Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing (56 page)

170,000 a day
: Bratton and Knobler,
Turnaround
, 143; Gladwell,
The Tipping Point
, 144; “Bratton: The Making of a Police Visionary.”

The city’s 1989 homicide rate of 1,905
: “Number of Killings Soars in Big Cities Across U.S.,”
NYT
, July 18, 1990; “New York, Nation Faces Rise in Crime,”
Christian Science Monitor
, April 9, 1990; “Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly Announce 2012 Sets All-Time Record for Fewest Murders and Fewest Shootings in New York City History,” Office of the Mayor, December 28, 2012.

2,245 murders . . . 1,946 killings
: “Reported Crimes Continue to Show Decline,”
NYT
, October 2, 1996.

In 1972 . . . inside a Black Muslim mosque
: “Harlem Split on Plan to Honor Officer Killed in Mosque in ’72,”
NYT
, May 11, 2012; “Nation of Islam Mosque Killing of NYPD Cop Still a Mystery, 37 Years Later,”
NYDN
, March 22, 2009.

“the Central Park jogger”
: “Central Park Jogger Case (1989),”
NYT
, October 3, 2012; “Central Park Horror, Wolf Pack’s Prey, Female Jogger Near Death After Savage Attack by Roving Gang,”
NYDN
, April 21, 1989.

the defendants were declared innocent
: “5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Agree to Settle Suit for $40 Million,”
NYT
, June 9, 2014; “NYC Is Pressed to Settle Central Park Jogger Case,” AP, April 6, 2013.

Brian Watkins
: “Tourist Slain in a Subway in Manhattan,”
NYT
, September 4, 1990; “Utah Tourist Murdered on Subway Spurred NYC to Get Tough on Street Crime,”
NYDN
, September 4, 2011.

black .38-caliber revolver
: “All About Crime,”
New York
, September 3, 1990.

New York cover story
: “The Rotting of the Big Apple,”
Time
, September 17, 1990.

addressed then Mayor David Dinkins
: “Dave, Do Something!”
New York Post
, September 7, 1990.

Bernhard Goetz
: “A Gunman’s Tale of Fear, Hatred and Drugs,”
NYT
, April 13, 1996; “The Little-Known World of the Vigilante,”
NYT
, December 30, 1984.

Bernhard Goetz armed himself with a handgun
: “Bernhard Goetz: NYC’s Most ‘High’-Minded Citizen,”
New York Post
, November 7, 2013; “Why Goetz Got Off,”
NYT
, August 14, 1988; “Taking Both Sides of a Heated Issue,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, July 8, 1988.

Goetz . . . found not guilty
: “Not Guilty,”
Time
, June 29, 1987; “Goetz Is Cleared in Subway Attack,”
NYT
, June 17, 1987.

later was sentenced . . . for illegal gun possession
: “Goetz Is Cleared in Subway Attack.”

“Watkins’s murder became a cause célèbre”
: William Bratton interview; “The Reformer, on Honeymoon,”
LAT
, January 19, 2003.

“great back-slappers”
: Ibid.

all-white Irish district known as Dorchester
: Bratton and Knobler,
Turnaround
, 7; “Bill Bratton Is America’s Most Wanted,”
Boston Globe
, March 8, 2013; “The Commish,”
NYT
, February 1, 1998.

high school sweethearts
: Bratton and Knobler,
Turnaround
, 3.

chrome-plating factory . . . mail sorter
: Ibid., 5.

“Somewhere along the line”
: Ibid., 9.

Boston Latin
: Ibid., 16 and 17.

sentry dog unit
: Ibid., 27.

Boston PD
: Ibid., 38.

Irish Alzheimer’s
: Ibid., 115.

2,800 cops . . . Boston PD
: Ibid., 38 and 55.

fifty-five minority officers
: Ibid., 38.

Fewer than twenty-five officers had college degrees
: Ibid., 48.

Boston State University
: Ibid.

“loved our system of government”
: Ibid., 36.

“Blue Cocoon”
: Ibid., 48.

Boston Magazine
: Ibid., 114–15.

“wiped out graffiti”
: Ibid., 151.

T.A. focus groups
: Ibid.

3 percent of felonies
: Ibid., 171.

transit officers . . . demoralized
: Ibid., 151 and 152.

decreased by over 20 percent
: “Bratton: The Making of a Police Visionary.”

“broken-windows” theory of crime
: “Broken Windows,”
Atlantic Monthly
, March 1, 1982; Bratton and Knobler,
Turnaround
, 152.

Charlie Beck and Mike Yamaki, Wednesday, April 29, 1992, LAPD Command Post, South Los Angeles

Charlie Beck pulled into . . . Parker Center
: Charlie Beck interview.

