D uring the early morning hours of Monday, May 4, , Lucia A. Tensions around the city burned hot: The L. Uprising had erupted just a few days earlier, and although the situation had simmered down, the couple was technically violating a dusk-to-dawn curfew still in effect. According to an American Civil Liberties Union report, a Los Angeles Police Department cruiser pulled alongside them and two uniformed officers hopped out. They grabbed Lucia by the hair, pinned her against a wall, and accused her of being a sex worker.
When she failed to immediately produce any immigration documents, they detained her and insinuated that they would have her deported. Today, as the Trump Administration prepares for more deportations, the mass removals that rippled across L. In fact, they have already rehearsed that agenda to terrible effect.
Outraged that the jury had seemingly ignored damning video evidence, countless Angelenosβangry, frustrated, and desperateβstormed the streets in protest not merely against the verdict itself, but more broadly against poor, undignified social conditions. That volcanic flashpoint in , now known as the L. Uprising, resulted in over 60 deaths and almost a billion dollars of property destruction. Thanks to depictions in popular culture, coverage from journalists, and studies by academics, the revolt has become one of the most evocative and widely discussed incidents in U.
Yet buried beneath the popular narrative lies an underreported and little-understood facet of the saga. Under the pretense of regaining control of L. In some respects, these operations signaled a break from prior norms of police conduct. The police had, for all intents and purposes, suspended Special Order In other respects, however, the revolt enabled a continuation of older policies.
A few years before, in , LAPD Chief Daryl Gates inaugurated Operation Hammer, a series of dragnet sweeps wherein officers would swarm neighborhoods with their patrol cruisers, stop and question suspicious-looking Angelenos, and arrest them by the hundreds and sometimes thousands.
