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This article doesn't make sense, as it lacks a vital piece of information: was Marquette Frye black? Perhaps you all already know, and the events that followed indicate that was the case, but the article doesn't state it at any point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.246.228 ( talk) 14:55, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
does anyone know how the city recognized the anniversary?
Additionally, the Watts Riot did not come to Watts itself until the 3rd consecutive day of rioting(by which time it was in multiple South Central neighborhoods). Though the initial event which sparked it occurred near to Watts, that too was not in Watts itself. Jill Edy argues in "Troubled Pasts: News and the Collective Memory of Social Unrest" that the naming likely had more to do with Watts' reputation as an enclave for lower-class blacks. I would further recommend the McCone Commission's report on the riots. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.8.135.184 ( talk) 08:41, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
The information found at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19093 needs to be intergrated into this article. As is, it's not very informative.
When someone deletes something added to an article out of good faith, is it not the right thing to do, to post it here, instead of removing it altogether??? I entered an eyewitness account that contradicted the official death toll. Rather than think for a second that maybe there are skeletons in the closet of this country, and not just Latin American dictatorships, the "administrator" that removed my comment, "without a trace," chose to take responsibility for continuing what I was lucky enough to find out through an unlikely series of investigative journalistic events, was in fact an actual cover-up. I was almost content to let those who choose ignorance, have it, but a dream I just woke up from, (it's 3:49 am here now) convinced me that it is too important of a discovery to let lie until I find a more receptive forum. In the dream I was the only witness to some information that implicated the perpetrator of the kidnapping torture and murder of a precocious orphan, and almost allowed the system to miss it. Ironically, I sat down at the keyboard to try again, just now, and saw the headline, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050811/ap_en_tv/making_things_up
I can assure you the account I now relate is true. It was reported to me by a conservative ex-californian, who was accepted into an elite unit of the coast guard reserves on the day his draft card arrived, and was thus witness to the following spectacle: "We had been training for the scenario for a year. The black militants in Chicago had been infiltrated before then, and we were being prepared for civil unrest. We were at camp for the onset of the Watts Riot. I was turning off the lights one night--everyone else was asleep already--when I saw a boat streak by in the darkness. It was filled with militants, so I woke everyone up and we set out after it, lights flashing. It headed to the armory, which was our post to guard. We fired our guns into the air, and they landed at a warehouse, got out, and ran into it. Fortunately, the tide was low, so the position of our ship relative to the sea wall kept us out of the line of their fire, because they shot at us from the windows. I radioed for help, and soon there were helicopters with machine guns, which killed at least 8 men who I saw fall from the windows. Because I was the leader, I had to go to the morgue the next day. There were about 400 bodies marked unidentified there. The official death toll was 21 I think." At this point I asked in astonishment, "How do you explain that?" I had spoken to him about other events of the era that he lived through, assassinations for instance, and I could not have been shocked to find out that a "riot" was actually a rebellion, but I was astonished that I was hearing a story that would change the course of history, being told. His answer was simply, "They covered it up!" This was the result of a series of unlikely interviews. I will not reveal my source at this time, but it is someone whom I judged to have absolutely no reason to make this up. Engage me on this, if you can. I have no agenda of my own, but to our children. "A rose-colored story, by any other name, smells just as stink"
Was the cop's name "Lee Minikus" or "Nikko Balanon"? I find no evidence for the name "Nikko Balanon" anywhere else on the web, apart from other sites posting this same article under a different banner.
This reference should be edited out due to the fact this song came two decades after the Watts Riots. The seething tensions that stirred the earlier were involved in the latter but the song is definitely not from 1965 and as such is inappropriate in this article. If there are no objections to this discussion tab I'll edit it out later myself (if somebody else hasn't already). BronzeWarrior 21:15, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
Seeing no ojbection, I went ahead and removed the N.W.A. reference. BronzeWarrior 07:16, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
It may have come after it, but if you know anything about the song you would know that its entirely based on the watts riots and it caused an entire new spark and flame, and a new trend in hip hop, its completely relavent because the song is all about the riots and what happend during the riots, pull up the lyrics and read some, you'll see - Afrand6 aka AFRAND X
Because the group, N.W.A, discussed it in an interview, so please do more research before you insult me again. This song is one of the most famous rap songs in the world and everyone knows its as a result of the watts riots, remark removed by User:BlankVerse —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrand6 ( talk • contribs)
here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/lapd/race/racerap.html afrand6
the watts riots wasn't only looting and rioting remark removed by User:BlankVerse, it was a poweder keg that evolved from police brutality which resulted in looting and rioting, and in that site it uses the song Fuck tha police as a refference to the history of the Watts Riots, they don't just enter in random song lyrics at random times for the hell of it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrand6 ( talk • contribs)
The introductory paragraph indicates the riots lasted six days and did $100 million worth of damage. The description of the riots says the riots lasted five days and did $200 million worth of damage. One of the external references at the bottom estimates damages from $50-$100 million. Could somebody who knows more about this topic try to clean some of this data up? I came to this page solely to learn more, not because I am an expert, and therefore I think I'm somewhat unqualified. I would be very interested to read this article if an expert could add some more concrete information. Thanks! BucInExile 22:15, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
________________________________ I have a real problem with this article. It states that "one in eight did not have a high school education" as one of the principal reasons why the Watts neightborhood was upset. This census.gov pdf ( http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/cps94data/tab-16.pdf ) shows that even in 1994 the figure was far, far higher, even for "whites". Not to downplay the emotional feelings but the facts are conspicuously out of line.
My grandfather, Joseph Thompson, was the third officer to arrive on scene at the initial arrest, could that somehow be worked into the article?--Acebrock 20:19, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
Did this event happen in '65? Other sources I found says this happened in '66. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.119.191.219 ( talk) 01:51, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835704,00.html
http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/watts.html
http://www.biography.com/articles/Johnnie-Cochran-9542444
4.242.174.5 ( talk) 19:38, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
From the background section, first paragraph. It mentions one police officer arriving, then the crowd getting violent with police officers, plural. When did more officers arrive, it goes from waiting for the impound to arrive to a group of hundreds.
