CA ACR84 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session

Discussing CA ACR 84 The 80th Anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots Jewish Eyewitness Debunks Myth of 200 Sailors in 20 Cabs California Assembly Concurrent Resolution 84, The 80th Anniversary of the Zoot Suit Riots, states in part: "WHEREAS, As a result, on June 4, a number of uniformed sailors chartered cabs and proceeded to the Mexican American community, seeking out the zoot-suiters..." AND "WHEREAS, The committee’s report indicated that there were several factors involved, but that racism was the central cause of the riots and that it was exacerbated by the response of the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as by biased and inflammatory media coverage..." These statements are incorrect and misleading for the following reasons: 1) Radicalized historians claim that 200 sailors took 20 cabs from the armory in Chavez Ravine and proceeded through Boyle Heights, beating up innocent Mexican youth. This claim cannot be substantiated by records, photos or news reports made at the time. In fact, an eyewitness who lived in a second-floor apartment above Brooklyn Avenue (the main throughfare in Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles) testified on May 16, 2023 before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors that no caravan of sailors was seen on the night of June 4, 1943. See reference #1 below for her full testimony. 2) Politicians and radicalized historians commonly assume that the central cause of the riots was white racism when, in fact, there was racism on all sides of the conflict. A Jewish eyewitness to the riots was attacked by pachucos on more than one occasion, apparently because she was a Jew. See the reference #1 below for her full testimony. Another young girl was attacked in a similar manner by pachucos, apparently because she was white. She says: “The Pachucos would intimidate people. They would walk down the street, five abreast and if you walked around them they would laugh or stick their hand out and hit you." See reference #2 below. Still another young woman was beaten and her face slashed by three pachuco girls, apparently because she was white. See reference #3 below. As the young Jewish eyewitness stated in her testimony to the Los Angeles County board of Supervisors: "After all, it was only a very few bad apples on both sides that caused the problems. You say 200 sailors out of what--50,000 who were on leave? That's less than 1/2 of 1 percent. Same with the Mexicans. How many of them do you think were pachucos? Less than one percent? You should not make broad accusations of racism when 99+ percent of the people have nothing to do with it on either side until the agitators begin stirring things up." REFERENCES to Original Source Documents: 1) Public Comments given by Selma Butensky to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor's meeting May 16, 2023. From the LA County archives at: https://file.lacounty.gov/SDSInter/bos/supdocs/180669.pdf 2) Testimony of eyewitness Marietta Lee in PBS Documentary "Zoot Suit Riots" at: https://youtu.be/pWyviiYaMjg?t=1865 3) "Bettie Morgan victim of attack. Beaten, slashed by three pachuco girls" at: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/8638