Violence
Historical Context of Violence
According to the Merriam Wester dictionary, violence is defined by "the use of physical force so as to injure, abuse, damage, or destroy." In the context of Chinatown, violence was very racially charged and Asian-targeted crimes saw an increase in the 1850/1860s. The rise in this hatred was also mimicked in the newspapers as the Los Angeles News and Los Angeles Star published pieces calling Chinese immigration "inferior and immoral" (LAPL). The greatest expression of violence seen in Chinatown was the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871.At the time, Los Angeles was a city of about 6,000 people. There were about 172 Chinese people living in Los Angeles in 1870. Of that population, more than half lived on Calle de los Negros, an unpaved street with brothels, gambling instutions, and saloons. Naturally, with a higher concentration of dangerous activity taking place in a certain region, there is likely to be more violence as well (LAPL).
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.
Conclusions
Simran: One of my biggest takeaways is thinking about how different our world is today with respect to how we interpret media and tragedy due to the rise of social media. It is remarkable that there is photographic evidence of some of the massacre, as it helps modern day historians make sense of what truly happened. Yet, today we have photos, videos, and outlets like the news and social media that allows people all over the world to stay up to date with a realistic understanding of an event. It is also interesting to me to think about how that may change the way we proceed after a dispicable event like the LA Chinese Massacre. I would imagine, in today's day and age, direct photographic evidence of a hate crime would breed more empathy globally, and cultivate an energy of change. But, when looking at today's truth, I think about all of the different hate crimes that had to take place against Black Americans for the "Black Lives Matter" movement to begin. This makes me wonder how bad an event or crime has to be for people, either in the 1870s or today, to genuinely want to change. Amy:
Mateo:
Anna:
Citations:
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/violence
- https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/chinese-massacre-1871