The Badge: True and Terrifying Crime Stories That Could Not Be Presented on TV, from the Creator and Star of Dragnet Review

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The Badge: True and Terrifying Crime Stories That Could Not Be Presented on TV, from the Creator and Star of Dragnet ReviewOn radio, in the 1950s television version of Dragnet, and in its 1960s resurrection, Jack Webb was Sergeant Joe Friday, the straight-shooting, no-nonsense exemplar of the LAPD. In this non-fiction book, Webb tells the real stories of crimes that were too violent to be broadcast on "Dragnet." Among them are the famous murder of the "Black Dahlia," a woman who was tortured for days before her killer slit her throat, drained her body of blood, bisected it and dumped her in an empty lot. Another story that made my blood boil was the murder of a 10-year old orphaned boy, whose own mother had just died days before. His father lost a wife and, senselessly, a son within weeks to a murderer who killed for the thrill of it.
Each chapter of the book is labeled with an LAPD rank, from Policeman, to Sergeant, to Lieutenant, all the way to Commissioner(s). The stories in the first few chapters are the most absorbing, as they demonstrate actual, hands-on police work. Yet, it was also interesting to read of problems which confronted, and still confront, Los Angeles and its police force at higher levels. The book particularly presents a good picture of Chief Parker, who is responsible for cleaning up the vice and corruption that marked the pre-1950 LAPD and setting rules that made officers proud to serve.
A warning to 21st century readers: This book was written in 1958 with the stereotypes -- and the language -- common at the time. Some sentences might make you gasp: i.e., in describing race relations in Los Angeles, Webb writes that "It is a dozen collisions, the Oriental, the Mexican, the Indian, the Southerner (both Negro and white), the Easterner and the Westerner; intra-racial as well as one skin pitted against another of a different color." There are a lot of sentences like that, particularly in the later chapters, where Webb was trying to argue that the LAPD of the time was cognizant of ethnic tensions and attempted to ameliorate them. (As an unabashed LAPD booster, Webb marshals evidence to make his case that the department was addressing racism.) And, from a 21st century viewpoint, the LAPD war against bingo parlors seems terribly penny-ante, although perhaps justified by the "broken windows" theory.
But the heart of this book is the stories of crimes great and small, and the police officers who solved them. A must for those interested in true crime stories, Los Angeles history, and the LAPD.The Badge: True and Terrifying Crime Stories That Could Not Be Presented on TV, from the Creator and Star of Dragnet Overview

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