(task) Traffic stop ignited Watts riots 50 years ago - NY Daily News

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> http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/traffic-stop-ignited-watts-riots-50-years-article-1.2321722 <http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/traffic-stop-ignited-watts-riots-50-years-article-1.2321722>
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> Traffic stop ignited Watts riots in Los Angeles neighborhood 50 years ago
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> © Bettmann/CORBIS
> A National Guard jeep patrols the Watts section of Los Angeles after six days of riots.
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> Six days of rioting, 34 people dead and more than 1,000 injured. And it was a traffic stop that ignited everything.
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> The Watts riots began 50 years ago Tuesday when an officer pulled over 21-year-old Marquette Frye on suspicion of drunken driving.
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> Tensions in the Los Angeles neighborhood escalated after Frye's mother showed up at the scene as a crowd gathered. The situation had been calm until Rena Frye showed up.
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> "It was his mother who actually caused the problem," arresting Officer Lee Minikus told The Los Angeles Times in 2005 <http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-watts-riots-40-years-later-20050811-htmlstory.html>. "She got upset with the son because he was drunk. He blew up. And then we had to take him into custody. After we handcuffed him, his mom jumped on my back, and his brother was hitting me. Of course they were all arrested."
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> Chris Carlson/AP
> Visitors walk past the Watts towers Thursday in the Watts area of Los Angeles.
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> AP
> Police detain a man as buildings burn during the Watts riots in 1965.
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> "(The arresting officers) lied," Rena Price told the newspaper of the incident, also in a story appearing on the 40th anniversary. "They said he was drunk driving, but he wasn't drunk driving."
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> More than 1,000 people rioted that evening, according to the Times <http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-watts-riots-explainer-20150715-htmlstory.html>.
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> "We were gone before the (rioting began)," Minikus told the paper in 2005. "That's why I was upset when I was walking out of the substation, and I was asked by an L.A. Times reporter, 'How do you feel about starting a riot?' I said, 'Say what?'"
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> AP
> Several burned-out structures are seen after fires started by rioters destroyed a business block in the Watts section of Los Angeles.
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> "I didn't know about any of the rioting until my daughter came and got me out of jail at 7 the next morning," Rena Price recounted to the paper 10 years ago. "I was surprised. I had never heard of a riot. There were never any riots before. I went back home to my house. Where else was I going to go?"
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> According to the Times, Los Angeles County's black population had ballooned from 75,000 to 650,000 between 1940 and 1965. There were many allegations of police misconduct against blacks, and that boiled over on Aug. 11, 1965.
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> “My husband and I saw 10 cops beating one man," a woman told the paper. "My husband told the officers, 'You’ve got him handcuffed.' One of the officers answered 'Get out of here, (expletive). Get out of here all you (expletives).'"
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> Two days later Mayor Sam Yorty and Police Chief William Parker asked for assistance from the California National Guard. However, Lt. Gov. Glenn Anderson appeared to move slowly, waiting six hours to comply, according to the paper. Gov. Edmund Brown had been on vacation in Greece and was unavailable.
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> The violence eventually subsided. But the damage was done. Twenty-three people were killed by cops or National Guardsmen, the Los Angeles Times reported. Approximately 3,500 were arrested and 600 buildings were damaged.
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> "I would do exactly what I did at the time (if I had it to do over again)," Minikus told the newspaper in 2005. "I've been asked that about 10 million times."
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