Bell Riots
From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference
The Bell Riots were a pivotal historical event on Earth in 2024 that set the tone for the future of Humankind.
In the year 2020, the American government, reacting to serious problems of homelessness and unemployment, created special Sanctuary Districts in most cities where such people were promised housing and food, as well as prospects for future employment. Unfortunately, while established with benevolent intent, the Sanctuaries quickly degenerated into inhumane internment camps where the unemployed, the mentally ill, and other outcasts were imprisoned.
By late 2024 the Sanctuaries had become overcrowded slums hidden from the general public behind large walls, but the true conditions inside these camps were not known to the general public. The sense of 'out of sight, out of mind' was pervasive in American society fostering a belief that, despite the political upheaval affecting Europe at the time, the United States of America was stable and had successfully dealt with the social problems that had been the genesis of the camps.
On September 1, 2024, residents of Sanctuary District A in San Francisco sparked a riot over food rations that led several internees, armed with the weapons of their overpowered guards, to attack and capture an administrative processing center, holding six center employees hostage. With the help of Jadzia Dax, a Starfleet officer from the 24th century who had been stranded in the past, the residents managed to gain access to Earth's planetary computer network, and many were able to tell their stories of imprisonment to the outside world. As a result, the American public became aware of the great injustice that had been hidden from them.
In an attempt to end the riots and re-capture the processing center, the governor of California ordered National Guardsmen to retake the processing center by force. Hundreds of Sanctuary residents were killed, including one of the riot leaders, Gabriel Bell, who was replaced by Benjamin Sisko, also stranded in the past with Dax. Knowing that history had recorded Bell's death as a sacrifice to protect the hostages, none of whom were killed, Sisko determined that in order to preserve the timeline the sacrifice of his own life might be necessary. However, in actuality Sisko/Bell survived the attack but left the impression he had been killed by placing his identity card on the body of one of the other internees.
Because Bell had played a crucial role in protecting the hostages, and in the negotiations prior to the government assault, he was remembered as one of the central figures in the events and his name became forever associated with them.
In the wake of the Bell Riots and the senseless death of so many people, public opinion turned against the concept of the Sanctuary Districts. The Sanctuaries were abolished as the United States finally began to face the serious social problems it had struggled with for over a century.
The events were of such significance in the history of the United States prior to World War III that the absence of this event from Earth's 21st century timeline, caused by the premature death of the actual Gabriel Bell upon Sisko's arrival, meant the absence of the United Federation of Planets from Earth's 24th century timeline. (DS9: "Past Tense, Part I", "Past Tense, Part II")
[edit] External link
- Bell Riots at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
