Eighty years ago this month, the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles led to brief unrest in San Diego.
The so-called “riots” were a series of ethnically motivated attacks by military personnel and others on young Mexican American, Black and Filipino men in Los Angeles who wore flashy, oversized suits and were depicted as being gang and juvenile delinquents.
On the night of June 9, 1943 — spurred by sensational news reports and rumors spread by servicemen returning from leave in Los Angeles, that zoot-suited “Pachucos,” as they were called, were fleeing Los Angeles and headed for San Diego — crowds of sailors, soldiers and marines gathered downtown. In bands of numbering up to 400, they prowled the streets, hunting for zoot-suiters.
City police, augmented by Navy shore patrols and of the military police, were called in to break up the vigilante groups. On the night of June 10, between 50 and 175 servicemen, some armed with clubs, knives and broken bottles, were rounded up by police in an effort to prevent violence here. Fourteen Mexican youths and two Black men were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.
From the Tribune-Sun, Wednesday, June 9, 1943:
Fleeing Zooters Reported on Way To San Diego
Los Angeles zoot-suiters, evidently finding their home neighborhood a trifle too hot as a result of the recent incursions of hard-fisted sailors and marines launching reprisal raids, last night were reported infiltrating into San Diego, according to police. Navy and marine shore patrolmen were dispatched to areas on Market st. and in Logan Heights to quell any disorders which were feared when word came that the long-haired, baggy-troed gentry were arriving here. Several police prowl cars also were ordered to keep a careful watch at Mexican sections here, but none of the officers reported seeing any of the Los Angles trouble-makers last night.
Detectives in Field
Detective Sgt. Charles Dibb, head of the juvenile bureau, and Detectives Howard Row, Howard Holway, Harry Humphries and Gene Erickson in the field with orders to question and search all zoot-suited youths seen on the streets of San Diego.
Dibb said he was informed by Sgt. Jimmy Todd, of the East San Diego police sub-station, that a truckload of the Los Angeles Mexicans were seen in San Diego yesterday. another source, said Dibb, reported a group traveling south through Oceanside. The juvenile bureau head said the “right-stripers” might be en route to Mexico.
Escape L.A. ‘Heat’
Detectives here recalled that after the series of slayings and beating by the black-shirted groups in Los Angeles several months ago and the resultant roundup of Mexicans by police, some zoot-suiters traveled here to escape the “heat.”
Detectives from the juvenile division of the police department not long ago cleaned up a gang of about 12 zoot-suiters who had mauled and robbed two young sailors and committed a series of depredations in the southeastern section of the town.
the 15-year-old leader of the gang faces a hearing in juvenile court.
