How well does your analysis of your riot in the first assignment fit with those data visualizations? Do those data visualizations change what label you think should be applied to your riot? Explain why.

In my initial analysis of the riot, I described it as a rebellion – opposition to one in authority or dominance – open, armed, and usually unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government: an instance of such defiance or resistance. After creating the data visualizations, I am even more convinced of the label that I chose. The single inciting incident of the traffic stop of a Black man by a white police officer would not start a 6-day event of lootings, rioting’s, and struggles between the African American people and law enforcement of a community unless there was built up resentment of the longstanding racial injustices in the Watts area of Los Angeles. My timeline and map provide details about the time and location of the inciting incident and then traces examples of many of the events – like the lootings, destructions and burning of cars and property – throughout the time of six days and the region expanding out from Avalon Boulevard. 

In my initial assignment, I did successfully identify the features of the riot but did not focus on the asymmetry. The data visualizations were helpful in providing more detail to some of the features that I listed. For example, the trigger for the riots was clear by time and location. The duration and location of some of the major incidents associated with the riot were also evident as were some of the amount and kind of property damage. But the sources that I used to create my spreadsheets for the map and the timeline were not always specific. The newspapers had more general information for that day without always providing names, times, and specific locations. The McCone Commission report and the Fire This Time, historic report, gave more detail. I tried to choose examples from throughout the six days of the rebellion that best described how and where the event took place but could not be comprehensive with all the information that was available.

From the beginning of this assignment, I did not focus on the relative casualties among civilians and the authorities, which show more violence by police than against them – 73 civilians injured, 136 firemen, 90 police officers, 10 national guard, 23 other government officials. That was evident in my research, and I tried to consider that in the data. Now at the end of the assignment, I would choose that key feature of asymmetry. The damage to property and injuries and loss of lives throughout the six days were disproportionately to the African American community. On the map and tracing the timeline and incidents, most if not all the activity stayed in the Watts area and did not move into White neighborhoods. White residents were told by the media to stay away, and it became a struggle between the African American community and the majority White LAPD and National Guard. 

After you have completed your annotations, assess the entry on the riot you are studying:

1. Referring to your timeline and map, how well does the entry describe the events of the riot, and when and where they occurred?

The entry also provides detail about what started the riots.  The resentment of longstanding racial injustices in the Watts area of Los Angeles turned the inciting incident of the traffic stop of a Black man into a series of riots across the 45 miles.  My timeline and map provides much more detail about the time and location of the inciting incident.  You can also see through my timeline and map how the rioting spread from the epicenter of the inciting incident.  

There is not much detail in the Wikipedia entry about the actual incidents during the riot – specifics like the fires, looting of neighborhood stores, mosque incident, tear gas by police, for example.  Those details would explain the timing of bringing in the National Guard.  There is also no descriptions of who was injured and killed (white vs. black, law enforcement vs. citizens) which are important details.

2. How well does the label applied to the riot in the entry fit with the information in the entry and with your interpretation of the riot?

The entry does address whether the event was a riot or rebellion at the beginning but continues to call it a riot throughout the entry.  In the initial assignment, I identified the event as a rebellion because it was ultimately a deliberate insurgency against an illegitimate regime, an act of political resistance with the intent of destabilizing or overturning the status quo.  The entry goes on to describe events during the rebellion but often leaves out important information like times and locations.  My timeline and map give a clearer picture of how the event exploded from one incident that caused the population of the Watts area to rebel.  The destruction was also confined mostly to their own neighborhoods and very little of the activity went outside of the African-American communities.

Post your answers to these questions on your blog and submit a link to that blog post using the link at the top of these instructions.

• https://kepler.gl/demo/map?mapUrl=https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xbdl8xk09ak0jta/keplergl_ljddido.json
• To what extent do events cluster at particular places? (At what places do events cluster? How large are the clusters of events? What proportion of events are in clusters?)

Many arrest cluster at Avalon & 43rd St. Injuries and looting can be tracked down Avalon Blvd throughout the 4 days. The greatest proportion of events are the looting and they cluster by time and location.

• To what extent do events in the same category cluster at the same places? (At what places do events in the same category cluster? How large are the clusters of events in the same category? What proportion of in the same category are in clusters?)

Arrest cluster where looting is at Avalon & 43rd, while rocks and bottles thrown and crowds incited at 116 & Avalon. This is where the initial traffic stop with the Frye brothers occurred and was the epicenter of the riot. About 20% of the clusters were arrests and about 20% were looting in the same area where windows were broken. The fire custard mostly around Athens park and 103rd St.

• To what extent do the places where events occur and cluster change during the duration of the riot?

The epicenter of the Watts Rebellion was around 116th street & Avalon and you can see as time went on over the 4 days that you could almost draw a square around how the looting and violence spread in all directions as far as long beach.

• How many events in your spreadsheet are not on your map? Are any categories of events missing from the map more than others? Is there enough missing data to make uncertain any of your answers to the previous questions?

