On July 4, I walked through a black neighborhood south of 18th Street in 90035. I noticed firecrackers going off and several police cars in the area.
Little did I know that in Watts about 700 black youths threw firecrackers at about 300 police and firemen.
The story merited only two benign paragraphs in the LA Times.
In Watts, Calif., a crowd of dozens of black people setting off fireworks at the Nickerson Gardens public housing project did not take kindly to police and firemen who showed up to stop it.
During the incident, the suspects allegedly tossed rocks, bottles and live fireworks at Los Angeles police officers, according to City News Service.
On Twitter, both sides were represented:
A fireman said, “Cops in riot gear and the locals shooting fireworks at the cops pretty funny until u drive through it. … Eh.”
But one of the residents of Watts thought it was funny:
“Niggas in the niccersons had the riot squad out there … throwin fireworks n roccs at police lmfao yall did that fasho,” said @HerFavDrugg.
Several officers were hit by fireworks.
