The Zoot Suit Riots were fights between zoot suiters and sailors and marines in Los Angeles, California. Sailors and marines were constantly beating up Mexican American teenagers. On June 3rd, 1943 “eleven white sailors” said that they were supposedly attacked by zoot suiters when they had “suffered only a few minor injuries”; the police who came made it seem as if it had been the zoot suiters who had caused all the trouble (Rivas-Rodriguez) The report allegedly said that zoot suiters attacked the sailors and while attacking them they were praising Hitler (Obregon Pagan After the sailors returned to their base, about 50 sailors went to the streets and were beating and stripping anyone wearing a zoot suit While the police saw this, they prevented any interventions from anyone who attempted to help the zoot suiters The riots reached their peak on June 7th, 1943 One day over 200 marines and sailors from the US Navy went to East Los Angeles and whenever they “spotted a young ethnic Mexican in a zoot-suit…the boy was beaten within minutes” The reasoning that some sailors were giving for these acts was because there had been accusations of zoot suiters harassing women close to them).