All of my events from the spreadsheet are on the map although some of them occur at the same place so are pinpointed on top of each other. For example, at Avalon & 116th St there are arrests, assault on police, cars destroyed, injuries, and looting. Maybe I could’ve been more specific about where and what type of stores were looted, also i did not note all the places that the national guard were deployed and was not specific about every single fire or injury.

• How well does the map fit with what you identified as the key feature of your riot and the label you applied to it in the first assignment? Does knowing where events occurred what you think is the key feature and label of your riot?

I applied the label of a rebellion, a rebellion is defined as an open armed and usually unsuccessful defiance of or resistance to an established government. The Watts rebellion began as a simple traffic stop by a white police man to a young black male in a black neigborhood. When the black citizens of the neighborhood came out to watch the arrest, it brought forth other pent up anger at the authorities and their situation. The discontent spread out from the that center point from the Watts neighborhood where mostly black owned business and property’s were destroyed. The map shows that the rebellion was actually a series of riots over the span of 6 days that spread across miles of Los Angeles. As the riot spread the arrest, destruction, and injuries increased. 

Where events occurred is obvious because it’s called the Watts Riot, so pinpointing events on the map defined for me where Watts is in relation to Los Angeles. But I think the key feature of the Watts Rebellion was the destruction done to the neighborhood and the injuries mostly to the black population living there, not law enforcement. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Z2YoXOci8xReZHh0pbIfTHAQtQ6wHeWYYco6cyvitTU/edit#gid=0

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=1Z2YoXOci8xReZHh0pbIfTHAQtQ6wHeWYYco6cyvitTU&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&height=650

• • To what extent do events cluster at particular times? (At what times do events cluster? How large are the clusters of events? What proportion of events are in clusters?)
  • – The events cluster at the beginning on August 11th starting with the Fryes arrest. this is when the rioting starts and we start to see rioting clusters. The largest clusters are looting and rioting. Typically when there are aj increased # of rioters it is after an event that instigated them again like the tear gassing of rioter by police the  death and arrest of a black citizens. I used a relish/pink to highlight arrest by police and those are a large proportion of the timeline shows up in red. 
  • To what extent do events in the same category cluster at the same times? (At what times do events in the same category cluster? How large are the clusters of events in the same category? What proportion of in the same category are in clusters?)
  • – All of the  events fall into clusters except the initial arrest and some of the injuries to police and the National Guard. The rioting clusters mostly as it gets dark in the evening through the early hours of the morning. 
  • Are there gaps in the timeline when no events happen? (When are those gaps? How long are those gaps?)
    – Yes after the curfew was initiated the rioting stooped after 8pm with the exception of some arrests for the people who didn’t follow the curfew order.
  • How many events in your spreadsheet are not on your timeline? Are any categories of events missing from the timeline more than others? Is there enough missing data to make uncertain any of your answers to the previous questions?
  • – Every single individual arrest and injury is not on my timeline.  also my timeline is not that specific about which stores were looted and when.
  • How well does the timeline fit with what you identified as the key feature of your riot and the label you applied to it in the first assignment? Does knowing when events happened change what you think is the key feature and label of your riot?- My timeline fits with the label I replied which was a rebellion because it showed mass rioting that spread and continued for days based on the unrest of the black population in the neighborhood from the Watts area. My timeline also agrees with my earlier findings that young  black men were the majority of the arrests and injuries. 
  • Review the grading rubric for this assignment before you submit your work to ensure you have met all the requirements –

My data on events fits pretty well with what I identified as the key feature of the Watts Riot and the label I applied to it in the first assignment. In the first assignment, I had difficulty in choosing just one dimension that defined the events of the Watts Rebellion.  I pointed out that the asymmetry of the damage was primarily to African-American neighborhoods and the majority of people injured or killed were also Black.  According the data on my Google sheet, the majority of the lootings took place in the Watts neighborhoods, specifically around Avalon Ave., Imperial and initiated around streets around the 40s but extended eventually to 120th St.  There were one or two incidents on my graph that were outside of Watts in the Long Beach area.  With a few exceptions noted on my google sheet, the injuries and deaths were to Black citizens and only a few to law enforcement including a few policeman and a firefighter. 

I identified the incident as a rebellion because it originated from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and then manifests itself by the refusal to submit or to obey the authority responsible for the situation.  My data showed that one incident – the pulling over of African American brothers for drunk driving by a white police officer in a black neighborhood – drew the attention of many citizens in the neighborhood who came out to witness the sitatuation.  The one event on my graph led to multiple lootings, shootings, and burning and destruction of property that grew out of people in the neighborhood finding out about the incident and starting a rebellion for many miles.   

My data also supports my assertion of key features of the riot being destruction and looting of mostly African-American owned businesses in the Watts area.  