The riots began on August 11, 1965, in Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, when Lee Minikus, a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer, pulled over Marquette Frye, who Minikus believed was intoxicated because of his observed erratic driving. Frye failed to pass sobriety tests; including walking in a straight line and touching his nose, and was arrested soon after. Minikus refused to let Frye's brother, Ronald, drive the car home, and radioed for it to be impounded. As events escalated, a crowd of onlookers steadily grew from dozens to hundreds.[1] The mob became violent, throwing rocks and other objects while shouting at the police officers. A struggle ensued shortly resulting in the arrest of Frye, Ronald, and their mother. —Preceding unsigned comment added by KVND ( talk • contribs) 09:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
I integrated most of the information in the Day-by-Day Timeline and the Government Intervention section into The Riot section. None of the information in the day-by-day was cited and some of it was not very compelling (i.e. "rioting continued"). The information in the Government Intervention section was also not cited and it was very very specific about the national guard. I found the 50-page report that is probably the source of that information and I put it as one of the references in The Riot section so those that are interested in reading about the national guard involvement can do so. Please let me know if you think that was a horrible idea. Thanks! Rachel librarian ( talk) 00:37, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
In the second paragraph, fourth sentence it states the following:
Backup police officers arrived and attempted to arrest Frye by using physical force to subdue him.
It isn't clear if the police are trying to subdue Marquette Frye or Ronald Frye.
I am assuming it is Marquette Frye.
Jroehl ( talk) 17:06, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
This is a clear example of your liberal bias. With all the editing going on here, no one sees a problem with this? Do we do this so one group can feel good about themselves? So when people say Wikipedia lacks credibility, this is but one example. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.251.40.254 ( talk) 14:48, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
This Watt's article is yet another example of wiki bias against the white population. Note how the Tulsa riot (1921) and the Rosewood riots (1923) are labeled "racially motivated" on wiki. Not one - NOT ONE- of the more than 200 racial attacks/riots by blacks on innocent white people and their businesses between 1964 and 1969 (including the racially motivated LA riot in 1991), is described as "racially motivated" on wiki. I wonder why? For any reader of American history covering this time, all of these riots initiated by blacks were in fact racially motivated. It was black racism and hateful violence perpetrated against completely innocent people. Result of all that hateful violence? White flight.
Oppression: Blacks were not an oppressed people prior to forced integration (1964). True, generally speaking blacks did not have integration rights into the white community (pre 1964). However, there was no Constitutional right to racial integration prior to 1964, nor were any laws created by Acts of Congress which required it (hence , the necessity to create compulsory integration with the Civil Rights Act 1964). I wonder why that isn't mentioned on wiki? Plessy vs. Ferguson was still the law of the land prior to 1964. Further, no people in human history had EVER granted another people across-the-board integration rights into "their" created political and economic arenas. So not only was there no US Constitutional right to racial integration ... but there was also no precedent for it in human history. Blacks, being a distinct people, were suppose to be separate and self-reliant. This was the mind-set of white people at that time, and throughout America's history. The logical reasoning behind blacks being separate and self-reliant (Booker T. Washington's agenda), was to encourage blacks to develop their own communities, culture and living arrangements, and thereby achieve a sense of self-importance and empowerment over the lives of their people. Blacks were in fact free to build their own towns, cities, industries, or colonize a place in the vast expanse of America's unsettled lands. Blacks, on own their volition, marched for - DEMANDED- what no people had ever marched for: integration into another people's living arrangements. Finally, no people being as oppressed as many people claim blacks were prior to 1964, would demand integration INTO all that brutal oppression (think about THAT). Instead, they would seek autonomy and self-determination. Blacks were not an oppressed people!
Regarding Watts: There is not one shred of evidence - on wiki, on the internet, in any documentary - of police brutality toward blacks in Watts, or in any of the other two predominantly black communities at that time (Central Avenue & West Adams being the other two). When black leaders met with the police representatives after the first night of rioting, there was no mention whatsoever of police brutality. Further, LAPD at that time used its black police officers to patrol the three black communities. Why isn't THAT mentioned in the wiki article?
Regarding Housing: Black males, unlike white males , Japanese & Chinese, simply did NOT build their own urban housing. White males did try to address the housing problem in LA for blacks, that was being caused by rapid black migration (from the South) in the 1950s. Almost one-third (over 9000) of blacks were living in rather new federal government provided housing projects that were only about 12 years old. And these housing units were not the imposing tower complexes common in other large urban centers, but were instead designed to be inconspicuous two-story structures i.e. Watts, with many palm tree-lined streets, was no ghetto. It was NOT White people's fault that blacks would not build housing!
Quote From Article (Police Discrimination): "Not only were the city's black and Latino residents excluded from the high-paying jobs, affordable housing, and politics available to whites"
This quote is biased as well as woefully inaccurate. As I already stated, there were NO compulsory integration laws prior 1964. It needs to be stated that the entire social stratification system in LA was created - in toto - by ONE male group (white Christian males). They created the tax base! Again, not only were there no laws to force integration into another people's social stratification system, it had never happened not only in the history of America, but in all of human history. Needless to say, blacks never once practiced diversity anywhere in America where they had the economic advantage (e.g. Pullman Porters- 95% black; Red Cap workers--85% black; Negro colleges --98% employees in 1955 were black). BTW, Latinos were less than 1% of LA's population in 1960. How and why did they get inserted into the Watts' discussion?
Also, blacks did not equal 750,000 of LA's population in 1970. In 1965, it was approx. 350,000. In 1970, it would have been apprx. 390,000 (at most).
Wiki continues to be used as a racially inflammatory site for those who want to incite blacks against whites; and/ or to make white males the scape goat for the ills that afflicted the black race at this time. [Steven] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.105.102.175 ( talk) 01:21, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
I'm moving the following passage from the article; it refers to a neighboring community, and may be the product of original research. Please restore that which can be supported by reliable sources. JNW ( talk) 02:09, 21 September 2013 (UTC)
This was marked as unsourced in the article. I have first-hand knowledge but no sources. If my parents were still alive I would have sources. We moved from South Central Los Angeles in 1957 to Inglewood. Inglewood was a "whites only" suburb of Los Angeles. I also worked in the phone company office that served parts of Watts during the riots. Here is what I know. My dad volunteered as a Reserve Police Office in Inglewood as well as his "day job" where he had to drive from Inglewood to a 99% black area north of Watts. My mother sold real estate in Inglewood.
