Talk:Watts Riots

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does anyone know how the city recognized the anniversary?

Contents

[edit] Cause of Riot, Etc.

The information found at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19093 needs to be intergrated into this article. As is, it's not very informative.

MSTCrow 21:22, August 12, 2005 (UTC)
Ask these questions:
If helicopters were used by the entertainment journalists to follow the action, how can it be possible?
The answer is scary if it's true.
How did the city commemorate?
Please someone tell me. I think people in the city did. I doubt the city wants to remember. Thank God people here want to. Thank you whoever chose ::to put Hoover's secretary's article in the featured list. Read that and then tell me you don't think this is true. I'll give you more to read if you ::make me, with this silly battle I can already imagine the next round of. Can someone else please chime in on this? I feel like I'm in school again. ::Literally being forced to teach people how to behave, that were being paid (off) to teach me dogma. It so happens that I don't know how to convert ::an investigative journey into an encyclopedia article, but I thought we were all in this together.
Whoever wrote this needs to be clear, concise and understandable. Also needs to sign.
1 23:31, August 13, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] I have information as to the cause, that the history books, don't. The cause and the effect, that is

When someone deletes something added to an article out of good faith, is it not the right thing to do, to post it here, instead of removing it altogether??? I entered an eyewitness account that contradicted the official death toll. Rather than think for a second that maybe there are skeletons in the closet of this country, and not just Latin American dictatorships, the "administrator" that removed my comment, "without a trace," chose to take responsibility for continuing what I was lucky enough to find out through an unlikely series of investigative journalistic events, was in fact an actual cover-up. I was almost content to let those who choose ignorance, have it, but a dream I just woke up from, (it's 3:49 am here now) convinced me that it is too important of a discovery to let lie until I find a more receptive forum. In the dream I was the only witness to some information that implicated the perpetrator of the kidnapping torture and murder of a precocious orphan, and almost allowed the system to miss it. Ironically, I sat down at the keyboard to try again, just now, and saw the headline, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050811/ap_en_tv/making_things_up

I can assure you the account I now relate is true. It was reported to me by a conservative ex-californian, who was accepted into an elite unit of the coast guard reserves on the day his draft card arrived, and was thus witness to the following spectacle: "We had been training for the scenario for a year. The black militants in Chicago had been infiltrated before then, and we were being prepared for civil unrest. We were at camp for the onset of the Watts Riot. I was turning off the lights one night--everyone else was asleep already--when I saw a boat streak by in the darkness. It was filled with militants, so I woke everyone up and we set out after it, lights flashing. It headed to the armory, which was our post to guard. We fired our guns into the air, and they landed at a warehouse, got out, and ran into it. Fortunately, the tide was low, so the position of our ship relative to the sea wall kept us out of the line of their fire, because they shot at us from the windows. I radioed for help, and soon there were helicopters with machine guns, which killed at least 8 men who I saw fall from the windows. Because I was the leader, I had to go to the morgue the next day. There were about 400 bodies marked unidentified there. The official death toll was 21 I think." At this point I asked in astonishment, "How do you explain that?" I had spoken to him about other events of the era that he lived through, assassinations for instance, and I could not have been shocked to find out that a "riot" was actually a rebellion, but I was astonished that I was hearing a story that would change the course of history, being told. His answer was simply, "They covered it up!" This was the result of a series of unlikely interviews. I will not reveal my source at this time, but it is someone whom I judged to have absolutely no reason to make this up. Engage me on this, if you can. I have no agenda of my own, but to our children. "A rose-colored story, by any other name, smells just as stink"

The information that you added to the Watts riots article did not disappear "without a trace". It is still there in the article's history, where anyone can look at it (see this link: [1]). And no, I'm not a Wikipedia administrators—I'm just another Wikipedia editor.


FYI: The Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with a series of Policies and guidelines on what goes into an article. One of those rules is that the information must be verifiable, and needs to be from a reliable source. The story that you've told above cannot be verified. Furthermore, I have major doubts about your story because there is no Coast Guard armory or other I.S. military service armory in either the Port of Los Angeles or the Port of Long Beach, nor are there any armories in the LA area that are close to the ocean (even the Seal Beach Naval Weapons station stores their munitions well away from the ocean). Also, where the LA Harbor Coast Guard facilities are there is no beach, so the info about the tide makes no sense. Unless you can come up with some information that I or any other Wikipedia editor can verify, then it doesn't meet the criteria for inclusion in the Wikipedia. BlankVerse ∅ 03:17, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
I didn't know I had to pass an approval process before I edited. I don't think that's how it's supposed to work. If someone who uses it less than I, made the effort to try, I would do my best to engage rather than dismiss.
My source was as reliable as I can imagine. Whether it is unverifiable is a matter of debate. One which I will win if I choose to have it with you. Obviously that would be at the cost of his anonymity. But that has been already offered up. I guess I haven't told you why I used the word elite, explicitly, so I don't blame you. Clearly the event is verifiable. I admit that I did not verify to the degree of researching the other men in his unit and questioning them, but I know the man well enough to a) want to protect his privacy, and b) know that if any aspect of the story is made-up, it would have to be the horrific detail, because the rest of the story is part of history. I wish I remember if he said the whole unit saw or just he, the leader. I could find out, perhaps, but only if I succeed in being sensitive with the relationship. As it is I'm afraid he will be hunted down for telling me. FYI: The tide comes in and out everywhere, and has the effect of lowering boats up against a wall where there is no beach when it is out. Thank you for the geographical info. He indicated it was "the" armory. That meant not Coast Guard. A branch of military with bigger or more guns than that. This was 40 years ago, so be sure there really was not one then, since you hold others to such a high standard. It so happens there is a debate going on now about removing bases in many states right now. I believe National Guard would have been the ones to have responded in this situation, and probably their armory as well. You tell me. Does that mean the Army wants me dead, or the President himself? If I told you one piece of information I am literally afraid to, you would really see the irony in it. I look forward to getting to the bottom of it without any assassinations of journalists or sources. -still as anonymous as is possible with limited technical know-how, in this day-and-age67.80.3.20 04:20, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Nikko Balanon?

