To the Point
The History and Possible Future of Urban Violence in America
Forty years ago, widespread violence broke out in Detroit and Newark, just as it had two years before in Rochester, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Civil unrest caused deaths, injuries and property damage in other cities during the next few years, but Los Angeles, which still showed scars from the Watts Riots of 1965, broke all the records in 1992.
By Warren Olney • • 1 min readForty years ago, widespread violence broke out in Detroit and Newark, just as it had two years before in Rochester, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Civil unrest caused deaths, injuries and property damage in other cities during the next few years, but Los Angeles, which still showed scars from the Watts Riots of 1965, broke all the records in 1992. Symptoms of urban decay include unemployment, lack of affordable housing, racism and police abuse. What can be learned from past outbreaks? What does it take to trigger a riot and what's the state of American cities today?
Warren Olney
former KCRW broadcaster
Vanessa Romo
LA School Report
Andrea Brody
Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast
Katie Cooper
Producer, 'One year Later'
Max Herman
Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University
Peter Dreier
Occidental College
Joel Kotkin
fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University