Along the Los Angeles-Inglewood border (Morningside Park part of Inglewood) there were signs along residential streets that no black (it probably said negro -- it's been a long time) were allowed on the streets after dark. The reason was that many people in the area had (black) maids and such and it was to say they needed to go home rather than live-in. I asked my dad and we looked this up. It was actually on the books as a traffic ordinance (because black people would be a traffic hazard).
On the north border between Inglewood and Los Angeles one street (as I remember, 64th street) was the dividing line. There were black people living on the LA side but not the Inglewood side. My mother had been told that she could not show houses to black people in Inglewood as "they were not allowed".
I don't have any sources but it would seem likely that someone would have a photo of one of the "traffic ordinance" signs. Nicafyl ( talk) 14:25, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
At the end of the "Racial segregation" section, it stated "The black mutual protection clubs that formed in response to these assaults became the basis of the region's fearsome street gangs." I have read that predictable allegation before and it is totally at odds with in-depth histories of black street gangs in Los Angeles. The same allegation has been made about Mexican street gangs in Los Angeles and, again, fails scrutiny. It's unsourced, and if someone finds a link where some professor states that it's true, I'm sorry; that's not enough. There is NO credible evidence that the above quote is true. The passage before that also described whites running around "firebombing", assaulting and harassing blacks which is un-sourced as well, although I'm sure someone will dig up a reference somewhere.
As to this, "The Joseph Wambaugh novel The New Centurions culminates in the Watts Riot and examines the negative impact of racist police in minority communities in the years preceding it.", I've read the book several times and it does NOT "examine the negative impact of racist police...". If anything, it does almost the opposite. The riots are shown as a breakdown of society, where black citizens are incited by radicals. The police are clearly portrayed in a sympathetic light, trying to uphold the law in a changing society. There's absolutely nothing about the "impact of racist police".
The result of the move request was: withdrawn, different issues pertain to different pages in the multimove request; closing without prejudice against reopening move requests individually or in small groups as described below. Editors who contributed to this discussion should be pinged to alert them to any subsequent discussions. (Editors taking issue with the underlying guideline are invited to initiate discussion on the talk page of the guideline.) Dekimasu よ! 21:00, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
– These descriptive titles of events generally do not get treated by sources as proper names, so per MOS:CAPS we should use lowercase. Dicklyon ( talk) 04:49, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
You write that Dick's post just above "also ignore[s] the subsection of the guideline which states, 'Proper names of specific places, persons, terms, etc. are capitalized in accordance with standard usage'." I don't believe it ignores this at all. The question is whether they count as proper names; I suspect Dick would say that if they do count thus, they should be capped. I'd be with him on that. So what definition are you using to sort out whether a word string is a proper name? I've put this question to RGloucester at least once, but he avoids answering it. Yet this is critical.
NS, you write, too: "The Lawrence Massacre, for example is a very specific event and, as such, should be capitalized per 'standard usage' – the guideline does not say 'standard wikipedia usage'." Then what do you say to this ngram?note that a signficant proportion of the capped results there would be titles using title case. Tony (talk) 14:23, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
Thank you, Dick. I get this result, too, for <the watts riot> in ngram. It is indefensible to argue that WP should surrender its house-style and go with minority usage in this case. Tony (talk) 00:48, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
No admin could sanely close this as a do-nothing RM given that the opposers offer no credible logic or evidence against the move. And Gloucester is now twisting MOSCAPS around to favour his agenda ... so that don't unnecessarily capitalise becomes capitalise when necessary. And he hasn't shown why it's necessary, aside from a series of "I am right, you are wrong" arguments above. Tony (talk) 06:52, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
Based on the feedback, it's clear that we are not going to get a consensus to move all these, but that if we split into individual article discussions or smaller clusters of similar cases, we might be able to resolve the issues. I am willing to do that, though maybe not all at once or right away, as it takes a lot of work. I'm open to suggestions about whether one-at-a-time or groups would be best.
It's also clear that some of the opposers will oppose moving even the ones that are overwhelmingly lowercase in sources, like Watts riots. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do in the face of opposition that runs so counter to our normal guidelines and precedents. We got around the problem most recently at Chicago race riot of 1919, which I urge people to review ( Talk:Chicago race riot of 1919#Requested move 2), but we can't count on always having such a sensible closer.
If RGloucester had reverted my maintenance moves only on the ones for which sources are not clear, we'd have a lot less work to do at this point. If some of the above opposers would be so kind as to list which ones they'd be willing to support moving based on the clear evidence presented, we might be able to put those behind us and save us all a lot of work going forward. Dicklyon ( talk) 22:54, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
OK, RGloucester says that Carnation Massacre, Seattle Mardi Gras Riots, and Keddie Murders are descriptive names not normally capitalized in sources. Can we go ahead and move those on closing, cutting 10% off the no-consensus list at least? Any objections (besides Red Slash, who has a novel theory about the word massacre)? Dicklyon ( talk) 23:58, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
Since RGloucester, who originally reverted these moves, no longer opposes 5 of them, and nobody else has provided any reason to oppose them, I suggest we go ahead with a split close to move these and no consensus on the rest, without prejudice; now 5 or 6 opposers have suggested breaking them them up and examining them more closely, along with more clarification of the underlying guidelines and policies: Dicklyon ( talk) 17:20, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
Please see Talk:Carnation_Massacre#Requested_move_13_December_2014 and advise if my attempt to ping did not generate a notification for you. It did not for myself, but maybe it's not supposed to. Dicklyon ( talk) 02:52, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
These 7 are so far unopposed there, except for a discussion about "massacre" not being the best term for the first one, so it will probably change to "murders":
These riots should probably be considered as a group next, since sources are clear on (at least the first three) not being close to the criteria of capitalization in MOS:CAPS or MOS:MILTERMS (if someone disagrees with those criteria, they might want to open a discussion about that). In tbe Detroit case, widespread citations to book and paper titles that include the phrase with "of 1943" make it harder to narrow down to usage in sources, but I have assembled a more clear picture via links to all individual uses in books, which makes it clear.
