A phony pawn shop. A fake liquor store. A village made up of one faux storefront after another, like something from a Hollywood backlot.
What was this strange, ersatz Main Street erected on an army base in Virginia in 1967? A place dubbed “Riotsville.” Contemporary America has forgotten about it, but decades ago the U.S.
military assembled a mock town where law enforcement and military personnel could engage in a sort of pantomime – rehearsing how to successfully suppress an urban riot.
It wasn’t an abstract exercise. The training ground was constructed in direct response to revolts that had erupted in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965, and two years later in Newark and Detroit.
Read more on deadline.com