these two events describing

why people were angry and decided to violently lash out. I will also describe the response to

rioting from the law enforcement and government authorities.

The population of Watts in 1965 was similar to South central in 1992, having mostly poor

African American who were rioting to show their discontent with treatment from police and poor

economic conditions. A New York Times article16 described the Watts riots as having 5000

young African American men throwing rocks and other debris at cars passing by, pulling some

drivers out and beating them up. This activity was also seen in 1992 from the CBS news footage

of the event17, where similar demographic was also pelting cars with bricks and debris injuring

many bystanders. One big difference is that there was no live aerial footage of the watts riots so

I think it stayed more isolated. In the 1992 riots live footage was broadcast on television so I

think that many other people in many different parts of the city decided to join in on the riot.

16
p​ rimary source document #4 titled “New Negro Riots Erupt on Coast
17
Primary source 7
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=primary+sources+rodney+king+riots&qpvt=primary+sources

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 Jason Bethurum
Cal. History 165 1856
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From these sources you can see that people were desperate and were lashing out because of little

hope.

A big difference in these two events would be in response to the Rioting from the public

and also law enforcement. In the article by the NY Times18 there were many examples of

vigilante Korean citizens fighting the rioters with firearms which didn’t happen in the Watts

riots. There were also examples of firefights between police and protesters in the 1992 riots. Los

Angeles was less muli-cultural during the fifties partially because previously Japanese people

were forced from their homes during internment.19 There were not easy targeting of minority

population with as many valuable businesses to loot from, so the opportunity was not the same.

The Rioters in the watts riots were not as focused on looting or stealing things as the riots in

1992.

In the “Watts Riots commision report and police records”20 the police had orders not to

shoot the rioters and the national guard had unloaded rifles. This is an example of a big

difference in the way that the rioters were treated. In the Watts riot lawbreakers were not met

with as deadly of force whereas in 1992 many situations had lethal resistance. Both riots

definitely had people die but there was a difference in response.

A good example of how the two events were related would be in the political cartoon

“Free at Last!”21 where the artist brings a piece of the speech by Martin Luther King jr. into the

18
​ rimary source document 6
P
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/03/us/riot-los-angles-pocket-tension-target-rioters-koreatown-bitterarme
d-determined.html

19
Lecture notes 5/13
20
Primary source #1 ​Watts Riots commision report and police records
21
Primary Source 8 Political Cartoon “Free at Last!”

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 Jason Bethurum
Cal. History 165 1856
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context of a Black man who is being assaulted. The Irony is that after 30 years civil rights were

not guaranteed to African Americans. The Clifford Baldowski cartoon22 Depicts a man burning

a book that says “Law of the land” even though it was illustrated in 1965 I would say it relates to

both events as people threw out any normal lawful way to settle their grievances and instead

resorted to violence.

In conclusion these events shared many similarities in reasoning and tactics, but also had

some big differences in response and public attitude. The people rioting had some very valid

reasons to be upset however the way that they expressed themselves was not good. Hopefully we

can learn from our mistakes as a society and we can look past our differences and see our

strength when we work together.

22
Primary Source 5 The Clifford Baldowski cartoon