Leid Stories - 08/12/13

From Watts to Washington, Any Lessons Learned?

On this day 38 years ago, South Central Los Angeles was in its second day of a continuous volcanic eruption that transfixed the nation and the world. Touched off by alleged police misconduct in the arrest of a local man for speeding and an officer’s club “accidentally” striking a witness of the arrest, the Watts area became a veritable war zone. By the third day, when a contingent of military units quelled the uprising, 34 people were dead and property damage was assessed at $35 million.
The Watts rebellion ignited mirror explosions all over America up until July 28, 967, when President Lyndon B. Johnson impaneled a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, the task of which was to answer three questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again?
Leid Stories today asks: From Watts to Washington, any lessons learned?