→See also: 1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit Advanced mobile edit |
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* [[California Criminal Syndicalism Act]] |
* [[California Criminal Syndicalism Act]] |
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* [[1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election]] |
* [[1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election]] |
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* {{anl|Guy McAfee}} |
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== References == |
== References == |
Revision as of 14:36, 22 May 2024
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/LAPL_Order_Number_00039807_-_Herald_Examiner_-_Board_of_Communistic_literature.jpg/220px-LAPL_Order_Number_00039807_-_Herald_Examiner_-_Board_of_Communistic_literature.jpg)
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]
1920s–1930s
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,[2] until June 22, 1938 when it was disbanded under chief of police James E. Davis.[3] 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."[4]
Historian Frank Donner wrote in 1990:[5]
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. Finally, the political intelligence component of the LAPD is unique because of its unabashed right-wing commitment. To be sure, all of the red squads were guided by highly conservative political values, but in Los Angeles right-wing zealotry reigned supreme.[5]
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".[6] 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. Red had the support of such groups as the Chamber of Commerce, much of the press (including the L.A. Times), the County Grand Jury, the Mayor and City Council...Even the Police Commission lent its support. As one Commissioner 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'."[7]
1960s–1970s
In the 1970s the Red Squad was known as the LAPD Public Disorder Intelligence Division.[8] In 1982 the LAPD agreed to pay Seymour Myerson $27,500 to settle a lawsuit charging them with political spying and harassment.[9] 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]
See also
- LAPD Red Squad raid on John Reed Club art show
- Eva Shafran – American Communist (1906–1944)
- Strikes in the United States in the 1930s
- California Criminal Syndicalism Act
- 1938 Los Angeles mayoral recall election
- Guy McAfee – American businessman (1888–1960)
References
- ^ a b Bartosiewicz, Petra. "Beyond the Broken Window: How Washington sealed Puerto Rico's fate". Harper's Magazine. Vol. May 2015. ISSN 0017-789X. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
- ^ "Two Hundred Officers Shifted in Shakeup: 'Red Squad' Banned and Hynes Demoted". The Los Angeles Times. December 1, 1938. p. 23. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
- ^ "Police Intelligence Squad Discontinued". The Los Angeles Times. June 23, 1938. p. 2. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
- ^ Cherry (1956), p. 18.
- ^ a b Donner (1990), p. 245.
- ^ Sjoquist (1984), p. 72.
- ^ Sjoquist (1984), p. 73.
- ^ Myerson (1990), p. 306.
- ^ Myerson (1990), p. 316–317.
Sources
- Cherry, Herman (March 1956). "Los Angeles Revisited". Arts. 30 (6). Arts Communications Group. ISSN 0277-9021 – via Internet Archive.
- Donner, Frank (December 31, 1990). "7. The Los Angeles Police Department: Defenders of the Free Enterprise Faith". Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 245–289. doi:10.1525/9780520343139-010. ISBN 978-0-520-34313-9. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
- Myerson, Seymour (1990). "The Lawlessness of the LAPD Red Squad". In Schultz, Bud; Schultz, Ruth (eds.). It Did Happen Here: Recollections of Political Repression in America. Part III: The Face of a Police State (Section 2: Secret Police, As American as Apple Pie). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 303–318. doi:10.1525/9780520910683-030. ISBN 978-0-520-91068-3.
- Sjoquist, Arthur W. (1984). History of the Los Angeles Police Department. Los Angeles Police Revolver and Athletic Club.