Zoot Suit Riots Essay

White sailors invaded Mexican American communities and attacked Zoot Suitors. The city police did nothing to restrain the sailors, who grabbed the Hispanic teenagers, tore off and burned their clothes, cut off their hair, and beat them. However, when Hispanics tried to fight back, the police moved in and arrested them. After the Zoot Suit riots, LA passed a law prohibiting the wearing Zoot Suits” (www.stufflikethat.org, 2010)

The Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trial was one of the most shocking displays of injustice carried on by the court of California. The trial focused on the murder of twenty two year old Jose Diaz who had been beaten and stabbed near a reservoir known as Sleepy Lagoon. Sleepy Lagoon had always been a place that comminity and gang members frequently visited located in East Los Angeles. On the evening of August 1, 1942 two rivaling gangs had a violent confrontation between one another. This led to future events which would result in the murder of Jose Diaz. The Los Angeles Police department held 600 youths in custody as well as charged 2 people for the murder of Diaz. The court held 22 people responsible for the death of Diaz despite lack of evidence and

On September 9th of 1971, a four day riot took place at the Attica Correctional Facility of Attica, New York. Within the prison many inmates had joined outside organizations such as the Black Panther Party, Black Muslims, Young Lords, and Nation of Islam to fight against racial oppression. Over eight-hundred inmates rioted against the guards in reaction to the subpar sanitation, medical treatment, racial tensions, and mental/physical abuse they endured in the prison. As conditions at Attica worsened, many convicts and citizens begged the governor of New York, Nelson Rockefeller, to make an appearance at the maximum security prison, but he refused to. "We must have Rockefeller," said one of the inmates' leaders. "We got to have Rockefeller here

Based on the infamous 1942 "Sleepy Lagoon" murder mystery and the resulting "Zoot Suit Riots" in Los Angeles , playwright Luis Valdez weaves fact and fiction to depict the fate of 22 young Mexican Americans brought to trial for a murder they did not commit.

Contributing to all this violence and injustice, one would hope for the just calls of the police. Unfortunately the police in Central America is just as bad, and is referred to in the movie as the "thieves with permits". The police is generally known not to help the immigrants or at least act judicially, but rather to assault them, stealing everything they own from them and beating and abusing them sometimes resulting in casualties. This is confirmed in the documentary by many immigrants and civilians in Mexico who have personally experienced the abuse and see no bright future for justice in their country. The police is also accused of being corrupt, so not much can be done against the situation and malpractices, also due to the unwillingness of the victims to file complaints and raise awareness. Most are unwilling out of fear of being deported back to their own country, this bringing us to the next issue, the Immigrations Department.

Protesting has become an extremely common way for people to voice their opinion with the aid of our current social media boom. Author Rich Emberlin’s article, How police can work effectively with protest groups”, addresses the current issues with police presence at protest and provides tactics that have worked for his department (2017). Emberlin explains that proper communication has served as the Dallas Police Department’s main combatant against these activist groups. The Dallas Police Department Criminal Intelligence Unit constantly dealt with high-profile activist groups like Black Lives Matter and Dreamers. To reduce violence toward police and maintain a safety for all

These kids were found fighting near the Sleeping Lagoon ,which was a popular hangout spot since Mexicans were not allowed in public pools, because these kids were seen fighting the Los Angeles Police Department believed that these kids killed Jose Diaz. The police placed their efforts on arresting those kids that were affiliated with the fights that happened the night before Diaz was murdered thus dwindling down to 22 kids from the 38th Street gang being prosecuted for the death of Jose Diaz(Baeder) . This eventually led to court case The People v. Zammora which was the biased trial with no evidence and the misrepresentation of defendants within the court of law (Pagan 80). This trial resulted to the false accusations of 17 innocent kids that were of Mexican descent to got to jail for murder. All of these boys went through the appeal process because of the lack of evidence put against them, speculation, and not being able to communicate with defense attorneys. They went through an unfair trial based on the color of their skin and the social stigmas of that time period that helped further the negative looks of Mexicans during the trial. This was important to bring up because it clearly exemplified the racist views of the police and the uncertainty of the people and their understanding of different culture of