Knowing the details of individual events in the riot affirms my initial analysis of the key features and label.  The massive geographic spread of the damage that began in Watts totalled 40 million and my data contains multiple examples of where properties inside and outside of the Watts area were looted and burned. 

The racial language that appears among the most frequent in my collection is Negro. The most distinctive word is police. Is this language what you expected it to be based on the lectures? Yes, since the riot was ultimately a confrontation between the black community in Los Angeles Watts area and the police but extended to the National Guard.

Create a table of the 5 most frequent words in your collection of documents and 5 most distinctive words in each of your documents (excluding the racial language). Are the most frequent words what you expected them to be? Are there any OCR errors among the results?

*I removed the OCR errors like Los and Angeles.

I expected more action verbs of description of destruction like fire, looting, etc.

Choose one word from the list of frequent words and one word from the list of distinctive words (excluding the racial language) and explain why it is so frequent or so distinctive? The word police is the most frequently used because the riots began with a police officer stopping a negro/black man for speeding and eventually drunk driving.  His brother ran home a few blocks to tell their mother about it since he was driving her car and that alerted other citizens of the community who came out to witness the scene. They became upset and the violence started to escalate from there.

Use the Contexts, Word Tree, Collocates, and Links tools available in Voyant to look at where in the documents the words appear, their context and the words that appear around them.

Does the word have the same meaning everywhere it is used? Police in collocate had basically the same meaning just different levels within the organization (officers, chief, etc.).  In word tree, the words surrounding the police varied from asked to more aggressive words like taunted and attacked.  

Using the racial language, and the most frequent and distinctive words, compare the white newspaper and the black newspaper – what does the comparison suggest about the perspective of each source?

The white newspaper talks more about the injuries sustained by the police when attacked by a rioters and a mob.  The characterize the rioters as violent negroes and youth terrorizing the neighborhoods.  The police are called upon to protect the citizens in the white version.

The black newspaper uses the term lawlessness to describe the event.  It describe police as a brute force but yet acknowledge the worst uprising in the history of LA.  The black newspaper blamed the escalation on the police in LA not knowing how to work with the citizens/minorities in the Watts area to quell violence and aggression.

Using the racial language, and the most frequent and distinctive words, compare the newspapers and the report – what does the comparison suggest about the perspective of each source?

In the white newspaper, the frequency of police word highlights that prominence given to the perspective and activity of the police in the press reporting, and the criticism of police made in the report. A graph of the relative frequency of police was more prominent in the white newspapers as in black newspapers, highlighting their greater reliance on the police perspective.

The racial term negro was always referred to in the negative as instigators of the riots and destructive of the neighborhoods.

In the black newspaper, the term police were associated more with brutality and oppression.

How well does the text analysis fit with what you identified as the key feature of your riot and the label you applied to it in the first assignment? Does knowing details of the language used in accounts of the riot change or not change what you think is the key feature and label of your riot? Explain why.

I thought it was difficult to choose just one dimension that most defined the events of the Watts Rebellion in 1965. The duration of the riot stood out at six days and the $40 million worth of property damage, to 1,000 buildings over a 50 square mile area of Los Angeles.  The asymmetry of the damage was primarily to African-American neighborhoods as was the number of people injured or killed. Most of the 34 dead were Black citizens. Two policemen and one firefighter were among the casualties, and 26 deaths, mostly the result of Los Angeles Police Department or National Guard actions, were deemed justifiable homicides.

The analysis fits with my key feature since I noted the asymmetry.  The police were involved from the beginning in a confrontation with a negro/black male.  Throughout the analysis, the word police appeared over an over but in different contexts depending on the black or white perspective.  The white perspective looked at police at protectors while the black perspective looked at police at oppressors.  The results indicated the asymmetry because mostly black communities and lives were lost. 

It is difficult to choose just one dimension that most defined the events of the Watts Rebellion in 1965. The duration of the riot was six days resulting in $40 million worth of property damage, to 1,000 buildings over a 50 square mile area of Los Angeles.  The asymmetry of the damage was primarily to African-American neighborhoods as was the number of people injured or killed. Most of the 34 dead were Black citizens. Two policemen and one firefighter were among the casualties, and 26 deaths, mostly the result of Los Angeles Police Department or National Guard actions, were deemed justifiable homicides.

This racial disorder can best be described as a rebellion since it started as and continued as open resistance against the orders of an established authority.  A white California Highway Patrol officer pulled over two black stepbrothers in the Watts neighborhood.  When they resisted arrest, a crowd  gathered and a riot started.  Word traveled and crowds grew across the Watts area and a series of riots began.  A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and then manifests itself by the refusal to submit or to obey the authority responsible for this situation.  The situation became so dire that 14,000 national guard troops were called in, creating a national incident.  The damage done through looting and fires to the areas where riot participants lived was massive as well and looters were making a statement by destroying their own neighborhoods. This riot is also very well known ad the Los Angeles Rebellion for the wide bread effect it had on the Black community in California.

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