The arrest of Marquette Frye was not just a typical drunk driving arrest. This arrest was the first of nearly 4000 arrests made that week.On Wednesday August 11th, 1965, Marquette Frye was driving down the road when he was stopped by police officers on suspicion of driving under the influence. Frye was pulled out of his car with excessive force and taken into police custody. Surrounding people noticed this arrest taking place. Word soon spread that yet another black male was taken into police custody with excessive force by police. After these events, from August 11th through August 18th there were multiple riots in the predominantly black Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. These were the most fatal riots in the LA history (before the Rodney …show more content…
According to the source Race Riots, United States “defining race riots is a two-step process”. The race riots the followed Marquette Frye arrest caused 40 million dollars in repairs for the area. The people of the Watts neighborhood in 1965 were fed up with the racism they had received. The race riots started on August 11th when Frye was arrested and went on through the 18th. People went around all day and night shooting, killing, looting stores until they are empty, and setting their own buildings on fire. The residents of Watts tore down and destroyed 40 million dollars worth of buildings, and goods for their neighborhood. They went in with these riots to show that they weren’t going to tolerate police brutality against their people to be bypassed so easily. In the article Race Riots, United States, the author stated, “A second defining characteristic of a riot is violence. Protest marches, confrontations between two racial groups, or even face-offs between citizens and police can not be called riots unless some kind of physical violence transpires.” The riots had gotten so extreme that the police force agreed that their presence in the riots was provoking the rioters even more. Coming to that conclusion the law enforcement of the area eventually left the scenes of the riots to try and calm it down. The race riots were the primary and immediate cause of the 40 million …show more content…
The history of racism is the first in the chain of the repairs needed. The racism towards blacks caused the police brutality. The police brutality then followed to be the main cause of the race riots. There is no doubt that if there was no racism involved, there would have never been any of the riots caused that whole week. The root of all the things that happened on August 11th through August 18th, including the 40 million dollars worth of repairs, sprouted from the racism inside of the people with power. Many do not look that deep into a situation like the Watts Riots and never realize the real cause of it and the intensity of the consequences. The race riots was not the smart decision in the situation and there were other ways of dealing with police brutality