Was the cop's name "Lee Minikus" or "Nikko Balanon"? I find no evidence for the name "Nikko Balanon" anywhere else on the web, apart from other sites posting this same article under a different banner.

[edit] N.W.A.

This reference should be edited out due to the fact this song came two decades after the Watts Riots. The seething tensions that stirred the earlier were involved in the latter but the song is definitely not from 1965 and as such is inappropriate in this article. If there are no objections to this discussion tab I'll edit it out later myself (if somebody else hasn't already). BronzeWarrior 21:15, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Seeing no ojbection, I went ahead and removed the N.W.A. reference. BronzeWarrior 07:16, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

It may have come after it, but if you know anything about the song you would know that its entirely based on the watts riots and it caused an entire new spark and flame, and a new trend in hip hop, its completely relavent because the song is all about the riots and what happend during the riots, pull up the lyrics and read some, you'll see - Afrand6 aka AFRAND X

  • I'm not an expert on N.W.A., but after reading the lyrics thoroughly I don't see anything in there that indicates that the mistreatment the song describes is meant to be taking place in 1965. I understand the song to be making allegations about police activity around the time the song was written (the late 1980s) with no historical references clearly indicated. If I'm missing something, the lyrics are available at the Original Hip-Hop (Rap) Lyrics Archive, so please clarify why you interpret the song to be referencing the Watts riots. --Metropolitan90 06:37, 10 November 2005 (UTC)

Because the group, N.W.A, discussed it in an interview, so please do more research before you insult me again. This song is one of the most famous rap songs in the world and everyone knows its as a result of the watts riots, remark removed by User:BlankVerse —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrand6 (talk • contribs)

Please refrain from name-calling. In this case, Afrand6, the burden is upon you to provide some reference or citation to show that the rap lyrics are in regards to the Watts riots. Note also that the Wikipedia article on the song, Fuck Tha Police, makes no mention of any connection to the Watts riots. BlankVerse 14:28, 18 November 2005 (UTC)

here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/lapd/race/racerap.html afrand6

There is NOTHING on that page that says that Fuck Tha Police was in response to the Watts riots. It certainly is in response to police brutality in both Watts and Compton, but unless you can find a better source, I that it is more in response to the Daryl Gates-era of LAPD policing, rather than having anything directly to do with the Watts riots. In fact, if you read the lyrics, there is nothing in the song about rioting or looting, etc. BlankVerse 11:04, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

the watts riots wasn't only looting and rioting remark removed by User:BlankVerse, it was a poweder keg that evolved from police brutality which resulted in looting and rioting, and in that site it uses the song Fuck tha police as a refference to the history of the Watts Riots, they don't just enter in random song lyrics at random times for the hell of it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrand6 (talk • contribs)

That page is not just on the Watts Riots. The quote from Fuck Tha Police is between the section on the Watts Riots and discussion of the Daryl Gates-era. I song is about police brutality, which is discussed on that page, but there is nothing that says the song is about the Watts Riots.
On another note, if you continue your insults, you will get banned from the Wikipedia. BlankVerse 17:01, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Inconsistencies

The introductory paragraph indicates the riots lasted six days and did $100 million worth of damage. The description of the riots says the riots lasted five days and did $200 million worth of damage. One of the external references at the bottom estimates damages from $50-$100 million. Could somebody who knows more about this topic try to clean some of this data up? I came to this page solely to learn more, not because I am an expert, and therefore I think I'm somewhat unqualified. I would be very interested to read this article if an expert could add some more concrete information. Thanks! BucInExile 22:15, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

________________________________ I have a real problem with this article. It states that "one in eight did not have a high school education" as one of the principal reasons why the Watts neightborhood was upset. This census.gov pdf ( http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/cps94data/tab-16.pdf ) shows that even in 1994 the figure was far, far higher, even for "whites". Not to downplay the emotional feelings but the facts are conspicuously out of line.

[edit] could this be added?

My grandfather, Joseph Thompson, was the third officer to arrive on scene at the initial arrest, could that somehow be worked into the article?--Acebrock 20:19, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Leonard Deedwyler

Did this event happen in '65? Other sources I found says this happened in '66. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.119.191.219 (talk) 01:51, 12 June 2008 (UTC)