“holocaust of fire-gutted buildings”
: “Anger Smolders Along Vermont Avenue,”
LAT
, May 2, 1992.

L.A.’s first Asian-American police commissioner
: “Bradley Names Defense Lawyer to Police Board,”
LAT
, April 10, 1991; Michael Yamaki interview.

parents had spent the Second World War in an internment camp
: Michael Yamaki interview.

father . . . insurance industry . . . Democratic Party politics
: Ibid.

hiring more Asians was not only a matter of fairness
: Ibid.

“nobody in the LAPD”
: Ibid.

phone calls to local hotels
: Ibid.

Beck . . . ashamed
: Charlie Beck interview.

Andre Christian, Wednesday, April 29, 1992, Riverside County; Jordan Downs Housing Project, Watts

sat down to catch some news
: Andre Christian interview.

Christian had moved from Jordan Downs to Riverside County
: Ibid.

“all that open land”
: Ibid.

“getting young cats”
: Ibid.

Twenty-five hundred people . . . seven-hundred-unit
: “Jordan Downs to Get Police Substation,”
LAT
, November 22, 1992; “L.A. Officials Envision Revitalization for Jordan Downs Housing Project in Watts,”
LAT
, February 28, 2009.

1,054-unit Nickerson Gardens
: “Nickerson Gardens Targeted for Redevelopment,”
Los Angeles Sentinel
, March 25, 2004; “Willowbrook/Avalon Project Hearing Appeal Lost (Was It a Sham?),”
LA Watts Times
, October 11, 2012.

“You could show no inferiority”
: Andre Christian interview.

caught in a gang ambush
: Ibid.

“Killer King”
: “King Plan Nurtures a Fragile Hope,”
LAT
, March 15, 2009; “Los Angeles Hospital to Close After Failing Tests and Losing Financing,”
NYT
, August 11, 2007.

gang-related killings in L.A. County
: “Gang-Related Killings in County, City Set Record in ’89,”
LAT
, January 12, 1990.

California’s three-strikes law . . . stealing a steak . . . AA batteries
: “Proposition 184: Nonviolent ‘Three Strike’ Crimes Detailed,”
LAT
, October 19, 1994; “County Chaos Is Beyond One Man,”
LAT
, October 22, 1998; “Supreme Court Roundup; ‘Three Strikes’ Challenge Fails, but Others Are Invited,”
NYT
, January 20, 1999; “They Changed Their Minds on Three Strikes. Can They Change the Voters?”
LAT
, September 19, 2004.

introduction of crack into Los Angeles
:
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 30.

Powder cocaine . . . $100 a gram
: “Price, Purity of Cocaine Vary Widely Across Nation,”
LAT
, October 22, 1989; “Crack: A Disaster of Historic Dimension, Still Growing,”
NYT
, May 28, 1989.

$5, $10 . . . size of the rock
: “South Central Cocaine Sales Explode into $25 ‘Rocks,’ ”
LAT
, November 25, 1984; Nadel,
The Crack Cocaine Epidemic,
1.

Andre Christian, Wednesday, April 29, 1992, Jordan Downs

Florence and Normandie, where things had already turned ugly
: FOX 11 live aerial, April 30, 1992.

eighty-eight rounds in defense
: “Faces of Death: 10 Men Slain by Officers in Riots,”
LAT
, May 24, 1992; “Quiet Tension Has Replaced Rage That Exploded in L.A.,” AP, May 27, 1992.

“It was anarchy”
: “Faces of Death: 10 Men Slain by Officers in Riots”;
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 63.

Alfred Lomas, Thursday, April 30, 1992, Huntington Park, One Block East of South Central L.A.

glued to his crack-house TV
: Alfred Lomas interview.

“On south Western Avenue”
: “Under Fire: Guns in Los Angeles County: Proliferation of Guns May Be Bloody Legacy of Riots,”
LAT
, May 17, 1992.

fat, middle-aged Latina
: Alfred Lomas interview.

“At four in the afternoon”
: Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 33.

51 percent of those arrested during the peak of the rioting were Latinos
: “51% of Riot Arrests Were Latino, Study Says: Unrest: RAND Analysis of Court Cases Finds They Were Mostly Young Men. The Figures Are Open to Many Interpretations, Experts Note,”
LAT
, June 18, 1992; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 46.

Thursday, April 30, Across L.A.

two big-bellied Latino men
: Author’s observations and interviews, April 30, 1992.

“Fuck respect,” Miami Heat shot back
: Entire conversation, heard, observed, and recorded by the author, April 30, 1992.

riots/looting spread
:
Los Angeles Times
,
Understanding the Riots
, 84 and 88–91; Hazen, ed.,
Inside the L.A. Riots
, 97–98 and 100.