ABSTRACT
Small-scale violence already had broken out in northern cities in 1964, but the volcano blew in Watts in August 1965, leaving forty-five people dead, more than one thousand injured, and $40 million in property damage.1 The importance of Watts was reflected in the choice of John McCone, a former CIA director, to lead a blue-ribbon commission in its wake. The McCone panel emphasized immediate action to address underlying conditions that had set off the explosion, but little action occurred. The Los Angeles Police Department soon inaugurated its SWAT and CRASH units as a military model of ghetto control, armed with submachine guns, assault rifles with double banana-clips, semiautomatic shotguns, sniper rifles, and flash-bang devices.2 The SWAT and CRASH models spread across the country as antipoverty budgets were reduced.
