The Legacy of the 1991 Riots
Day-two of “Los disturbios de Mount Pleasant." Photo © Rick Reinhard
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~On May 5, 1991, Angela Jewell, a rookie D.C. police officer, shot Salvadoran immigrant Daniel Enrique Gomez in a public park at the corner of 17th and Lamont streets NW in Mount Pleasant.
Gomez was drunk and pulled a knife on Jewell, according to the police report. But the neighborhood’s Latino residents, who gathered around the park in the aftermath of the shooting, saw only a handcuffed Hispanic man bleeding on the sidewalk, according to news reports and people who were there at the time.
After a couple of hours, a largely Hispanic crowd began chanting “Justicia!” For the next four days, people were in the streets screaming for justice and taunting police. Before passions calmed, police cars were set on fire and bonfires were burning in the streets. Looters made off with TV sets and radios, breaking windows and vandalizing local businesses in the process. Bricks were lobbed at passing motorists. Many people were injured.
The police used tear gas, forcing passersby to take refuge inside buildings, where they were trapped until the violence subsided. A curfew was declared. Residents who disobeyed it were arrested, prompting restaurant owners to complain about losing business. Police reportedly arrested anybody identified as being involved in the disturbances using photos taken during the street clashes. The Immigration and Naturalization Service soon joined the police probe, further ratcheting up tensions in the neighborhood, according to one story in the Washington Times.
Journalists covering the story were also caught in the clashes. One reporter was hospitalized, and another received 18 stitches after getting hit in the head with a rock, according to the Washington Times.
Even before the shooting, local Latino residents felt mistreated and marginalized. The common sentiment was that people were tired of being paid minimum wage and treated like second-class citizens, according to El Tiempo Latino reporter Santiago Tavara, who covered the riots.
Many people had been forced out of their homes, uprooted by gentrification and real estate speculation, according to newspaper reports. The Latin Investment Corp., a company that operated like a bank but without a charter, went bankrupt a few months before the riots, leaving hundreds without savings, according to the Washington Post.
The riots lasted for four days, bringing political tension to a boil between the Hispanic community and government officials. Some people criticized the police, saying the Metropolitan Police Department did too little to quell the disturbances and were outsmarted by the rioters, who included survivors of El Salvador’s civil war, which was still underway at the time and would continue until the signing of a peace accord five years later. People speculated in the local newspapers that the police lacked the training to go up against paramilitary tactics that these trained fighters used.
Store owners lost business for the next few years because people were afraid of the area. The people viewed Latinos as violent and unpredictable, according to comments published in the Washington Post.
While many news reports focused on violence and sensationalism, the riots were a turning point for the Latino community. As a result, members of U.S. Congress and local politicians took note, many for the first time, of the poor living conditions many Hispanics endured.
Priests from the Roman Catholic church, the Shrine of the Sacred Heart (Sagrado Corazon), and other neighborhood churches began petitioning for better living conditions and justice for Daniel Gomez. New Latino organizations were formed, and the community gained recognition and political clout, according to observers who lived through those turbulent days.
Below, Roland Roebuck, a longtime D.C. activist and retired city official, comments on the legacy of the 1991 riots.
— Fanny V. Rivera
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