The initial analysis of my riot was described as a racial disorder: a riot defined by as “…involves at least one group publicly, and with little or no attempt at concealment, illegally assaulting at least one other group or illegally attacking or invading property.” (Halle & Rafter 2003). After looking at the data collectively, I am applying the label of an uprising. Based on the characteristics in the PowerPoint “Thinking about race riots historically” an uprising can be described as “a spontaneous upsurge of protest or violent expression of discontent, something with political content, but short of a full- fledged revolutionary act.” The Watts riot was a large-scale, violent protest, against systemic racism and police brutality, which are factors in uprisings. My map confirms this label due to the spontaneity and spread of events during the duration of my riot, as the duration of the riot increased the location of events continued to spread out in all directions. As far as the categories clustering in the same location, looting, arson, and overall property damage were clustered on Avalon Blvd and Imperial Highway. This is where the commercial businesses and stores where located. The timeline as confirms this labeling, although there are several gaps in my timeline, which are during the day, typically for 6-8 hours on several days. Most damages, violence and deaths happen in the evening when everyone is relieved of their daily obligations such as school and work Based on the patterns in my text analysis, it did not offer concrete evidence for labeling my riot but words without context.

1. Referring to your timeline and map, how well does the entry describe the events of the riot, and when and where they occurred?

The Wikipedia entry does not describe the events of the riot, when or where they occurred very well. It gives generalized information about the riot and major point such as the trigger, the dates of the riot and the statistics after the riot but lacks many details. For example, in the “Inciting Incident” section it begins with “On the evening of Wednesday, August 11, 1965, 21-year-old Marquette Frye, an African-American man driving his mother’s 1955 Buick while drunk, was pulled over by California Highway Patrol rookie motorcycle officer Lee Minikus for alleged reckless driving.” However, it does not give an exact time Marquette was pulled over, nor does it give the location the traffic stop occurred. Throughout the rest of the article there are more generalized events but very few discrete events with any indication of time and location.

2. How well does the label applied to the riot in the entry fit with the information in the entry and with your interpretation of the riot?

The labels applied to the riot in this entry was Rebellion, “the actors had sound political complaints against underlying political, social, and economic structures of oppression,” and Uprising “a spontaneous upsurge of protest or violent expression of discontent, something with political content, but short of a full- fledged revolutionary act.” These two labels do fit with my interpretation of the riot but again this entry proves. it is difficult to label this riot as one definitive label because it shares characteristics of both labels. Which is subjective based on the individual analyzing the riot.

The biggest cluster my map had was along Avalon Blvd and Imperial highway, which is where many events took place.  Everything else was spread out more, so there were no other significant clusters. As far as the categories clustering in the same location, looting, arson, and overall property damage were clustered on Avalon Blvd and Imperial Highway. This is where the commercial businesses and stores where located. As the duration of the right increased the location of events continued to spread out in all directions. In my opinion this. Is why one of the events was the governor ordered a 50-mile radius 8pm curfew to help minimize and prevent the spread of the rioting. There were several events that are not on my map because of the lack of exact of general location. Due to the spontaneity and geographical spread of events during the duration of my riot, I am labeling it as an uprising “a spontaneous upsurge of protest or violent expression of discontent, something with political content, but short of a full- fledged revolutionary act.”

After completing this timeline there are several things to note. The three main cluster of events fall under the categories of crowds. accumulate, law enforcement/military and damages. On August 12, I. have the biggest cluster of events from 12:00 pm to 00:00 am. Events that did not show up in the timeline, were several image captions that had a location, but no time or approximate time of day listed. I have about 12 events with no time references but locations. Press and Government are categories that show up the least in my timeline. There are several gaps in my timeline, which are during the day, typically for 6-8 hours on several days. Which makes sense because that’s when children are out of school and the adults are off work. Based on the patterns in my timeline, I will label this riot as an uprising. Based on the characteristics in the PowerPoint “Thinking about race riots historically” an uprising can be described as “a spontaneous upsurge of protest or violent expression of discontent, something with political content, but short of a full- fledged revolutionary act.”

