The LAPD Red Squad is the common name for a division of the municipal Los Angeles Police Department, in California, United States, that was focused on limiting the activities of left-wing individuals and organizations in the city. Over the course of 50 years, LAPD "gathered some 2 million secret files...on all manner of legitimate dissenters." [1]
The immediate predecessor to the Red Squad was the LAPD War Squad, created in 1918. [2] The War Squad was charged with investigating "spies, terrorists, labor disturbers and hostile aliens". [3] The department's first Red Squad, formally the LAPD Intelligence Division, operated from approximately 1929 when it was organized by chief of police Roy E. Steckel, [4] until June 22, 1938 when it was disbanded under chief of police James E. Davis. [5] The "anti-radical" section of the Intelligence division was widely known as the Red Squad, and was one of a number of red squads operating during the interwar period in Canada and the United States. Key figures included Red Hynes, Luke Lane, and Earl E. Kynette, who ran what was considered the "confidential" section of the squad, also known as the "spy squad". As one artist later summarized the organization's actions of the late 1920s and 1930s: "Red Hynes' 'red squads' were running rampant, raiding union headquarters and homes, and creating havoc among the liberals." [6] A succinct summary of the distinction between the two squads: "The department was internationally notorious for its strike-breaking 'Red Squad' and its quasi-KGB 'Confidential Squad'." [7]
Historian Frank Donner wrote in 1990, "In Los Angeles, however, more than in any other city in the country, the role of the police department and its red squad as clients of business interests in combating dissent and unionism was from the start openly proclaimed and was implemented over the years with only minimal concessions to changes in political climate, accountability requirements, reform movements, recurring corruption scandals, and adverse court decisions...all of the red squads were guided by highly conservative political values, but in Los Angeles right-wing zealotry reigned supreme." [8]
A semi-official departmental history published in the Los Angeles Police Department yearbook of 1984 stated that Red Hynes was one of the "most potent force[s] in the Police Department and city in those years". [9] The Red Squad consistently used physical violence and civil-rights violations to achieve its goals; per LAPD historian Arthur W. Sjoquist, "Today these actions would be reprehensible, but in the 1930s the mood was different...As one [LAPD] Commissioner [ Mark A. Pierce] put it, 'The more the police beat them up and wreck their headquarters, the better...Communists have no constitutional rights and I won't listen to anyone who defends them'." [10]
Chief James E. Davis created a dossier on the Mexican consul, Ricardo Hill, whom city business leaders held responsible for agricultural labor strikes involving Mexican and Mexican-American laborers associated with the union CUCOM (Confederación de Unión Campesinos y Obreros Mexicanos). Davis used material "from the red squad's already extensive file on Hill and added information from the files of the Associated Farmers of Los Angeles and Orange Counties and from the Los Angeles County sheriff's office. He compiled the information into a report, which was included in an official protest from the statewide Associated Farmers' organization to the United States State Department". [11] According to historian Edward J. Escobar, when the Mexican government removed Hill as consul in October 1936, it was not because of the contents of dossier but because the very act of its creation and distribution was evidence of "manifest hostility" from LAPD. [11]
The LAPD Red Squad of the Great Depression era appears to have routinely used physical violence as a means of intimidation and repression. The Red Squad under Davis and Hynes found that "simple intimidation or a good beating could get the job done" as effectively as arrest, prosecution, and incarceration, without all the time-consuming paperwork and procedure. [12] For instance, during a Los Angeles City Council meeting, the Red Squad attacked leftists present to protest against the LAPD Red Squad raid on the John Reed Club art show, beating ACLU president Clinton J. Taft, two war veterans, and attorney Leo Gallagher, [13] "leaving him with broken glasses and two black eyes". [14] Nieces of Chicano union activist Jesús "Uncle Chuey" Cruz told a historian with the University of Arizona that when their uncle was involved with the California agricultural strikes of 1933, "They hired the Red Squad from Los Angeles to quell that rebellion. They beat the hell out of him. They cracked his head open several times...Boy, they treated him so bad [that] they made a Communist out of him". [15] Communist teacher Eva Shafran was reportedly jumped by one or more members of the Red Squad, knocked unconscious with an automobile crank, kicked in the mouth knocking out her front teeth, and was seriously injured to the point that she was sent to a sanitarium to recover. [16] [17] [18] In 1935, officers under command of Luke Lane used their blackjacks to beat two college students unconscious at a peace rally. [19] [20] According to a group biography of the leftist Brooks family of California held at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research, "In 1932, Isador [Brooks] was arrested by...William F. Hynes' Red Squad. He was so severely beaten by them that it permanently affected his health and he died two years later." [21] Socialist organizer and Methodist minister Rev. Ward H. Rodgers sued Red Squad officer Carl Abbott for punching him in the face "without provocation" during the 1936 Venice celery strike. [22]
'Red' squads develop a strong urge to act regardless of the necessity or lack of necessity for action.
In the 1970s the Red Squad was known as the LAPD Public Disorder Intelligence Division. [24] In 1982 the LAPD agreed to pay Seymour Myerson $27,500 to settle a lawsuit charging them with political spying and harassment. [25] As part of a larger reform program, the department agreed to destroy their files on dissenters, except as of 1983, PDID "was still keeping tabs on more than 200 organizations, including the Coalition Against Police Abuse and Citizens Commission on Police Repression." [1]
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the primary law enforcement agency of Los Angeles, California, United States. With 8,832 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.
