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

In a tradition dating back to the 19th century, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department had life tenure and was therefore arguably accountable to no one, not even to the police commission. How that situation, reformed only in 1992 in the wake of Daryl Gates's handling of the Rodney King affair, protected the careers of police chiefs of the likes of William Parker (Watts riot of 1965) and Gates is the thrust of this dramatic study by freelance writer Domanick. He delineates the hold of the white, conservative, largely Protestant establishment on the City of Angels, who allowed the police department to run the city like an army of occupation, brutalizing minorities. The mayor, city council and police commission alike, shows Domanick, ignored or at best minimally curbed abuses by the police force. But with the riots of 1992, LAPD reforms were finally established under Charter Amendment F. Photos not seen by PW. (Nov.)