Race, Police, and the Making of a Political Identity: Mexican Americans and the Los Angeles Police Department, 1900-1945 (Latinos in American Society and Culture, 7)

Rating:
Summary: LAPD Scandal
Review: Los Angeles Police Officers accused of perjury, framing innocent persons, extorting from the Mexican community. These are not the 21st Century headlines on the Los Angeles Police (LAPD) Rampart scandal, but charges brought against LAPD officers Filipe Talamantes and Louis & Thomas Rico in 1910, ninety years ago! This is just one of the subjects covered in Professor Escobar's study of the relationship between the LAPD and the Mexican-American community. Turn-of-the-century LAPD officers Talamantes and the Rico brothers figure prominently in the first part of the book. They were not only involved in extorting from their own community, but were responsible for railroading Mexican revolutionaries on imaginary charges, and played a role in the L.A. Times bombing investigation. The book continues with the suppression of labor organizing by the LAPD "Red" Squad, the early attempts to reign in police misconduct, and the growing racism institutionalized in the LAPD. The book culminates with the infamous "Zoot Suit" riots and their aftermath, in which the LAPD sat idly by while white sailors and soldiers beat and humiliated Mexican youths, and then had the victims arrested. Escobar supplements the dramatic stories of these conflicts with well-researched data and primary sources. Written before the current scandal broke into the news, this book provides an essential background and context to the history of the LAPD, and its relationship with so-called minority communities. This is the book to turn to for more background on the events featured in the movies "Zoot Suit" and "Mi Familia (My Family)." I found the similarities between the current scandal and the history laid out in this book to be chilling. What happened to Talamantes and the Rico brothers? Read the book to find out, and maybe you will gain a better understanding of the difficulty in controlling abuse within the LAPD today.

Rating:
Summary: LAPD Scandal
Review: Los Angeles Police Officers accused of perjury, framing innocent persons, extorting from the Mexican community. These are not the 21st Century headlines on the Los Angeles Police (LAPD) Rampart scandal, but charges brought against LAPD officers Filipe Talamantes and Louis & Thomas Rico in 1910, ninety years ago! This is just one of the subjects covered in Professor Escobar's study of the relationship between the LAPD and the Mexican-American community. Turn-of-the-century LAPD officers Talamantes and the Rico brothers figure prominently in the first part of the book. They were not only involved in extorting from their own community, but were responsible for railroading Mexican revolutionaries on imaginary charges, and played a role in the L.A. Times bombing investigation. The book continues with the suppression of labor organizing by the LAPD "Red" Squad, the early attempts to reign in police misconduct, and the growing racism institutionalized in the LAPD. The book culminates with the infamous "Zoot Suit" riots and their aftermath, in which the LAPD sat idly by while white sailors and soldiers beat and humiliated Mexican youths, and then had the victims arrested. Escobar supplements the dramatic stories of these conflicts with well-researched data and primary sources. Written before the current scandal broke into the news, this book provides an essential background and context to the history of the LAPD, and its relationship with so-called minority communities. This is the book to turn to for more background on the events featured in the movies "Zoot Suit" and "Mi Familia (My Family)." I found the similarities between the current scandal and the history laid out in this book to be chilling. What happened to Talamantes and the Rico brothers? Read the book to find out, and maybe you will gain a better understanding of the difficulty in controlling abuse within the LAPD today.