The data on the events does support uprising as the key feature I identified. All of the events were sporadic and spontaneous which also support the data found in my text analysis. There were no use of words such as “planned, strategize, organized,” in the context of a premeditated events. The only exception to this was the planned community meeting at auditorium at Athens Park. Therefore, it does not fit the definition of a rebellion, which I previously said it could also be. It was a spontanoues upsurge of violent expression of discontent in the way blacks were being treated. With the perception of the crowd being that Mrs. Frye along with her sons were being beaten by the police. Knowing the details of individual events does not change the label of my right, it further strengthens there label I changed it to after my text analysis. As the crowds in the Watts area got more angry, violent senseless actions continued to follow but there was no indication any off this was strategic, organized or planned. Just the results of growing angry and discontent manifesting.

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Racial language that appears among the most frequent is negro and white. Based on lectures and previous knowledge of the political climate at the time this does not surprise me. Negro is used significantly more than whites in both newspapers, I believe because the riot was in a predominately African American neighborhoods and they were the offenders for most of the violence and damage. The frequent and most distinctive words are what I expected them to be. A frequent word I expected to be included in my collection of documents is ‘fire,’ and “violence.”  

One of the most frequently appearing word in the corpus is police being used 110 times. It is one of the most frequent words in my documents because they are the first responders. More specifically in riots, they are usually the first to be called in to deescalate the situation. If they are unsuccessful, then they are used as a tool to gain control and compliance, which means from the beginning to the end of a riot police are involved.

One of the most distinctive words in the corpus is citizens. The context of this word is used to describe the residents of Los Angeles.

The use of police is used the same in context of law enforcement capacitates

Both the Los. Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Sentinel use police the most frequency. However, the white newspaper uses it significantly more than the black newspaper. The use of negro and whites are used more by the respective race.

The link tool highlights the use of police (110) and references connected it. Most notable the Police Chief and all the statements made and orders authorized by him. In addition to police, area (57) was another frequently used word in refence to the different locations being affected by the riot. Night (34) was also used frequently being that the majority or violence, disruptions and damaged occurred in the evenings and late night.

I previously said my racial disorder is a riot defined by as “…involves at least one group publicly, and with little or no attempt at concealment, illegally assaulting at least one other group or illegally attacking or invading property.” (Halle & Rafter 2003). Now I believe the racial disorder is an uprising. As stated in the class PowerPoint “a spontaneous upsurge of protest or violent expression of discontent, something with political content, but short of a full- fledged revolutionary act.” After this text analysis my labeling of Watts has changed, knowing the details of the language used in account of the riot does change the key feature and label of my riot. There were no use of words such as “planned, strategize, organized” in the context of a premeditated events. Therefore, it does not fit the definition of a rebellion, which I previously said it could also be. It was a spontaneous upsurge of violent expression of discontent in the way blacks were being treated. With the perception of the crowd being that Mrs. Frye along with her sons were being beaten by the police.

The dimension that most defined the event of my racial disorder was the trigger. The trigger in the Watts riot was the arrest of Marquette Frye by his mother and his older brother. The crowd size, arrest made, injuries as well as the duration are other dimensions that further solidifies this was a riot. In my opinion if Marquette complied with what he was being told to do by the officer things would not have escalated as much as they did. Due to racial tension during the 1960s, I believe there still would have been a crowded. However, it would not have gotten as big and started rioting if they did not perceive the officers as beating on a black woman. The label that best describes my racial disorder is a riot defined by as “…involves at least one group publicly, and with little or no attempt at concealment, illegally assaulting at least one other group or illegally attacking or invading property.” (Halle & Rafter 2003). The area the riot took place in was predominately African Americans but there were other minorities present as well. This could also be defined as a rebellion but not according to “Sweet Land and Liberty” written by Thomas Sugrue which describes a rebellion as “a deliberate insurgency against an illegitimate regime, an act of political resistance with the intent of destabilizing or overturning the Status quo.” The rioters in this case study could be rebelling against the political climate, inequality, and mistreatment they faced daily.

I learned there are submarine cables lying on the ocean floor all over the world.