Codependent mom of kid responsible for triggering ’65 Watts Riots dies; she likely never understood it.Typical codependent.
Codependent of the Month:
Rena Price, who inadvertently contributed to the start of the 1965 Watts riots, died recently of natural causes at 97. Her son, Marquette Frye, had been stopped by officers after driving erratically. After he failed sobriety tests, his mother, who had been summoned by a neighbor, scolded him about drinking and driving. Frye suddenly turned from being “good-humored and cooperative” to uncooperative, as he suddenly blew up at the officers. Accounts vary as to subsequent events, but after Frye’s arrest someone shoved Price, Frye was struck on the head by a patrolman’s baton and Price and her stepson (who was in the car with Frye) jumped on an officer. After rumors of the arrest and police abuse spread, mobs turned the area into a war-zone. Six days later 34 were dead, thousands injured and tens of millions of dollars of property destroyed.
Frye, described as “the man who started the riots,” drifted from job to job and was arrested dozens of times before he died in 1986 at 41 from pneumonia, often a symptom of alcoholism (especially at that age). He “struggled with excessive drinking,” which is a euphemism for alcoholism. All of this confirms the Watts riots were precipitated by an alcoholic and that Price was, therefore, a codependent—and a serious one at that.
The effect on her was enormous. In the subsequent court case, Price was found guilty of interfering with police officers. Although later exonerated, she couldn’t get a job for years. No one would hire someone who the prosecution accused of helping to cause the riots. And she couldn’t bear living life believing her son was the indirect cause for the death of dozens, injury of thousands and property damage in the millions, with hundreds of small businesses literally going up in smoke—so she went into denial. While according to officers she initially believed her son was drunk, she later recanted, saying the officers lied, no doubt thinking of the good son she knew lay underneath the muck of addiction.
She likely had no idea her son’s affliction was genetically rooted and that it caused him to act badly some of the time, including drinking while driving. She couldn’t have had a clue that arguing and scolding was senseless, as it is with every practicing alcoholic. She couldn’t have understood the only proper method of dealing with such misbehaviors is to promise logical consequences and, when the rules are broken, administer them without delay or compromise. She no doubt lived life thinking she could have done better—with no understanding of how she could have done so. Fortunately, time erased the memories; Price found work sometime after her husband died in the ‘70s and, in 2005, when asked about the riots, said, “Oh, it’s been years. I’m through with it.” She was fortunate: she lived long enough for time to cause the pain to diminish. How many codependents aren’t that fortunate?