Then we'll see where we are. Alternate plans will be gladly considered, especially if they can lead more quickly to a consensus. Dicklyon ( talk) 02:58, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
OK, where we are is that 4 of those moved, but even with evidence like this, we didn't get editor comments to look like a consensus to move into alignment with the guidelines of WP:NCCAPS. I'm still having trouble understanding the opposition, so if anyone wants to try to explain it to me, I'll listen. Is it the evidence? the guidelines? my interpretation of what it means to be "consistently capitalized in sources"? Apathy from editors about having a consistent WP style? A little of each? Maybe later we (I) will figure it out. Merry Christmas. Dicklyon ( talk) 07:10, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
OK, editors finally got behind a consensus to also fix Watts riots to lowercase riots; we are mostly recovered from the disruption that RGloucester injected into routine style work. Not all were fixed by simple downcasings; better titles were found for some where the capitalized title was clearly not a proper name. Good progress. Thanks to all who participated. I'm not sure why it was so hard to treat these in groups, but we got there, again reaffirming that most editors agree that sticking close to WP's stated style guidelines is a good thing. Dicklyon ( talk) 06:08, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Houston Riot (1917) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. — RMCD bot 18:30, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
That RM closed with comment The result of the move request was: consensus to move the pages, except no consensus in this discussion to move Watts Riots at this time, per the discussion below. If a new request is needed for Watts Riots based on the new evidence, please proceed, but I think we're getting to the point where it may be helpful to take a break and come back later.
For future reference, the evidence that had been presented there is copied here. The part on occurrences in encyclopedias was added at the end, so was not yet reflected in comments. Dicklyon ( talk) 05:47, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
Overwhelming majority lowercase in sources is clear: [3]. Dicklyon ( talk) 18:39, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
Singular was more common in books until recently, also overwhelmingly lowercase. Dicklyon ( talk) 19:57, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
I did some more digging to address the "encyclopedic register" concept.
Here are encyclopedias that I can find in Google Book Search that use uppercase "Watts Riots":
And those that use lowercase "Watts riots" in sentences:
Singular versions, from just the first page of 10 GBS hits, show a similar pattern heavily skewed toward lowercase:
Uppercase "Watts Riot" in sentences:
Lowercase "Watts riot" in sentences:
The result of the move request was: Moved to Watts riots: Based on a least 3 years stable at Watts riots in years past, WP:Commonname and WP:MOSCAPS. Whether Watts Riots is a proper name has been shown to be at least debatable in the discussion. The suggested name: Watts riots of 1965 seems viable but should be subject to a thorough RM if proposed as it will run afoul of disambiguation concerns. Mike Cline ( talk) 14:34, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Watts Riots →
Watts riots – Having given it some time, and listening to previous feedback that this one should be considered on its own rather than in a group of less-well-known riots, it seems time again to try to get this one aligned with the advice of
MOS:CAPS. Since previous comments found no basis in sources for treating "Watts Riots" as a proper name, and with the overwhelming majority of uses in books being lowercase, WP style is to use lowercase.
Dicklyon (
talk) 23:06, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
See the section #Future move considerations above for data saved from previous discussion at Talk:Houston Riot (1917)#Requested move 14 December 2014. Add new data here.
Note that the data on usage in encyclopedias was collected too late to influence the prior discussion, where RGloucester had argued that " WP:UCN tells us that we must give weight to other encyclopaedias". Such weight would clearly be in favor of the proposal to move to lowercase, consistent with all the other evidence. Dicklyon ( talk) 23:14, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
Wikipedia avoids unnecessary capitalization. Most capitalization is for proper names or for acronyms. Wikipedia relies on sources to determine what is a proper name; words and phrases that are consistently capitalized in sources are treated as proper names and capitalized in Wikipedia.
"sources are not relevant"is enough reason to dismiss it, anyway, and I have to note further (see, e.g., again and again at WT:Article titles#Stylization of the "common name") that it was RGloucester himself who asked for the very sources he now says do not matter. This is the sour grapes fallacy. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼ 17:31, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
Without a downcasing, I believe all specific abbreviated references to the Riots should be capped in the text. Thus: "Between 31,000 and 35,000 adults participated in the riots over the course of six days" will need to be "Between 31,000 and 35,000 adults participated in the Riots over the course of six days". That is what has to happen if the second word of title string is treated as a titular proper name. Agreed, everyone? Tony (talk) 13:24, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
Moot point. The title capping has been fixed. Thanks, all, for your inputs. Dicklyon ( talk) 06:09, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
I am goinng to add the pov tag because this article is in breach of the neutrality policy all the way through. It is beyond reasonable doubt that it was written by people who are on the side of rioters rather than law and order. I am not going to get further involved because I am not American and have no special interest in the topic, which I came across by chance, but in its present state the article brings wikipedia into disrepute. 81.99.182.245 ( talk) 16:43, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
This page features a lot of testimony from police and state officials on accounts of the riots, but no reciprocal accounts are given by people who participated in or witnessed the riots in the same section detailing the actions of policemen. Also, using language such as maintaining order might appear neutral, but it hides the the violence that police use to enforce that "order". Could more descriptive language be used to illustrate the violence that police visited upon the black population of Watts during the riots. Jdevin07 ( talk) 18:43, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. Community Tech bot ( talk) 00:52, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
The Watts Riots (referred to as the Watts Rebellion) is referenced in episode 5 of the Japanese anime series Haruchika. A character's grandfather is said to have traveled to America in 1966 and experienced the riots. Though they took place in 1965, this error may be intentional because the subplot related to the riots is a red herring.
I have no experience editing Wikipedia but I figured it was a reference most people wouldn't catch since the anime is not particularly popular and American race relations are not a topic covered by anime very often.
Someone more qualified than me can verify the scene referring to the riots by watching episode 5 starting at 14 minutes 32 seconds (it is available for viewing on Funimation's YouTube channel.
Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.109.176.251 ( talk) 23:41, 9 February 2019 (UTC)
From the first paragraph of WP:NOR:
In this Watts riots article, the first two paragraphs of the section Background violate the above Wikipedia policy because the sources for the two paragraphs do not mention the Watts riots. Bob K31416 ( talk) 16:13, 5 January 2024 (UTC)
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This article doesn't make sense, as it lacks a vital piece of information: was Marquette Frye black? Perhaps you all already know, and the events that followed indicate that was the case, but the article doesn't state it at any point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 78.86.246.228 ( talk) 14:55, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
does anyone know how the city recognized the anniversary?
