East L.A. Riots Protesting Viet Nam War
"Try to blacken this grass, this shirt of colors, this festive park filled with infants and mothers and oldmen, surging forth in pride. Come and try to blacken it with your blazing batons, shotguns and tear gas canisters, I'm ready." (Rodriguez 161).
Although I see the sympathy in the horrific events that followed, I do see why the enforcement was necessary. Luis and his fellow gang members had just "dropped reds" and robbed the liquor store of some alcohol so the owner of the store locked the doors. Numbers grew outside demanding in but police showed up with treats and guns which I believe were necessities to keep the peace. It's interesting when I read the viewpoints of Luis as a gang member on drugs and read other viewpoints as well. While reaserching through JSTOR I found an article "The Dialectics of Repression: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Chicano Movement, 1968-1971" by Edward Escobar listing the events of that day- "The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, responded to a minor disturbance, declared the demonstration as unlawful assembly and ordered the park vacated" (Par 2) When the people didn't leave the police started forward and disputes turned into tear gas canister release. People fled to the streets attacking unsuspecting cars driving by.
No comments:
Post a Comment