'I've seen the teenagers beaten - beaten - by the police.' The confrontation became known as the Sunset Strip Curfew Riots.Ī local KBLA disc jockey who went by the name Humble Harve broke format to take calls from listeners about 'the situation on the Sunset Strip.' 'I've seen it,' one caller told him on-air. Police shouted back through bullhorns: 'Anyone under the age of 18 years old remaining in the area will be arrested.' When demonstrators refused to leave at 10 p.m., the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and LAPD began their crackdown.

Hundreds of teens jammed the boulevard, some holding signs: 'Rights For Youth Too,' 'Stop Blue Fascism,' 'Leave Us Alone.' 12, 1966, a crowd of young people gathered outside a club called Pandora's Box to protest the 'disrespect and abuse of youths by police,' as flyers distributed around the area described it. 12, 1966, rally against curfew laws on the Sunset Strip. Debs wanted to construct a new freeway and turn the Sunset Strip into a financial district, according to the book Riot on Sunset Strip: Rock 'n' Roll's Last Stand in Hollywood.Ī flier distributed in advance of the Nov. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Supervisor Ernest E. Owners of upscale restaurants and fancy storefronts complained that the hordes of teens were bad for business. It was kind of a happening.'īut behind the vibrant nightlife, there was simmering tension. 'Hundreds and hundreds of young kids, all dressed up in bell bottoms and tie-dyes, and they would come in and out of the clubs and walk up and down the street. 'It was like a carnival midway,' says music photographer Henry Diltz, who used to hang around the Strip. In the 1960s, the area held the pulse of rock and roll counterculture - and it's where Buffalo Springfield made its name. LA's Sunset Strip was a world away from Vietnam: a crowded boulevard lined with billboards, dumpy music clubs and a diner packed with teenagers.

Stills, who wrote the song, was instead inspired by a confrontation back home that erupted on a few famous blocks in Los Angeles. While it's often recognized as an anti-war protest anthem, 'For What It's Worth' wasn't actually based on Vietnam.

The sunset song book