Additionally, the Watts Riot did not come to Watts itself until the 3rd consecutive day of rioting(by which time it was in multiple South Central neighborhoods). Though the initial event which sparked it occurred near to Watts, that too was not in Watts itself. Jill Edy argues in "Troubled Pasts: News and the Collective Memory of Social Unrest" that the naming likely had more to do with Watts' reputation as an enclave for lower-class blacks. I would further recommend the McCone Commission's report on the riots. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.8.135.184 ( talk) 08:41, 13 April 2012 (UTC)
The information found at http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19093 needs to be intergrated into this article. As is, it's not very informative.
When someone deletes something added to an article out of good faith, is it not the right thing to do, to post it here, instead of removing it altogether??? I entered an eyewitness account that contradicted the official death toll. Rather than think for a second that maybe there are skeletons in the closet of this country, and not just Latin American dictatorships, the "administrator" that removed my comment, "without a trace," chose to take responsibility for continuing what I was lucky enough to find out through an unlikely series of investigative journalistic events, was in fact an actual cover-up. I was almost content to let those who choose ignorance, have it, but a dream I just woke up from, (it's 3:49 am here now) convinced me that it is too important of a discovery to let lie until I find a more receptive forum. In the dream I was the only witness to some information that implicated the perpetrator of the kidnapping torture and murder of a precocious orphan, and almost allowed the system to miss it. Ironically, I sat down at the keyboard to try again, just now, and saw the headline, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050811/ap_en_tv/making_things_up
I can assure you the account I now relate is true. It was reported to me by a conservative ex-californian, who was accepted into an elite unit of the coast guard reserves on the day his draft card arrived, and was thus witness to the following spectacle: "We had been training for the scenario for a year. The black militants in Chicago had been infiltrated before then, and we were being prepared for civil unrest. We were at camp for the onset of the Watts Riot. I was turning off the lights one night--everyone else was asleep already--when I saw a boat streak by in the darkness. It was filled with militants, so I woke everyone up and we set out after it, lights flashing. It headed to the armory, which was our post to guard. We fired our guns into the air, and they landed at a warehouse, got out, and ran into it. Fortunately, the tide was low, so the position of our ship relative to the sea wall kept us out of the line of their fire, because they shot at us from the windows. I radioed for help, and soon there were helicopters with machine guns, which killed at least 8 men who I saw fall from the windows. Because I was the leader, I had to go to the morgue the next day. There were about 400 bodies marked unidentified there. The official death toll was 21 I think." At this point I asked in astonishment, "How do you explain that?" I had spoken to him about other events of the era that he lived through, assassinations for instance, and I could not have been shocked to find out that a "riot" was actually a rebellion, but I was astonished that I was hearing a story that would change the course of history, being told. His answer was simply, "They covered it up!" This was the result of a series of unlikely interviews. I will not reveal my source at this time, but it is someone whom I judged to have absolutely no reason to make this up. Engage me on this, if you can. I have no agenda of my own, but to our children. "A rose-colored story, by any other name, smells just as stink"
Was the cop's name "Lee Minikus" or "Nikko Balanon"? I find no evidence for the name "Nikko Balanon" anywhere else on the web, apart from other sites posting this same article under a different banner.
This reference should be edited out due to the fact this song came two decades after the Watts Riots. The seething tensions that stirred the earlier were involved in the latter but the song is definitely not from 1965 and as such is inappropriate in this article. If there are no objections to this discussion tab I'll edit it out later myself (if somebody else hasn't already). BronzeWarrior 21:15, 7 November 2005 (UTC)
Seeing no ojbection, I went ahead and removed the N.W.A. reference. BronzeWarrior 07:16, 9 November 2005 (UTC)
It may have come after it, but if you know anything about the song you would know that its entirely based on the watts riots and it caused an entire new spark and flame, and a new trend in hip hop, its completely relavent because the song is all about the riots and what happend during the riots, pull up the lyrics and read some, you'll see - Afrand6 aka AFRAND X
Because the group, N.W.A, discussed it in an interview, so please do more research before you insult me again. This song is one of the most famous rap songs in the world and everyone knows its as a result of the watts riots, remark removed by User:BlankVerse —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrand6 ( talk • contribs)
here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/lapd/race/racerap.html afrand6
the watts riots wasn't only looting and rioting remark removed by User:BlankVerse, it was a poweder keg that evolved from police brutality which resulted in looting and rioting, and in that site it uses the song Fuck tha police as a refference to the history of the Watts Riots, they don't just enter in random song lyrics at random times for the hell of it —Preceding unsigned comment added by Afrand6 ( talk • contribs)
The introductory paragraph indicates the riots lasted six days and did $100 million worth of damage. The description of the riots says the riots lasted five days and did $200 million worth of damage. One of the external references at the bottom estimates damages from $50-$100 million. Could somebody who knows more about this topic try to clean some of this data up? I came to this page solely to learn more, not because I am an expert, and therefore I think I'm somewhat unqualified. I would be very interested to read this article if an expert could add some more concrete information. Thanks! BucInExile 22:15, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
________________________________ I have a real problem with this article. It states that "one in eight did not have a high school education" as one of the principal reasons why the Watts neightborhood was upset. This census.gov pdf ( http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/cps94data/tab-16.pdf ) shows that even in 1994 the figure was far, far higher, even for "whites". Not to downplay the emotional feelings but the facts are conspicuously out of line.
My grandfather, Joseph Thompson, was the third officer to arrive on scene at the initial arrest, could that somehow be worked into the article?--Acebrock 20:19, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
Did this event happen in '65? Other sources I found says this happened in '66. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.119.191.219 ( talk) 01:51, 12 June 2008 (UTC)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,835704,00.html
http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/watts.html
http://www.biography.com/articles/Johnnie-Cochran-9542444
4.242.174.5 ( talk) 19:38, 1 July 2009 (UTC)
From the background section, first paragraph. It mentions one police officer arriving, then the crowd getting violent with police officers, plural. When did more officers arrive, it goes from waiting for the impound to arrive to a group of hundreds.
