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Los Angeles, 1992: when tolerance chooses its color
April 1992. Los Angeles burns. The acquittal of the police officers responsible for the beating of Rodney King triggers six days of rioting. The city reveals its fractures: racial, social, territorial. In the ruins, a silent reorganization takes place. The California authorities, exhausted by the Blood and Crips wars, multiply mass arrests. Black leaders were decimated. Crack cocaine, which had become a symbol of the“ ghetto”, was used as a pretext for a prison wave. Meanwhile, other networks were growing. Latino gangs, more discreet and structured, benefited from a form of selective tolerance. Inside the prisons, the Mexican Mafia- La Eme- imposes a rigid order and a mafia-style tax system. Outside, organizations such as 18th Street and Florencia 13 are expanding into former black territories. Where the police crush, La Eme organizes. Where the state represses, La Eme regulates. This is not a conspiracy, but a shift: police priorities, prison alliances and demographic logics are transforming the crime map. In the space of two decades, Los Angeles’ underground economy went from black to brown, while the prison became the system’ s real center of gravity. The“ War on Drugs” would lead to an immense growth in court cases and the prison population, often focusing on small-time dealers, who were generally poor young black men from the inner cities. As a result, the prison population doubled as dealers and their customers were arrested. By 1989, one in four African-American men aged 20 to 29 was incarcerated, on probation or on parole, contributing to the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Flashmag! Edition 165 Octobre 2025
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