Customer Reviews

To Protect and to Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I am a veteran police officer and a native Angeleno whose hobbies include the history of Los Angeles and the L.A.P.D. Joe Domanick's book is an obviously well researched piece that skillfully weaves together a view of historical L.A. and it's police dept. I have read the book three times and enjoy it anew with each revisit. I am deeply aware of the Department's history and can say that the author has hit his mark with this very intriguing and thoroughly researched book. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to familiarize themselves with the true psyche of The Los Angeles Police Department. My hat is off to you Joe Domanick!

Joe Domanick moved from Queens NY to Los Angeles in the mid 1970s. He noticed the unusual power and autonomy of the LAPD. The `Acknowledgments' list the people and sources who helped him with this 1994 book. Is the LAPD "the most powerful, most independent, most arrogant, most feared, and most political big-city police department" (p.7)? The 465 square miles of Los Angeles had the fewest police per resident, and no major police scandals as in other big cities (pp.13-14). The manufacturing economy of South Central and East L.A. collapsed in the late 1970s and created high unemployment (p.15). This book lacks references to the `Source Notes'.

Part Two gives the history of Los Angeles and explains the development of the Police Department. August Vollmer began the professionalization to deal with corruption (p.49). What if this led to a powerful and independent entity? Police Chief James Davis invented the "dragnet" to stop and search for any "suspicious characters" (p.64). Mainstream reformers critical of the LAPD and City Hall were entrapped and arrested, the funds coming from organized crime (pp.54-56)! How could vice, gambling, and bootlegging flourish under a law-and-order police chief (p.56)? Davis also invented the "bum blockade" in 1936 to keep out people from other states (pp.60-62). The "Red Squad" broke strikes and attacked unions (pp.63-64). The shooting of a gambler united the forces of reform (p.75). Did the Intelligence Squad set a bomb in the car of an investigator for the reform movement (p.77)? Bill Parker rewrote Section 202 of the city charter to create new powers for all LAPD officers (p.94). There would be no checks and balances on the LAPD (p.95). There were no corruption scandals as in other big cities. "The Grip" described the "pro-active policing" of Bill Parker (p.111). These policies began to be overturned by the decisions of the Warren Supreme Court (p.113). That should tell you how "pro-active policing" violated the Constitution.

Part 3, Chapter 6 describes the ruling class of Los Angeles, such as the Committee of Twenty-five (p.151). Shows like "Dragnet" helped to promote the city. Hollywood controls almost all TV and movies, they were under the influence of Bill Parker and the LAPD. The LAPD did not tolerate immigrant gangsters (p.156). Bill Parker's Intelligence division allowed him to manipulate politicians (p.157), helped real estate interests (p.159), and to control a mayor (p.171). "Senseless violence" seems to be the result of unrelenting oppression (p.229). Domanick is wrong to claim Proposition 13 was a "revolt of the affluent", it was a correct response to Nixon's devalued dollars and the war on the middle class. Part 6 Chapter 1 tells what happened after the working class L.A. was devastated by corporate policies (p.311). That quote from "48 hours" might be planted propaganda (p.327).

When juries awarded LAPD's victims tens of millions of dollars in settlement awards, the city council authorized more money for a special police litigation unit (p.342). Again, Domanick doesnt' understand that "white people" (p.345) were getting hit with stagnant wages and rising costs. "Mass transit funds" (p.346) didn't help most people, only big corporations. Chapter 3 tells "The Raid on Dalton Avenue" was based on a false affidavit! LA now has the highest rates of violent crimes (p.355). Part 7 deals with the Rodney King encounter. The problem was the public didn't know "how to be arrested" (p.392)! Daryl Gates was suspended for 60 days. Gates knew how to do PR (p.395). The Christopher Commission decided Gates must go to improve the management of the LAPD (p.403). The verdict on the four LAPD officers was followed by an outbreak of fires and looting (Chapter 5). The LAPD did little (p.426). SNAFU (p.428)? The cause was Daryl Gates (p.429). The `Epilogue' sums it up. Proposition F passed, the LAPD would follow the rules, maybe (p.436).

This book could have been a "great" history on the problems faced by and of the LAPD.

Too many unsubstantiated comments turned this book into just another "axe to grind" slam against the LAPD. Comments such as (found in Part 5 Circling the Wagons, Chaper 2 The Protege)"And in the years to follow it would be his policies-along with Ronald Reagan's war on the poor..." is one example of his use of unsubstantiated claims found through out his book.

This could have been a great book if he focused on "just the facts" and backed his personal comments & opinion with facts.

