NCJ Number
88076
Journal
American Behavioral Scientist Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Dated: (March-April 1968) Pages: 27-31
Date Published
1968
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Urban riots in northern American cities will continue until the well of available cities runs dry because many urban northern blacks support them, a quasi-polical ideology is promulgated to justify them, and no effective deterrent exists to stop them.
Abstract
Findings from a survey of blacks following the Los Angeles riot of 1965 show that, contrary to popular belief, most blacks view the riot as a legitimate protest against the actions of whites and expect it to produce an improvement in black living conditions and in black-white relations. Unfortunately, society is counting on the police to deter future riots. The police are the 'patsies' for a country which seems to feel that it is cheaper to kill blacks for burning and looting than it is to spend the money and create the climate which might produce a life situation which obviates responses such as riots. Thus, popular riots will continue and no significant actions will be taken to relieve their causes. Because no action is being taken now, the future appears bleak. Following the cessation of popular riots in a few years, blacks and white will retrench. Formal revolutionary groups may actively foment civil disturbances, with the goal of destroying American cities. To avert this possibility, several immediate steps must be taken. Massive infusions of money and industrial resources must be sent into the ghettos. White society must demonstrate faith in the idea of black equality, and street militants and the black middle class must unite in the common cause of black development. Five notes are included.