The riots began on August 11, 1965, in Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, when Lee Minikus, a California Highway Patrol motorcycle officer, pulled over Marquette Frye, who Minikus believed was intoxicated because of his observed erratic driving. Frye failed to pass sobriety tests; including walking in a straight line and touching his nose, and was arrested soon after. Minikus refused to let Frye's brother, Ronald, drive the car home, and radioed for it to be impounded. As events escalated, a crowd of onlookers steadily grew from dozens to hundreds.[1] The mob became violent, throwing rocks and other objects while shouting at the police officers. A struggle ensued shortly resulting in the arrest of Frye, Ronald, and their mother. —Preceding unsigned comment added by KVND ( talk • contribs) 09:14, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
I integrated most of the information in the Day-by-Day Timeline and the Government Intervention section into The Riot section. None of the information in the day-by-day was cited and some of it was not very compelling (i.e. "rioting continued"). The information in the Government Intervention section was also not cited and it was very very specific about the national guard. I found the 50-page report that is probably the source of that information and I put it as one of the references in The Riot section so those that are interested in reading about the national guard involvement can do so. Please let me know if you think that was a horrible idea. Thanks! Rachel librarian ( talk) 00:37, 4 January 2012 (UTC)
In the second paragraph, fourth sentence it states the following:
Backup police officers arrived and attempted to arrest Frye by using physical force to subdue him.
It isn't clear if the police are trying to subdue Marquette Frye or Ronald Frye.
I am assuming it is Marquette Frye.
Jroehl ( talk) 17:06, 24 May 2012 (UTC)
This is a clear example of your liberal bias. With all the editing going on here, no one sees a problem with this? Do we do this so one group can feel good about themselves? So when people say Wikipedia lacks credibility, this is but one example. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.251.40.254 ( talk) 14:48, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
This Watt's article is yet another example of wiki bias against the white population. Note how the Tulsa riot (1921) and the Rosewood riots (1923) are labeled "racially motivated" on wiki. Not one - NOT ONE- of the more than 200 racial attacks/riots by blacks on innocent white people and their businesses between 1964 and 1969 (including the racially motivated LA riot in 1991), is described as "racially motivated" on wiki. I wonder why? For any reader of American history covering this time, all of these riots initiated by blacks were in fact racially motivated. It was black racism and hateful violence perpetrated against completely innocent people. Result of all that hateful violence? White flight.
Oppression: Blacks were not an oppressed people prior to forced integration (1964). True, generally speaking blacks did not have integration rights into the white community (pre 1964). However, there was no Constitutional right to racial integration prior to 1964, nor were any laws created by Acts of Congress which required it (hence , the necessity to create compulsory integration with the Civil Rights Act 1964). I wonder why that isn't mentioned on wiki? Plessy vs. Ferguson was still the law of the land prior to 1964. Further, no people in human history had EVER granted another people across-the-board integration rights into "their" created political and economic arenas. So not only was there no US Constitutional right to racial integration ... but there was also no precedent for it in human history. Blacks, being a distinct people, were suppose to be separate and self-reliant. This was the mind-set of white people at that time, and throughout America's history. The logical reasoning behind blacks being separate and self-reliant (Booker T. Washington's agenda), was to encourage blacks to develop their own communities, culture and living arrangements, and thereby achieve a sense of self-importance and empowerment over the lives of their people. Blacks were in fact free to build their own towns, cities, industries, or colonize a place in the vast expanse of America's unsettled lands. Blacks, on own their volition, marched for - DEMANDED- what no people had ever marched for: integration into another people's living arrangements. Finally, no people being as oppressed as many people claim blacks were prior to 1964, would demand integration INTO all that brutal oppression (think about THAT). Instead, they would seek autonomy and self-determination. Blacks were not an oppressed people!
Regarding Watts: There is not one shred of evidence - on wiki, on the internet, in any documentary - of police brutality toward blacks in Watts, or in any of the other two predominantly black communities at that time (Central Avenue & West Adams being the other two). When black leaders met with the police representatives after the first night of rioting, there was no mention whatsoever of police brutality. Further, LAPD at that time used its black police officers to patrol the three black communities. Why isn't THAT mentioned in the wiki article?
Regarding Housing: Black males, unlike white males , Japanese & Chinese, simply did NOT build their own urban housing. White males did try to address the housing problem in LA for blacks, that was being caused by rapid black migration (from the South) in the 1950s. Almost one-third (over 9000) of blacks were living in rather new federal government provided housing projects that were only about 12 years old. And these housing units were not the imposing tower complexes common in other large urban centers, but were instead designed to be inconspicuous two-story structures i.e. Watts, with many palm tree-lined streets, was no ghetto. It was NOT White people's fault that blacks would not build housing!
Quote From Article (Police Discrimination): "Not only were the city's black and Latino residents excluded from the high-paying jobs, affordable housing, and politics available to whites"
This quote is biased as well as woefully inaccurate. As I already stated, there were NO compulsory integration laws prior 1964. It needs to be stated that the entire social stratification system in LA was created - in toto - by ONE male group (white Christian males). They created the tax base! Again, not only were there no laws to force integration into another people's social stratification system, it had never happened not only in the history of America, but in all of human history. Needless to say, blacks never once practiced diversity anywhere in America where they had the economic advantage (e.g. Pullman Porters- 95% black; Red Cap workers--85% black; Negro colleges --98% employees in 1955 were black). BTW, Latinos were less than 1% of LA's population in 1960. How and why did they get inserted into the Watts' discussion?
Also, blacks did not equal 750,000 of LA's population in 1970. In 1965, it was approx. 350,000. In 1970, it would have been apprx. 390,000 (at most).
Wiki continues to be used as a racially inflammatory site for those who want to incite blacks against whites; and/ or to make white males the scape goat for the ills that afflicted the black race at this time. [Steven] — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.105.102.175 ( talk) 01:21, 22 December 2012 (UTC)
I'm moving the following passage from the article; it refers to a neighboring community, and may be the product of original research. Please restore that which can be supported by reliable sources. JNW ( talk) 02:09, 21 September 2013 (UTC)
This was marked as unsourced in the article. I have first-hand knowledge but no sources. If my parents were still alive I would have sources. We moved from South Central Los Angeles in 1957 to Inglewood. Inglewood was a "whites only" suburb of Los Angeles. I also worked in the phone company office that served parts of Watts during the riots. Here is what I know. My dad volunteered as a Reserve Police Office in Inglewood as well as his "day job" where he had to drive from Inglewood to a 99% black area north of Watts. My mother sold real estate in Inglewood.
