Apartheid. USA 1988

[p. 60]

April 13, 1987:

‘Nobody fears urban crime more than the urban poor,’ reported John D Hull in Time Magazine. He said that residents in Watts and other rough neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles were being terrorized daily by gangs and gunfire. Hull likened the area to ‘a war zone where murder is the leading cause of death among young men’.

Time pointed to the most unusual phenomenon taking place in the troubled area. Residents voted twice since 1981 for higher taxes to be able to pay for more police officers. Each time the city-wide referendum was defeated by voters in more affluent and better policed areas of Los Angeles. Now the ghetto may go it alone. Local activists proposed a 21 million property tax levied against South Central residents to pay for an additional 300 police officers.^82.

82. Time magazine, April 13, 1987, page 33