Sudden transitions are apt to make the mind giddy. Perhaps you are thumping that Bible a little too loudly. Center of Praise Ministries is a Christian city Church located in a primarily residential Victorian neighborhood, which as thankfully been mostly untouched by time. The church is located at 1228 23^rd Street, Sacramento, California 95816; however, the church does not really fit in with the neighborhood. The style of the church is an economical Mexican rendition of Greek architecture, and many of the homes are of the Victorian style or Greek. Not only that, but home owners have been complaining about ghastly sounds coming from the church some have even gone as far to say they have seen shadowy figures of old sea captains in the street with guns. And one homeowner heard shouting and screaming coming from the lower floors of her house, every Sunday morning and sometimes in the evening, thinking it was haunted, she put the home on the market and it is not selling because buyers are concerned about the traffic coming from the church. It turns out there are no ghost, and no sea captains with guns. The screaming and howling is coming from the church, they are worshipping their God and they perform some kind of role playing and theater to convey their faith. The sea captains are simply crossing guards with glow sticks, helping defenseless people cross the dark streets. And the howling in the house is coming from the church, many homeowners have also complained about the noise and vibrations from the Center of Praise and would like to see them quiet down and stay on their side of the street, diversify their following, but most homeowners want to see the church torn down and a rose garden on the land, so they can have their peaceful neighborhood back.

 The homeowners are not racist, but want their voices to be heard also. Many European Americans feel like if they speak up about anything that people will get upset and call them racist, but they have some valid concerns also. Center of Praise and Capitol Terrace is attracting a lot of attention because within the past five years, there has been a huge increase of African Americans in the neighborhood, but they do not work here, do not frequent the restaurants, nor interact with the other residence.  The African Americans all tend to stick together and when you see them there are in huge groups and making a lot of noise. They are disrespectful of their elders and those who look different from them, and this leads many to wonder what is going on in their community? Neither group tried to prevent crimes or discover offenses. Neither wore uniforms. Certainly, neither was able to prevent a tumult. Each chaotic event made the London Model more attractive. The social and economic changes transforming the neighborhood have produced urban violence on a scale never before witnessed in this community. The neighbors have even reported festering ethnic and racial tensions often triggered by mob actions that have lasted for days (block parties). The night watch lit city streetlights and patrolled the streets to preserve order and arrest suspicious characters—not matter what they looked like. During the day, constables investigated health hazards, carried out court orders, and apprehended criminals against whom complaints had been logged. 

Racial tensions contributed to Midtown inhabitants disorders. An unsavory riot in August of 2014 revealed other important sources of social antagonism as well as the inability of its police force to control disorder. One hot August evening, a crowd of 10 to 15 people were engaged in the conflict, with clubs, brickbats, paving stones, and other materials, when an orgy of destruction, looting and intimidation of White residences broke out. Similar mayhem followed on the next two nights. Intermittent rioting broke out the succeeding night as well, but the presence of the police and fire department prevented the violence from reaching the pitch of the previous nights. An investigation following the block party (riots) revealed that the black mob has caused at least $4,000.00 of damage to two churches and more than 36 private houses. There were also reports of one black man being killed and numerous others had been injured. As one shocked eyewitness reported, “The mod exhibited more than fiendish brutality, beating, and mutilation some of the old, confiding and unoffending Blacks with a savageness surpassing anything we could have believed men capable of.”

 Many of the rioters bragged that they were hunting “Whigs.” Riots, however, are complicated events, and this racial explanation does not reveal the range of causes underlying the rampage of violence and destruction. The rioters were young and generally of low social standing. Many were Black. Some had criminal records. A number of those arrested, however, were from a class of mechanics of whom better things are expected. No professional people or businessmen seem to have been involved. Accompanying the rioters, however, were onlookers who instigated the mob. As one witness reported, these onlookers countenanced the operations of the mob and in one or two instances coincided with their conduct by clapping. The rioters revealed that in the event of an attack by the city police, they confidently counted on the assistance of the bystanders, from a nearby facility, adjacent to the church. The mob’s composition hints at some of the reasons for participation. Many of the rioters were at the lower echelon of the occupational and economic ladder and competed with teenagers for work. This was particularly true of the newly arrived Black immigrants, who were attempting to replace Whites and their offspring in low-status jobs. Subsequently, economic jealously by Blacks suggested that economic rivalry was an important component of the riot. Residences responded by saying, the dimly colored persons, when engaged in their usual vocations are repeatedly interested in segregation and hooliganism. Parties of White men have insisted that no Blacks shall be employed in certain departments and that White youth are being discriminated against because Black people are taking up all the resources for low income people. If Blacks threatened the dream of advancement of some Whites, this was not quite the complaint of the skilled workers. These men were more likely to have experienced the negative impact of a changing economic system that was undermining the small-scale model of production.

 The dream of a more better life seemed increasingly illusory as their declining wages  drew them closer to unskilled workers than to the middle class. Like the Blacks, Whites were living in one of the poorest and most crowded parts of the city, and the Blacks were not kind to them. However, the real intangible villain was the economic system itself, has absolutely nothing to do with equality and mutual respect. Urban expansions also figured as a factor in the racial violence. Most of the Blacks originally lived near by the riot area or in another city. All had experienced overcrowded and inadequate living conditions caused by the city’s rapid growth. The racial tensions generated by special interest groups and squalid surroundings and social proximity go far to explain the outbreak of violence. The same area would later become the scene of race riots and election trouble and is infamous for harboring criminals and juvenile gangs. The absence of middle-or upper-class participants, from the church and their nearby friend, did not mean that these groups were untroubled during times of growth and change, but their material circumstances cushioned them from some of the more unsettling forces. The city’s police force proved unable to control the mob, thus prolonging the violence. However, the city of Sacramento is in the midst of creating its police force. In 2014, the police force had been cut by 200 people. A small number of new officers have been added to the constable-and-watch system. The new force is supposed to infiltrate the church and the building, deter crime by walking the city streets. However, the force’s small size rendered it powerless in the face of the angry mob. Only continued rowdiness, violence, and riots will eventually convince residents and city officials in Sacramento (and in other large cities) to support an expanded, quasi-military, preventive, and uniformed police force.

 Finally, the character of the Black community itself was a factor in producing those gruesome August events. Not only was the community large and visible, but it also had created its own institutions and its own elite.  These Blacks, however, resented dressy Whites and dandy coloured beaux and belles returning from their proper churches. The Black mob vents its rage against White affluence by targeting the solid brick houses of the middle-class Whites and robbing them of silver and watches. White wealth threatened the notion of the proper social order held by many Blacks in this urban expansion and seemed unspeakable when Blacks could not afford life’s basic necessities or lacked jobs. Research indicates 60 to 72 percent of the African Americans in this neighborhood are unemployed and immigrated to this area within the last three years. The Whites report they have no problem with the Blacks, but wish they would cement themselves in the economic system by working to get ahead. They also report that there is segregation, in this neighborhood, because Blacks are collectively participating in urban expansions, where Blacks pay less to live in White communities, and White people pay more. All of the below market rate housing seems to go to the poor Blacks who are members of the church. Less than 14 percent of that building is made up of low income Whites, and the White youth also need help and to be respected. What man has ever felt that all his thinking powers were absorbed, even by the most poignant metal misery that could occupy them? In moments of imminent dangers, the mind can still travel of its own accord over the last in spite of the present—in moments of bitter affliction, it can still recur to everyday trifles in spite of ourselves.