Along the Los Angeles-Inglewood border (Morningside Park part of Inglewood) there were signs along residential streets that no black (it probably said negro -- it's been a long time) were allowed on the streets after dark. The reason was that many people in the area had (black) maids and such and it was to say they needed to go home rather than live-in. I asked my dad and we looked this up. It was actually on the books as a traffic ordinance (because black people would be a traffic hazard).
On the north border between Inglewood and Los Angeles one street (as I remember, 64th street) was the dividing line. There were black people living on the LA side but not the Inglewood side. My mother had been told that she could not show houses to black people in Inglewood as "they were not allowed".
I don't have any sources but it would seem likely that someone would have a photo of one of the "traffic ordinance" signs. Nicafyl ( talk) 14:25, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
At the end of the "Racial segregation" section, it stated "The black mutual protection clubs that formed in response to these assaults became the basis of the region's fearsome street gangs." I have read that predictable allegation before and it is totally at odds with in-depth histories of black street gangs in Los Angeles. The same allegation has been made about Mexican street gangs in Los Angeles and, again, fails scrutiny. It's unsourced, and if someone finds a link where some professor states that it's true, I'm sorry; that's not enough. There is NO credible evidence that the above quote is true. The passage before that also described whites running around "firebombing", assaulting and harassing blacks which is un-sourced as well, although I'm sure someone will dig up a reference somewhere.
As to this, "The Joseph Wambaugh novel The New Centurions culminates in the Watts Riot and examines the negative impact of racist police in minority communities in the years preceding it.", I've read the book several times and it does NOT "examine the negative impact of racist police...". If anything, it does almost the opposite. The riots are shown as a breakdown of society, where black citizens are incited by radicals. The police are clearly portrayed in a sympathetic light, trying to uphold the law in a changing society. There's absolutely nothing about the "impact of racist police".
The result of the move request was: withdrawn, different issues pertain to different pages in the multimove request; closing without prejudice against reopening move requests individually or in small groups as described below. Editors who contributed to this discussion should be pinged to alert them to any subsequent discussions. (Editors taking issue with the underlying guideline are invited to initiate discussion on the talk page of the guideline.) Dekimasu よ! 21:00, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
– These descriptive titles of events generally do not get treated by sources as proper names, so per MOS:CAPS we should use lowercase. Dicklyon ( talk) 04:49, 9 December 2014 (UTC)
You write that Dick's post just above "also ignore[s] the subsection of the guideline which states, 'Proper names of specific places, persons, terms, etc. are capitalized in accordance with standard usage'." I don't believe it ignores this at all. The question is whether they count as proper names; I suspect Dick would say that if they do count thus, they should be capped. I'd be with him on that. So what definition are you using to sort out whether a word string is a proper name? I've put this question to RGloucester at least once, but he avoids answering it. Yet this is critical.
NS, you write, too: "The Lawrence Massacre, for example is a very specific event and, as such, should be capitalized per 'standard usage' – the guideline does not say 'standard wikipedia usage'." Then what do you say to this ngram?note that a signficant proportion of the capped results there would be titles using title case. Tony (talk) 14:23, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
Thank you, Dick. I get this result, too, for <the watts riot> in ngram. It is indefensible to argue that WP should surrender its house-style and go with minority usage in this case. Tony (talk) 00:48, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
No admin could sanely close this as a do-nothing RM given that the opposers offer no credible logic or evidence against the move. And Gloucester is now twisting MOSCAPS around to favour his agenda ... so that don't unnecessarily capitalise becomes capitalise when necessary. And he hasn't shown why it's necessary, aside from a series of "I am right, you are wrong" arguments above. Tony (talk) 06:52, 10 December 2014 (UTC)
Based on the feedback, it's clear that we are not going to get a consensus to move all these, but that if we split into individual article discussions or smaller clusters of similar cases, we might be able to resolve the issues. I am willing to do that, though maybe not all at once or right away, as it takes a lot of work. I'm open to suggestions about whether one-at-a-time or groups would be best.
It's also clear that some of the opposers will oppose moving even the ones that are overwhelmingly lowercase in sources, like Watts riots. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do in the face of opposition that runs so counter to our normal guidelines and precedents. We got around the problem most recently at Chicago race riot of 1919, which I urge people to review ( Talk:Chicago race riot of 1919#Requested move 2), but we can't count on always having such a sensible closer.
If RGloucester had reverted my maintenance moves only on the ones for which sources are not clear, we'd have a lot less work to do at this point. If some of the above opposers would be so kind as to list which ones they'd be willing to support moving based on the clear evidence presented, we might be able to put those behind us and save us all a lot of work going forward. Dicklyon ( talk) 22:54, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
OK, RGloucester says that Carnation Massacre, Seattle Mardi Gras Riots, and Keddie Murders are descriptive names not normally capitalized in sources. Can we go ahead and move those on closing, cutting 10% off the no-consensus list at least? Any objections (besides Red Slash, who has a novel theory about the word massacre)? Dicklyon ( talk) 23:58, 11 December 2014 (UTC)
Since RGloucester, who originally reverted these moves, no longer opposes 5 of them, and nobody else has provided any reason to oppose them, I suggest we go ahead with a split close to move these and no consensus on the rest, without prejudice; now 5 or 6 opposers have suggested breaking them them up and examining them more closely, along with more clarification of the underlying guidelines and policies: Dicklyon ( talk) 17:20, 12 December 2014 (UTC)
Please see Talk:Carnation_Massacre#Requested_move_13_December_2014 and advise if my attempt to ping did not generate a notification for you. It did not for myself, but maybe it's not supposed to. Dicklyon ( talk) 02:52, 13 December 2014 (UTC)
These 7 are so far unopposed there, except for a discussion about "massacre" not being the best term for the first one, so it will probably change to "murders":
These riots should probably be considered as a group next, since sources are clear on (at least the first three) not being close to the criteria of capitalization in MOS:CAPS or MOS:MILTERMS (if someone disagrees with those criteria, they might want to open a discussion about that). In tbe Detroit case, widespread citations to book and paper titles that include the phrase with "of 1943" make it harder to narrow down to usage in sources, but I have assembled a more clear picture via links to all individual uses in books, which makes it clear.
