"On August 11, 1965, California Highway Patrolman Lee W. Minikus, a Caucasian, was riding his motorcycle ... when a passing Negro motorist told him he had just seen a car that was being driven recklessly. Minikus gave chase and pulled the car over ....... The driver was Marquette Frye, a 21-year-old Negro, and his older brother, Ronald, 22, was a passenger. Minikus asked Marquette to get out and take the standard Highway Patrol sobriety test. Frye failed the test ...... They were two blocks from the Frye home, in an area of two-story apartment buildings and numerous small family residences. Because it was a very warm evening, many of the residents were outside. ...... Ronald Frye, having been told he could not take the car when Marquette was taken to jail, went to get their mother so that she could claim the car ........ Mrs. Frye approached Marquette and scolded him for drinking. Marquette, who until then had been peaceful and cooperative pushed her away and moved toward the crowd, cursing and shouting at the officers .... .......... ........ ......... ........ ......... ....... ....... There were 34 persons killed and 1,032 reported injuries, including 90 Los Angeles police officers, 136 firemen, 10 national guardsmen, 23 persons from other governmental agencies, and 773 civilians. 118 of the injuries resulted from gunshot wounds. Of the 34 killed, one was a fireman, one was a deputy sheriff, and one a Long Beach policeman. ........... loss of property ..... was over $40 million. .... 600 buildings were damaged by burning and looting. .... more than 200 ...totally destroyed by fire. ..... Between 2,000 and 3,000 fire alarms ..... 3,438 adults arrested, 71% for burglary and theft. The number of juveniles arrested was 514, 81% for burglary and theft. Of the adults arrested, 1,232 had never been arrested before ....."

to connect the dots, you might like to read the rest:

Violence in the City -- An End or a Beginning?: A Report by the Governor's Commission on the Los Angeles Riots, published December 2, 1965; published on the net March 13, 1998.

Read it on the web. (It's large: 190 K) Or better, download it to your local hard drive. (307K, with map gifs)

includes a map of the riot zone-- South-Central LA.

The Governor's Commission is also known as the McCone Commission after the Chairman, John A. McCone, who until just before then had been Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. (Oddly, the CIA is not authorized for domestic operations.)

Vice Chairman was LA lawyer Warren M. Christopher, later Secretary of State under Clinton.

McCone, who later found work as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, has a building named after him on the UC Berkeley campus, formerly the Earth Science Building, just a stone's throw from the Bechtel engineering building, as well as from Cory Hall, now famous as the place where Name Withheld, grad student and until that time aspiring astronaut, had his hand mangled by one of two bombs planted there by former math professor Ted Kaczynski in 1982 and 1985. Withheld's class ring made a readable impression in the plaster wall when it made its impact. If you wish to see that hand today, a little internet searching at news websites will reveal Withheld's real name, from which you may find his personal homepage, and there a picture with hand minus most of 4 fingers. Contrary to what you might think without seeing it, it is an inspiring picture.

Here is a piece of one of his websites:

"Current research topics include hierarchical control systems and time-varying controllers for manipulator arms; ... aircraft on-board management systems; ... and spacecraft control systems."

Coincidentally, the present author of these notes attended classes in that building at that time.

bibliographic notes:
The McCone report is available as a separate volume, but the copy I digitized is taken from an anthology The Los Angeles Riots [of 1965] compiled by Robert M. Fogelson, (Arno Press and New York Times), which had been rebound by the library in 1993. Librarians entered the helpful note on the title page "[of 1965]" before they sent it to the bindery. This volume also includes articles: "White on Black: A Critique of the McCone Commission Report on the LA RIOTS", Robert Fogelson; "The Watts Manifesto and the McCone Report", Bayard Rustin; "Whitewash over Watts", Robert Blauner (Of course, those articles are copyrighted, and not included in this public domain electronic edition.)

Related to the topic, I picked up a book at a library sale for $0.50: The Politics of Riot Commissions 1917-1970: A Collection of Official Reports and Critical Essays, ed. Anthony M. Platt, 1971, MacMillan. Riot reports covered include: East St.Louis 1917; Chicago 1919; New York 1935; Detroit 1943; Los Angeles 1965 (the McCone Commission); 1968 (Civil Disorders, Kerner Report); 1969 (Commission on Causes and Prevention of Violence); 1970 (...Campus Unrest)

Such a list points to a new genre of books that could be put on the web. One not mentioned is the report about the "police riot" at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. I forget the name of the commission.

Related books: "Violence in America: Historical and Comparative Perspectives," edited by Hugh Davis Graham and Ted Robert Gurr, as recommended by New York Times-Washington Post guest editorialist Ted Kaczynski.

The Platt book is from the "research program of The Center for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley", and Platt "is [was] on the faculty of the School of Criminology." (1970) The UC School of Criminology was known for documenting the connections between poverty and crime, and the inefficacy of prisons and punishments. Cognizant of these accomplishments, then-Governor Ronald Reagan was subsequently able, through his leadership in the state political arena, to have the UC School of Criminology eliminated.

This book calls "Violence in the City" a "disappointment ... substituting ideology for analysis and ignoring evidence which contradicted ideological preconceptions". Other scholars said: "conservative ideology, shoddy scholarship, and lack of political vision" ... "sketchy and superficial" ... "The analytical perspective is overwhelmingly riot control" ... "misinformed and politically irresponsible."

But form your own opinion. The 1965 McCone report calls for programs that now seem positively liberal:

"...class size must be significantly reduced for children now in elementary and junior high schools in disadvantaged areas. In order to maximize opportunity for effective teaching, class size in these schools should be reduced to a maximum of 22; a less drastic reduction from the present average class of 33"

(Currently, teachers are trying to reduce class size to 33.)

Other recommendations include: early advocacy of a Head Start-like program; first calling for what has come to be called "affirmative action." (now illegal in California due to recent California ballot initiative that passed.)

Coincidentally, just last week (March 2) was 30th anniversary of the 1968 Kerner Report, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. (the liberal Kerner Report was a best seller; sold 2 million copies, according to Platt. Pretty good for a book in the public domain.)

The Kerner Report is famous for quotes like:

"This is our basic conclusion: Our Nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white -- separate and unequal."

The discussion on McNeil (or is it Lerher?) News Hour last week was trying to determine to what extent the Kerner report was prophetic.

Here's a similar quote from the earlier McCone report:

As a Commission, we are seriously concerned that the existing breach, if allowed to persist, could in time split our society irretrivably. So serious and so explosive is the situation that, unless it is checked, the August riots may seem by comparison to be only a curtain-raiser for what could blow up one day in the future.

A note on copyright of Violence in the City. Since it is a work-for-hire, paid for by the government funds, it is public domain and thus may be copied freely.

However, it is not free. However, you have already paid, and through usurious interest rates on the national debt, continue to pay, for it.

copyright on my comments above on this web page disclaimed.