I did a little bit of research on the Zoot Suit Riots and I learned that it had something to with the United States being involved in World War II. I guess that created a lot of tension between people and different races, which started these riots. There was a lot of false accusations against the zoot suiters, some of it involved murder. They were discriminated, especially by the police, and most of them were arrested. When this all ended, the mayor said that it had nothing to do with racism, it was just the fault of all of these criminals. Obviously, this was a lie, since they were trying to cover up the real reason of why the Zoot Suit Riots started. If I was in this position, and I was attacked for being myself, I would definitely fight

We see examples of how he zoot suit riots were in films like American Me, we see Santana’s parents Pedro and Esperanza not only as proud Zoot Suite’s, but we also catch a glimpse of just how terrible the zoot suit riots were, we witness his father; along with many others being violently beaten and his mother being raped. In the same manner Eduardo Obregon Pagan, also discusses another similar story, which is the Sleepy Lagoon case in his book, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, Riot in Wartime L.A. Pagan in which he argues that the case along with the riots resulted from a longtime and explosive combination of racial and social tensions. The way that Pagan recreated the murder victim’s lives, he argues that the convictions or the riots did not come out as a result

Analytical Essay: Zoot Suit The play “Zoot Suit” by Luis Valdez has symbolic significance for Mexican Americans talking about riots during World War II. The Sleepy Lagoon murder was one step in the fight for the rights and respect of Mexican Americans share that they are all equal rather than being looked up and down from their appearances. This riot involved young servicemen and civilians but also thousands of men and women who clashed in the streets of the city with young Mexican Americans who wore the style of “Zoot Suit” to represent their cultural ethics.

Immigrant violence is on the rise, in America, it is at an all-time high. “nearly 10000 people have died in Mexico in drug-related violence.” Per an opinion was written in www.collgiatetimes.com on 01/19/2017. “understandably, we do have to worry about countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the violence in Mexico is serious. If left unchecked, the Mexican government itself may collapse and descend into

More than thousands of people in Mexico are committing crimes like, assault and try to attempt murder, or they have been released from a detention because the country does not want to take them back.

There are many reasons for these conflicts, more than ethnic and religious differences. Usually these reasons are theft, exploitation, prostitution, rape, homosexuality and drug trade among illegal immigrants . These violent actions had not only wounded people but at least four deaths. These violent incidents confirm that criminality dominates in areas where illegal immigrants live and that make them vulnerable to organized crime

The new reforms and public opinion affect the political climate in Mexico, and organized crime takes this opportunity to operate without punishment. Actually, President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed a program of political reforms in 2013. That considered review of the tax system, economic, political, educative, and liberalization of monopolies operated by the government. Otherwise, reforms have not occurred as programmed at the beginning of the presidential term. The consequence is that it created a climate of political instability. Hence, peaceful mass demonstrations are common in the larger metropolitan areas. For example, in Oaxaca teacher’s union protest against education reform, this demonstration turned violent; according to BBC News, “Six people have been killed in southern Mexico in clashes between protesting teachers and police.” As a result, organized crime takes advantage of this and infiltrates turning them into violent demonstrations. As noted before, Mexico's government since 2006 implemented the so-called "War on Drugs" using federal forces to deal with this threat, then Mexico need to engage the armed forces in the fight against the organized

Violence takes many forms: it can be physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and even within families, or combinations of one or more of these. In most cases, the violence has been “acceptable” because of the cultural traditions that are largely respected. However, with the increasing emergence of the women’s movement internationally and even within Mexico itself, many Mexican males regard their roles as belittled. There has been a subtle and sometimes obvious backlash against the women’s movement, especially if women have independent living or income possibilities. In a culture in which violence is the norm, beatings, rape, torture, mutilation, and even murder are frequently overlooked. This has been painfully evident in the cases of mass murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez.