Do The Right Thing: The Spatial Consequence of Riots
The urban experience is far from equal. Tools of discrimination can be seen from housing allocation to curfews in response to civil unrest, covertly expressing racist bias.
In the light of recent reactions by local governments in the USA, in response to protests and riots - the curfew, or when temporal space transforms into physical confinement. Historically, curfews were a preferred method of “containing” Black Americans. As such, it was a spatial tool to revoke civil liberties and rights and rather invoke oppression and racial bias.
Oppression and segregation in the US can be seen clearly in the existence of so called “sundown towns”, where temporally the urban context became restricted from sunset to sunrise for Black Americans, often turning violent for the unfortunate.
“Case in point: During the Watts riots, Los Angeles deployed more than 14,000 National Guardsmen alongside the local police force to patrol the 46-square mile “curfew zone”— bigger than the size of Manhattan — that the city had imposed on poor and predominantly Black neighborhoods. The troops saw their task not as protecting a community but as confronting a kind of “urban guerrilla warfare,” “
The film Detroit by Kathryn Bigelow comes to mind, where a hotel is put under a temporary lockdown and under strict police control due to a misunderstanding. This situation escalates and the measures of control and power are exacerbating violence between the police and the “suspects”.
Another film where this idea of “urban guerilla warfare” resonates is Boyz N The Hood by John Singleton. A certain group in society is housed in certain areas, with constant Panoptic methods of surveillance such as helicopters with their lights uncovering the residents.
With little evidence that curfews are beneficial during times of unrest, further critique into the role of authority should be welcomed. It is an idea opposed to Jane Jacob’s famous urbanist theory of “more eyes on the street” would reduce criminality. The more anonymous an area, the more accountability is reduced.
“When you make a curfew, you create a class of people who are in violation of that rule and especially around public spaces,”
The relationship between the constitutional protection of freedom of movement and local/state emergency police powers is intrinsic to any society. The role of power is neither binary nor linear, it is simultaneously long term and short term. The effect of a curfew on a child as well as an entire population is irreversible, for civil identity especially.
Further reading:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-18/the-racist-history-of-curfews-in-america?cmpid=BBD061920_CITYLABMP&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=200619&utm_campaign=citylabmostpop