by JackRiddler » Mon Jun 01, 2020 11:54 am
I just looked up the deaths from past urban riots in the US that lasted for days. LA 1992, nine days, 63 dead. 12,000 arrests!
May 1980, Miami: 3 days, 18 dead
MLK assassination riots, sporadically in April-May '68, "100 cities" - "40+ dead"
July 1967 in Detroit: 6 days, 43 dead
July 1967 in Newark: 6 days, 26 dead
Aug 1967 in Watts/LA: 5 days, 34 dead
In case you're wondering, "dead" in most of these cases means shot in the street by the National Guard because (or on the assumption that) they were engaged in violence or looting, though you won't find pictures of almost any of it as it actually happened, and detailed case protocols with names of shooters were not released that I know of.
RADICAL ERROR, CORRECTION ON EDIT: In the LA uprising of 1992, ALL of the 63 dead during the uprising and riots were killed by the LAPD before the deployment of the National Guard. I will have to check on the other cases. Sorry!
What all of these uprisings/riots have in common is that they began with police shootings or killings or repressive actions.
LA 1992, practically the last year before mass Internet, was of course set off by the exoneration of the police in the Rodney King case. It blew up around the country, including in Minneapolis, but the spread beyond LA was barely covered in the press at the time. Personal view, but the impression among the anarchos at the time was that the stuff outside LA was being repressed to prevent greater spread.
Exceptional, in retrospect is July 1964, Harlem: 6 days, 1 dead. Also set off by a police killing of a high school student, in front of dozens of witnesses. No national guard, barely any tear gas used, only about 400 arrests. Yet treated like the end of the world at the time. Really got the white flight going, and not just in New York. In retrospect, seen as the beginning of the 1960s wave of non-CRM urban uprisings, though that may be NYC-centrism. The rest would likely have happened anyway.
I'd hazard a guess that among other factors bigger uprisings were stimulated by the subsequent escalation of preparations for massive repression and shock-and-awe, with deescalation measures considered a sign of weakness against the forces out to destroy society. A community's pride and reaction to shows of force is always a factor.
Today there's more gear and more COIN planning than ever but much has changed, or appears to have, for the moment. I don't know, maybe the media revolution has made a difference? Or maybe it's the relatively proportionate inclusion of black representatives in local government (they have an official voice even where they don't have that much power)? In any case, segregation is as almost as much a fact of life than ever but black neighborhoods are simply not quasi sealed-off enclaves, as they have been at times in the past. There are fewer places that are completely unmixed or where almost no non-black people venture except for the occupying law enforcement or national guard. Or maybe it's relatively more fear due to surveillance and incarceration, or less desperation from poverty despite the far greater inequality? Or maybe genuine changes in policy, or maybe something else altogether?
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