Urban Riots Often Indicate Underlying

Urban Riots often indicate underlying social unrest. The largest riots in modern American history can be traced to race and class issues that transcend and predate the proximate cause of the rioting. For example, the Watts riot in 1965, the Newark riot in 1967, the Miami riot in 1980, and the Los Angeles riot in 1992 were each triggered by striking similar events and were manifestations of the same urban troubles. In each of these cases, the rioting was triggered by white-on-black police brutality and jury verdicts that seemed unjust. The police brutality also relates to racial profiling in each of these riot incidents, reflecting injustices within law enforcement institutions. Similarly, the criminal justice system in each of these cases failed to ensure social justice or appease public tensions. Racism, real or perceived, erupted into violence as a final outburst of frustration. Inequitable power relations in city government and income disparity are also noticeable root causes of urban riots. In all of these cases, power was concentrated in the hands of white majority city leaders. Black neighborhoods and their residents suffer from political exclusion that is also related poverty, unemployment, and housing problems. Rioting can therefore be viewed as disorganized yet pointed attempts to mobilize a disenfranchised population to achieve political power.

One year after the Civil Rights Act was ratified violence erupted in Watts, an area of South Central Los Angeles. The violence drew attention to the underlying causes of urban unrest including poverty, political disenfranchisement, and racial tension. Moreover, their proximity to President Johnson's Civil Rights Act and War on Poverty proved that federal legislation alone could not solve the nation's racial and political problems. In fact, the 1965 Watts riot shows how urban centers of power can and often do override federal legislation. That year in California, Proposition 14 effectively blocked the fair housing component of Johnson's anti-poverty legislation. The city opted to allocate federal moneys in ways that "created a feeling of injustice and despair in the inner cities," ("The 1965 Watts Riots"). The same thing would occur two years later in Newark.

Urban power structures can create social unrest through direct means like the misallocation of funding and through lack of minority representation in city government. The 1967 riot in Newark, New Jersey especially brought to light the ways city governments fail to respond to demographic change. The Newark riot started after the arrest, detention, and beating of John Smith. Smith, a taxi driver, was accused of driving around "a double-parked police car" and "was subsequently stopped, interrogated, arrested, and transported" to the local precinct (Herman). A crowd soon gathered around the precinct, which was located in a predominantly black neighborhood and happened to be right across the street from a low income housing project (Herman). Although civil rights leaders urged peaceful protest, a rumor that Smith died in custody circulated through the quickly angering group. At this, violence erupted and spread throughout the city, especially in black neighborhoods. The National Guard was called in, which only served to intensify the violence.

Calling in the National Guard may exacerbate violence because the armed forces symbolize social oppression on a large scale. The rioters initially used primitive weapons like bricks to smash windows. National Guard uses sanctioned deadly weapons to control the populace. Thus, the National Guard is by definition a force of social control. Social control signifies inequitable power relations and can easily be the root cause of civil strife. When a dominant group assumes political and economic control, minority groups become disenfranchised. Before the 1967 riots broke out in Newark, African-Americans were noticeable absent from the local political power system, were discriminated against by law enforcement officials working for that political power system, and were excluded from local economies supported by that political power system.

At the time of the riots more than half of the Newark population was black (Herman). In spite of this, the city had a white mayor who didn't live up to his promises to appoint black candidates to positions of leadership. Notably, Mayor Addonizio passed up an African-American Certified Public Accountant to a white man with a high school diploma a position on the school board (Herman). Just as in Watts two years before, Newark city government misallocated federal anti-poverty funding just when the African-American community might have been starting to reap the benefits from federal assistance. Such affronts to social justice are bound to anger city residents and cause uprisings. As Herman notes, Newark's businesses were mainly owned by whites and therefore the black majority were controlled and subjugated economically.

Similarly, the 1992 Los Angeles riots caused by the Rodney King case verdict brought to light underlying issues of economic, political, and social injustice. High rates of unemployment affected the black community. An influx of Korean and Hispanic residents to South Central Los Angeles also spurned racial tensions. Unionized black workers were fired from unionized jobs in favor of Hispanic workers who earned half as much and Korean-owned businesses reportedly mistreated the largely black population ("The Los Angeles Riots, 1992"). Hostility between Korean and black residents came to a head when a Korean shop owner shot and killed an African-American girl and was sentenced to only five years of probation instead of the 12-year prison sentence recommended by the jury. The city and its officials failed to respond adequately to the growing racial and economic tensions in the neighborhood both through the reaction to the killing of Latasha Harkins and by its failure to provide sufficient resources for unemployed and destitute black residents.

Rodney King was arrested and beaten by four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers. The beating was caught on a civilian's videotape and offered clear evidence that the police had overstepped their boundaries and used excessive force. Moreover, the video was played repeatedly on local and national news sources. With high profile visual evidence the verdict would have seemed preordained so when three of the four officers were acquitted of all charges the city went into shock. Rioting lasted for three days during which the entire city was immobilized: schools shut down and businesses closed ("The Los Angeles Riots, 1992").

Law enforcement officials are integral parts of the urban power core. Each of these riots shows how law enforcement participates in and exacerbates inequity. In a striking presage to the Rodney King verdict, five white police officers were acquitted of beating a black motorist to death. In response, a riot erupted in Miami in 1980 which "raised American awareness of the sometimes explosive nature of neglected urban life," ("Riot Erupts in Liberty City"). Like Watts in 1965, Newark in 1967, and Los Angeles in 1992, the Miami riots were triggered by police brutality perpetrated by white cops against black citizens. In some instances, riots immobilize local police forces to the extent that the state governor calls in the National Guard. Police forces are often ill-equipped or unwilling to ensure public safety during riots. For instance, in Los Angeles, "police abandoned the streets when the trouble began," (Los Angeles Riot Still Echoes").

Racial profiling and excessive use of force by police officers on the city payroll are a few of many causes of civil unrest. Riots are last resorts: they do not occur in isolation of social, political, and economic inequity. Although rioting is triggered by incidents like the Rodney King verdict, the uprising represents years if not decades of pent-up frustration. In each of these riot cases, the African-American population was underrepresented in city government, which limits their political influence with regards to issues like housing, schooling, small business development, law enforcement, and criminal justice. Moreover, black populations were hit harder than whites by unemployment and economic recessions. Industrial decline in Newark led to promotions for white workers to management positions, whereas blue collar blacks were simply jobless. Similarly, a national economic recession hit the Los Angeles working class black community especially hard in the years preceding the 1992 riots. As corporations downsized, blue collar workers were let go with little recourse. Unemployment also plagued Liberty City, the predominantly black area of Miami before the 1980 riot. A commission sponsored by Governor Pat Brown and John McCore after Watts concluded that the "riots weren't the act of thugs, but rather symptomatic of much deeper problems: the high jobless rate in the inner city, poor housing, and bad schools," ("The 1965 Watts Riots"). Therefore, city officials have known about the root causes for urban unrest for years but have been unable to eradicate poverty or political disenfranchisement within minority communities.