Summary of the Massacre
Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871
October 24, 1871 was the day that 18 Chinese men, 10% of their population at the time, were killed in an aggressive act of violence. The conflict started over the kidnapping of a Chinese woman, at the junction of Los Angeles Street, Arcadia Street, and Aliso Street. As bullets began to fly in a shootout involving many Chinese men, two of the six Los Angeles Police Officers were deployed to diffuse the tension. Instead of doing so, they were caught in the crosshairs of gunfire and one of the officers was wounded while Robert Thompson, a civillian helping the officers, was killed. Thompson owned and ran a saloon in the Calle de los Negros area, so once word of his death spread a riot of about 500 people ensued. It is interesting to consider the ratio of police officers to city residents, as at this time there was roughly 1 police officer for every 1,000 Angelinos. This is definitely not a reflection of how little crime there was in the city at that time given that Los Angeles had a higher homocide rate than New York and Chicago and lynchings and mob activity were very common. This makes me wonder how much corruption there was in the public service role of a police officer from crime leaders in the community, or if perhaps there is another explanation for this outrageous ratio.
The 18 victims were brutally murdered and 17 of the bodies were left in the yard "on display" the next morning, while the 18th was buried the night before. Of those 18 deaths, only one was involved in the original source of conflict. This horrific event that wiped 10% of the Chinese population out of Los Angeles wasn't given enough importance, if any at all. None of the local newspapers wrote about it in their year end review of notable events and unfortunately didn't have much of a lasting impact on the future of the city of Los Angeles.
Citations:
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violence
- https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/chinese-massacre-1871