ABSTRACT
Beginning in the late 1980s African American males, facing gross social inequities and a racist criminal justice system, were incarcerated at rates between five and ten times that of whites. One of the signature achievements of the Bush administration, the Americans with disabilities act resulted from decades of lobbying and protest by the nation’s disability community. The disability rights movement gained attention after the Vietnam War, as tens of thousands of physically disabled veterans faced severe readjustment challenges. Compounding the economic challenges, race relations had improved only marginally since the 1965 Watts explosion, and in many respects had worsened with the arrival of Daryl Gates as police chief. In 1988, operation Hammer, ostensibly a “sweep” of gang activity by the LAPD, resulted in the arrest of thousands, gang members and innocents both, as well as widespread property damage meant to terrorize whole communities.