Then we'll see where we are. Alternate plans will be gladly considered, especially if they can lead more quickly to a consensus. Dicklyon ( talk) 02:58, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
OK, where we are is that 4 of those moved, but even with evidence like this, we didn't get editor comments to look like a consensus to move into alignment with the guidelines of WP:NCCAPS. I'm still having trouble understanding the opposition, so if anyone wants to try to explain it to me, I'll listen. Is it the evidence? the guidelines? my interpretation of what it means to be "consistently capitalized in sources"? Apathy from editors about having a consistent WP style? A little of each? Maybe later we (I) will figure it out. Merry Christmas. Dicklyon ( talk) 07:10, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
OK, editors finally got behind a consensus to also fix Watts riots to lowercase riots; we are mostly recovered from the disruption that RGloucester injected into routine style work. Not all were fixed by simple downcasings; better titles were found for some where the capitalized title was clearly not a proper name. Good progress. Thanks to all who participated. I'm not sure why it was so hard to treat these in groups, but we got there, again reaffirming that most editors agree that sticking close to WP's stated style guidelines is a good thing. Dicklyon ( talk) 06:08, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Houston Riot (1917) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. — RMCD bot 18:30, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
That RM closed with comment The result of the move request was: consensus to move the pages, except no consensus in this discussion to move Watts Riots at this time, per the discussion below. If a new request is needed for Watts Riots based on the new evidence, please proceed, but I think we're getting to the point where it may be helpful to take a break and come back later.
For future reference, the evidence that had been presented there is copied here. The part on occurrences in encyclopedias was added at the end, so was not yet reflected in comments. Dicklyon ( talk) 05:47, 23 December 2014 (UTC)
Overwhelming majority lowercase in sources is clear: [3]. Dicklyon ( talk) 18:39, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
Singular was more common in books until recently, also overwhelmingly lowercase. Dicklyon ( talk) 19:57, 14 December 2014 (UTC)
I did some more digging to address the "encyclopedic register" concept.
Here are encyclopedias that I can find in Google Book Search that use uppercase "Watts Riots":
And those that use lowercase "Watts riots" in sentences:
Singular versions, from just the first page of 10 GBS hits, show a similar pattern heavily skewed toward lowercase:
Uppercase "Watts Riot" in sentences:
Lowercase "Watts riot" in sentences:
The result of the move request was: Moved to Watts riots: Based on a least 3 years stable at Watts riots in years past, WP:Commonname and WP:MOSCAPS. Whether Watts Riots is a proper name has been shown to be at least debatable in the discussion. The suggested name: Watts riots of 1965 seems viable but should be subject to a thorough RM if proposed as it will run afoul of disambiguation concerns. Mike Cline ( talk) 14:34, 4 March 2015 (UTC)
Watts Riots →
Watts riots – Having given it some time, and listening to previous feedback that this one should be considered on its own rather than in a group of less-well-known riots, it seems time again to try to get this one aligned with the advice of
MOS:CAPS. Since previous comments found no basis in sources for treating "Watts Riots" as a proper name, and with the overwhelming majority of uses in books being lowercase, WP style is to use lowercase.
Dicklyon (
talk) 23:06, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
See the section #Future move considerations above for data saved from previous discussion at Talk:Houston Riot (1917)#Requested move 14 December 2014. Add new data here.
Note that the data on usage in encyclopedias was collected too late to influence the prior discussion, where RGloucester had argued that " WP:UCN tells us that we must give weight to other encyclopaedias". Such weight would clearly be in favor of the proposal to move to lowercase, consistent with all the other evidence. Dicklyon ( talk) 23:14, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
Wikipedia avoids unnecessary capitalization. Most capitalization is for proper names or for acronyms. Wikipedia relies on sources to determine what is a proper name; words and phrases that are consistently capitalized in sources are treated as proper names and capitalized in Wikipedia.
"sources are not relevant"is enough reason to dismiss it, anyway, and I have to note further (see, e.g., again and again at WT:Article titles#Stylization of the "common name") that it was RGloucester himself who asked for the very sources he now says do not matter. This is the sour grapes fallacy. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼ 17:31, 20 February 2015 (UTC)
Without a downcasing, I believe all specific abbreviated references to the Riots should be capped in the text. Thus: "Between 31,000 and 35,000 adults participated in the riots over the course of six days" will need to be "Between 31,000 and 35,000 adults participated in the Riots over the course of six days". That is what has to happen if the second word of title string is treated as a titular proper name. Agreed, everyone? Tony (talk) 13:24, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
Moot point. The title capping has been fixed. Thanks, all, for your inputs. Dicklyon ( talk) 06:09, 13 March 2015 (UTC)
I am goinng to add the pov tag because this article is in breach of the neutrality policy all the way through. It is beyond reasonable doubt that it was written by people who are on the side of rioters rather than law and order. I am not going to get further involved because I am not American and have no special interest in the topic, which I came across by chance, but in its present state the article brings wikipedia into disrepute. 81.99.182.245 ( talk) 16:43, 30 May 2015 (UTC)
This page features a lot of testimony from police and state officials on accounts of the riots, but no reciprocal accounts are given by people who participated in or witnessed the riots in the same section detailing the actions of policemen. Also, using language such as maintaining order might appear neutral, but it hides the the violence that police use to enforce that "order". Could more descriptive language be used to illustrate the violence that police visited upon the black population of Watts during the riots. Jdevin07 ( talk) 18:43, 7 February 2017 (UTC)
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:
Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. Community Tech bot ( talk) 00:52, 4 July 2018 (UTC)
The Watts Riots (referred to as the Watts Rebellion) is referenced in episode 5 of the Japanese anime series Haruchika. A character's grandfather is said to have traveled to America in 1966 and experienced the riots. Though they took place in 1965, this error may be intentional because the subplot related to the riots is a red herring.
I have no experience editing Wikipedia but I figured it was a reference most people wouldn't catch since the anime is not particularly popular and American race relations are not a topic covered by anime very often.
Someone more qualified than me can verify the scene referring to the riots by watching episode 5 starting at 14 minutes 32 seconds (it is available for viewing on Funimation's YouTube channel.
Thank you. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.109.176.251 ( talk) 23:41, 9 February 2019 (UTC)
From the first paragraph of WP:NOR:
In this Watts riots article, the first two paragraphs of the section Background violate the above Wikipedia policy because the sources for the two paragraphs do not mention the Watts riots. Bob K31416 ( talk) 16:13, 5 January 2024 (UTC)