A Brief History of Los Angeles: Conditions for Institutional Change

In order to understand what William Parker accomplished and how he did it, it is necessary to lay some historical groundwork about the history of the settlement of Los Angeles, the parallel history of its neighbor to the South (San Diego), and, of course, a detailed discussion of the pattern of corruption in Los Angeles in general and in the Los Angeles Police Department in particular. This is the task of Chapter 2. In the first section, we look at the historical rivalries between Los Angeles and San Diego. As later developments made Los Angeles the more economically dominant of the two cities, it is important to recognize that, early on, San Diego was perceived to be the city best situated for growth in Southern California. In the second section, we look more closely at the growth of Los Angeles as a deliberately designed process of self-selection, appealing to Midwestern immigrants with a strong religious and ethical orientation. Finally, in the third section, we detail the specifics of Los Angeles police corruption during the 1920–1950 period, with particular emphasis on the years 1938–1949.