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 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 only properly investigated 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.
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".
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was formed in 1869, and has since become the third-largest law enforcement agency in the United States. They have been involved in various events in history, such as the Black Dahlia murder, the Watts riots, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the North Hollywood shootout, the murder trial of O. J. Simpson, and the Rampart scandal.
Brenda Allen was an American 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.
R. Lee Heath served as Chief of Police of the Los Angeles Police Department from August 1, 1924 to March 31, 1926. Heath had joined the L.A.P.D. in 1904 and was reputed to be the most adroit politician in the department, eventually rising to the level of top cop. He was a police captain when he was appointed chief, replacing Chief August Vollmer, the former Police Chief of Berkeley, California who had served as interim chief for exactly one year.
Mark Alfred Pierce was an American business executive who ran his family's company, Pierce Brothers Mortuary Services, for many years. He was also a one-term California State Assemblyman, and one-term Los Angeles Police Commissioner.
The Public Disorder and Intelligence Division (PDID) was a unit of the Los Angeles Police Department between 1970-1983 that mobilized undercover officers to monitor the activity of local activist organizations suspected of criminal activity. Created by Chief Edward M. Davis and later overseen by Chief Daryl Gates, PDID was disbanded in 1983 amid public pressure.
Earl Eugene Kynette was a pharmacist and an American municipal police officer. He served on the vice squad and the intelligence squad of the city of Los Angeles, California police department. Kynette allegedly had close ties to the local crime syndicate, and allegedly had work experience as a pimp associated with bootlegger Albert Marco. In 1938, Kynette was charged with conspiracy in a car-bomb attack on Harry J. Raymond, a private investigator in the employ of local anti-corruption crusaders. Kynette was convicted and sentenced to several years in San Quentin state prison. After he was paroled, he allegedly killed two people while driving drunk on a mountain highway in Tuolumne County, California. Kynette died of natural causes in Los Angeles in 1970.
William "Billy" A. Hammel was chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department for one year, six months, and 26 days in 1904–1905. He was a retired Sheriff of Los Angeles County when he was hired to replace Charles Elton. Under Hammel, the LAPD used police automobiles for the first time. He also added a third local police station, following up Boyle Heights and Lincoln Heights divisions with a new building on Jefferson Blvd.
Thomas A. Broadhead was chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department for three months in 1909. Broadhead joined the LAPD around 1887, and he had previously been a member of the vice squad. He had been appointed by mayor Arthur C. Harper, and when Harper resigned due to a scandal and was replaced by mayor George Alexander, Broadhead was dismissed as chief and replaced with Edward F. Dishman. Captain Broadhead was indicted on bribery charges a week later, and acquitted in September 1909. After leaving the department, Broadhead went to work as a special agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad until 1924.
Edward F. Dishman was chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department for ten months and 11 days in 1909–1910. He had previously been a Los Angeles Times reporter on the police-department beat. Confounded by the police commission and city administration in his efforts to hire more officers or increase stagnant salaries, he was dismissed in short order by the police commission for non-performance in reforming the police department. After leaving the police department he worked for the post office, and then had a long career as an examiner for the California State Corporation Commission, investigating fraudulent stock offerings.
Clarence E. "Clare" Snively was chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department for one year, three months, and eight days in 1915. He is considered one of the "lesser-known" LAPD chiefs of the 20th century. He created an anti-nicotine clinic through the department, believing it to be a noxious substance that "weakened" bodies. He also worked as a reporter for several newspapers and as a federal probation officer for a large region of Southern California.
John L. Butler was chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department for two years, eight months, and 20 days in the 1910s. Butler created a "War Squad" to deal with potential espionage and subversion amidst the U.S. participation in World War I. Overall, Butler served in the LAPD for 20 years, from 1901 to 1921.
George K. Home was chief of police of the Los Angeles Police Department for one year, two months, and 23 days from 1919 to 1920. Home's administration coincided with the beginning of Prohibition and the coattendant increase in smuggling and associated crime. He is best remembered for hiring Harry J. Raymond and Herbert "Brute" Kittle, both of whom were charged with multiple crimes of their own, which reduced their effectiveness as law enforcement officers. Home later became "chief narcotic enforcement officer" for the state of California.
The LAPD Red Squad raid on the John Reed Club art show raid took place in Los Angeles, California, United States, on Saturday, February 11, 1933. The LAPD Red Squad, the police department's anti-radical unit, crashed a political meeting and art show hosted by a number of leftist organizations. Red Squad members destroyed several works of art in a manner that suggested racial animus as well as an anti-communist motive.
Eva Shafran Burton was a Communist Party promoter who worked in New York and California in the early 20th century. She was known for her expertise in Marxist theory.
Luke M. Lane was an American municipal police officer. He served on the LAPD Red Squad during the Great Depression, and has been described as having been Red Hynes's "right-hand man".
The Venice celery strike of 1936 was a labor action in Venice, California that lasted from April 20, 1936 to May 27, 1936. A 1938 history of Asian-American and Latino/Hispanic labor action prepared by the Federal Writers' Project stated that the strike was called by CUCOM in order to negotiate "higher wages and better hours." The strike was reportedly "attended by considerable violence."