The Zoot Suit Riots began on June 3, 1943, when eleven sailors on leave entered a Mexican-American neighborhood barrio in Los Angeles and became involved in a battle with a group of men believed to be of Mexican descent. In 1943, during a ten-day period, a series of conflicts between Anglo military personnel and Mexican Americans led to large-scale riots in the metropolis of Los Angeles. Tensions between the two cultural groups began when local media sensationalized crime in the country and blamed it primarily on Mexican Americans. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay First, America was in the midst of World War II and xenophobic sentiment was rampant across the country. Smaller arguments that broke out between Mexican Americans and the military quickly escalated. On June 4, 1943, hundreds of military personnel went downtown and targeted Mexican Americans and other minorities and beat them savagely. The armed forces had lost command over their men and utter chaos had ensued. The violence continued until the US State Department finally got involved and declared Los Angeles off-limits to military personnel. One question that emerges from this incident is: what drives ordinary civilized people to return to primal savagery and destroy the very society they created? Poor communication between cultures leads to violence and civic unrest. Cultural differences, media reports, and the political climate all contributed to the hostility and dissent of the Zoot-Suit riots that engulfed wartime Los Angeles. The misunderstanding of each other's culture spurred conflicts between Anglo-Americans and Mexicans in Los Angeles. During World War II Southern California served as a military hub. On any given weekend, up to fifty thousand soldiers could be found in Los Angeles. Second, the vast majority of servicemen of the time were Anglo-Americans who had had no interactions with Mexican Americans or other Hispanic groups. This led to misunderstandings that turned into animosity. In the 1940s the style and dress of Mexican American teenagers was distinct from that of mainstream Americans. Long jackets, high-waisted baggy pants, and long watch chains began to be recognized as "Zoot suits". Mexican Americans and other minorities wore the Zoot-Suit to express their youthful identity, freedom, and rebellion. For Anglo-Americans the Zoot-Suit was perceived as a symbol of criminality and was often linked to the common street criminal. The growing tension between the two groups was exacerbated by the fact that they shared a different language, customs and, more often than not, a different religion. These cultural misunderstandings led to acts of savagery. On June 3, 1943, eleven servicemen got into a physical altercation with a group of Mexican American Zoot-Suiters, in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. Small fragments of violence, like this case, helped build the creations of a screamer who would bring the city to its knees and leave a permanent imprint on the Mexican-American community. Tierce, the most celebrated of all the cases sensationalized by the Los Angeles Times, was the “Sleepy Lagoon” trial. On August 2, 1942, Jose Dias' body was found in the Sleepy Lagoon Reservoir in Los Angeles. Hundreds of Latino teenagers were initially held for alleged ties to Dias' murder. Twenty-two Mexican-American teenagers were indicted on murder charges and tried by a jury.