The Thin Blue Line (American TV series)

Last updated
The Thin Blue Line
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
Production
Producer William H. Parker
Running time30 minutes
Release
Original network KNBH
Original release1 April (1952-04-01) 
1 September 1952 (1952-09-01)

The Thin Blue Line is an American panel show that briefly aired weekly on Los Angeles NBC station KNBH in 1952. [1] [2] The show, contemporarily described as "unabashedly propagandistic", was produced by the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, William H. Parker. It featured discussion between a moderator and a panel of experts (often including Parker, who also answered audience questions). Parker intended for the show to "accurate[ly]" inform the public about "police affairs" and to "instill greater [public] confidence" in the LAPD. [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<i>Dragnet</i> (franchise) Radio, television, and film series, mostly about LAPD detective Joe Friday

Dragnet is an American radio, television and film series, following the exploits of dedicated Los Angeles Police Department Detective Joe Friday and his partners, created by actor and producer Jack Webb. The show took its name from the police term "dragnet", a term for a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Webb</span> American actor, producer, director, and writer (1920–1982)

John Randolph Webb was an American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet franchise, which he created. He was also the founder of his own production company, Mark VII Limited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney King</span> African American victim of police brutality (1965–2012)

Rodney Glen King was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving while intoxicated on the I-210. An uninvolved individual, George Holliday, filmed the incident from his nearby balcony and sent the footage to local news station KTLA. The footage showed an unarmed King on the ground being beaten after initially evading arrest. The incident was covered by news media around the world and caused a public furor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Police Department</span> Municipal law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, U.S.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 9,974 officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-largest municipal police department in the United States, after the New York City Police Department and the Chicago Police Department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watts riots</span> 1965 riots in Los Angeles, United States

The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965.

<i>Adam-12</i> American police procedural television series, 1968–1975

Adam-12 is an American television police procedural crime drama television series created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb. The series follows Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed as they patrol the streets of Los Angeles in their police cruiser, designated "1-Adam-12". Like Webb's other series, Dragnet and Emergency!, Adam-12 was produced in cooperation with the real department it was based on. Adam-12 aimed to be realistic in its depiction of police, and helped to introduce police procedures and jargon to the general public in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Wambaugh</span> American writer

Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr., is a best-selling American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Several of his early novels were set in Los Angeles and its surroundings and featured Los Angeles police officers as protagonists. He has been nominated for four Edgar Awards, and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daryl Gates</span> Chief of Los Angeles Police Department

Daryl Francis Gates was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker. Gates is co-credited with the creation of SWAT teams with LAPD's John Nelson, who others claim was the originator of SWAT in 1965. Gates also co-founded D.A.R.E.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1992 Los Angeles riots</span> 1992 riots following the beating of Rodney King

The 1992 Los Angeles riots, sometimes called the Rodney King riots or the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, in April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted four officers of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) charged with using excessive force in the arrest and beating of Rodney King. This incident had been videotaped and widely shown in television broadcasts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parker Center</span> Former headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department

Parker Center, initially named the Police Administration Building or Police Facilities Building, was the former headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1955 until October 2009. It was located in Downtown Los Angeles at 150 North Los Angeles Street. Often nicknamed "The Glass House", the building was named for former LAPD chief William H. Parker in 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James E. Davis (Los Angeles police officer)</span> Los Angeles police chief

James Edgar Davis was an American police officer who served as the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1926 to 1929, and from 1933 to 1939. During his first term as LAPD chief, Davis emphasized firearms training. Under Davis, the LAPD developed its lasting reputation as an organization that relied on brute force to enforce public order. It also became publicly entangled in corruption. Members of the LAPD were revealed to have undertaken a campaign of brutal harassment, including the bombings of political reformers who had incurred the wrath of the department and the civic administration.

Bloody Christmas was the name given to the severe beating of seven civilians by members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on December 25, 1951. The attacks, which left five Mexican American and two white young men with broken bones and ruptured organs, were properly investigated only after lobbying from the Mexican American community. The internal inquiry by Los Angeles Chief of Police William H. Parker resulted in eight police officers being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 suspended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William H. Parker (police officer)</span> American law enforcement officer

William Henry Parker III was an American law enforcement officer who was Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1950 to 1966. To date, he is the longest-serving LAPD police chief. Parker has been called "Los Angeles' greatest and most controversial chief of police". The former headquarters of the LAPD, the Parker Center, was named after him. During his tenure, the LAPD was known for police brutality and racism; Parker himself was known for his "unambiguous racism".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Dragna</span>

Jack Ignatius Dragna was an American Mafia member and Black Hander who was active in both Italy and the United States in the 20th century. He was active in bootlegging in California during the Prohibition Era in the United States. In 1931, he succeeded Joseph Ardizzone as the boss of the Los Angeles crime family after Ardizzone's mysterious disappearance and death. Both James Ragen and Earl Warren dubbed Dragna the "Capone of Los Angeles". Dragna remained the boss of the Los Angeles crime family from 1931 until his death in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skid Row, Los Angeles</span> Neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles

Skid Row is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles. The area is officially known as Central City East.

<i>Mob City</i> American TV series or program

Mob City is an American neo-noir crime drama television series created by Frank Darabont for TNT. It is based on real-life accounts of the L.A.P.D. and gangsters in 1940s Los Angeles as chronicled in John Buntin's book L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. The series premiered on December 4, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Los Angeles Police Department Memorial for Fallen Officers</span>

The Los Angeles Police Department Memorial to Fallen Officers is a monument on an elevated plaza at the LAPD headquarters on 100 West 1st Street in downtown Los Angeles. The memorial was funded by the Los Angeles Police Foundation, who raised the $750,000 through private donations. The original tribute to fallen officers that was located at the previous headquarters at Parker Center was destroyed in the process of transport when moved to make room for a new jail.

Brenda Allen was a madam based in Los Angeles, California, whose arrest in 1948 triggered a scandal that led to the attempted reform of the Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.). Allen received police protection due to her relationship with Sergeant Elmer V. Jackson of the L.A.P.D.'s administrative vice squad, who reportedly was her lover.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gangster Squad (LAPD)</span> Former anti-organized crime unit of the Los Angeles Police Department

The Gangster Squad, later known as the OrganizedCrime Intelligence Division (OCID), was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) formed in 1946 to keep the East Coast Mafia and organized crime elements out of Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Charley Leundeu Keunang</span> Police killing of 43-year-old Cameroonian man

The killing of Charley Leundeu Keunang, a 43-year-old Cameroonian national, occurred in Los Angeles, California, on March 1, 2015. He was shot by three Los Angeles Police Department officers.

References

  1. Buntin, John (2009). L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN   9780307352071. OCLC   431334523 . Retrieved June 10, 2020.
  2. "Monday TV Logs, August 4" (PDF). TV-Radio Life. 25 (23). August 1, 1952.
  3. Escobar, Edward J. (May 2003). "Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism: The Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican Americans, and Police Reform in the 1950s". Pacific Historical Review. 72 (2): 171–199. doi:10.1525/phr.2003.72.2.171. ISSN   0030-8684.
  4. Domanick, Joe (1994). To Protect and To Serve: The LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams. New York: Pocket Books. ISBN   0671751115. OCLC   622813089.