Policing Raceriotland

Abstract

Intensified policing and punitive crime policies in Los Angeles emerged from the response to the urban uprisings of the 1960s. Despite the belief among mostly white conservative politicians and police officials that Los Angeles was immune from urban unrest, this chapter foregrounds the racist police practices and violence of the LAPD targeting residents of color as the root and fundamental meaning of the Watts uprising. As such, the uprising was an antipolice protest and demand for an end to police practices that reproduced and upheld white supremacy, segregation, and inequality. Department officials and conservative policymakers, however, used the crisis for the police created by the uprising to target African Americans and expand police power. Watts, in short, became a police riot and excuse to arrest, criminalize, and contain African American residents.