What could have been an authoritative, definitive history of the LAPD instead disintegrated into a police-bashing screed by Mr. Domanick. His obvious biases prevented any kind of dispassioned, reasoned analysis of the LAPD; instead, Mr. Domanick merely spewed the tired liberal dogma of "bad police", of the police as simply "the Man" trying to keep folks down. His historical accounting of the LAPD was so tainted by his personal animus that reading this account was painful. A big disappointment for a topic worthy of insightful, reasoned anaysis.

I gave this book 2 stars only because the historical information was well-researched and interesting. I did like reading about training, etc. from "back in the day". But...the biggest problem I have with this book is that the writer's anti-police attitude keeps getting in the way. If he doesn't like the LAPD, that's fine, it's his opinion, but such antics as writing sarcastic comments about "the look" of police officer's familes really left a bad taste in my mouth. I bought this book thinking it would be an "objective" history of the LAPD. I was greatly disappointed by Domanick's constant tirades that painted all LAPD officers with the same brush.

From one side, I found the author's writing style to be mean-spirited and his analysis to lack the objectivity I would have expected considering how well he researched the historical information. From the other side, he skillfully weaves together a view of historical L.A. and the tradition of excess and abuse within its Police Department.

The book is engaging and enlightening, and the long-standing issues/problems within LAPD management are obvious from the facts presented by the author. However, the author's obvious bias, sarcasm and anti-police slant discredit the facts and attempts at establishing objectivity. The author should have respected the words of Dragnet's iconic LAPD character, Officer Joe Friday ... "only the facts, nothing but the facts."

I often felt that his historical accounting of the LAPD was so tainted by his personal bias, I became dubious reading accounts of legitimate LAPD abuses. The diatribes directed at conservatives, an oppressive US government, Reagan, etc. felt forced and misplaced. He should have let the facts speak for themselves ... they would have spoken louder.

This engrossing history of the Los Angeles Police Department is well worth reading, not only as a study of what is good and bad about the development of modern American police methods, but as a detailed view of the history of Los Angeles. This is one non-fiction book that is hard to put down. A great read!

My impression, contrary to some of the reviews posted here, is that Joe Domanick has focused on the facts and is not pursuing a political agenda. Much of what he says has been proven by recent events and makes sense in the light of the Rodney King case and its aftermath, as well as the O.J. case. His criticism is focused on the leadership and structure of the LAPD, rather than on characterizing individual officers as inherently bad. Ignore the right-wing screeds and give this book a try.

Joe Domanic documents the secret culture of the LAPD which an amazing eye for detail. He notes how the political structure has impacted policing nearly since the turn of the century (when the LAPD ran Goon Squads to crush the unions and "Commies") and how the efforts by Chief Parker in the 50-60's to free them Police from politics ultimately made them accountable to no one, except themselves. And certainly not to the public. This situation only exerbated the racial tensions of Civil Rights movement, but rather than declining as the years wore on, things grew worse at Parker's protege, Darryl Gates took command and continued to try to rule with Parker's Iron "Grip". After living in the city of Los Angeles most of my life, now many of the things I (and others) experienced with the LAPD, now make sense. A riveting book.

I couldn't put down this page turner about the bad old days of the LAPD and the details of police culture....

From the moment Domanick describes the families of police academy graduates as having the look of the "Orange county chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving," you know he's got an axe to grind. And he grinds it with undisguised bias for 430 pages. Even the captions to the B/W photos tell you he's got his agenda. Beneath a picture of the first LAPD chopper he writes, "Worshipping the god of technology." Gee, Joe, how about just getting there faster to find people who shoot ten year olds off their bikes. And then laugh about it with their homies. And stuff like hispanics gangsters who "laugh about the suffering they'd inflicted like dead-eyed cops over beers?" Bias as wide as the 405 and longer than the San Andreas fault. And in 430 pages, not a single mention of the Mexican Mafia, a criminal organization that puts a couple of hundred Latinos in graves every year. A lot of them kids and moms hit by stray bullets. And his take is that the fate of South Central was sealed with the arrival of "impoverished Mexicans" and Salvadorans fleeing civil war and "American-trained death squads." Right. They were so terrorized by American oppression back home that by the millions they voted with their feet to come to America, the very heart of the oppressor. Give us a break, Joe. Your paranoia is showing. Let's recap, shall we. The LAPD is evil. The US government is oppressive. Conservatives want to barbecue black babies. Reagan invented AIDS. And oh, yeah, the CIA dumps crack by the truckload in Compton. You know, just for laughs. Go with Lou Cannon's Official Negligence. Real reporting. No Axe.