Rothmiller, Mike and Goldman, Ivan G. L.A. Secret Police: Inside the LAPD
Elite Spy Network. New York: Pocket Books, 1992. 246 pages.
Many first became acquainted with the Los Angeles Police Department
in 1992, with the videotape of the Rodney King beating and the subsequent
riots. This was common fare for la-la land -- peaceful protesters, for
example, learned about LAPD brutality in 1967. Ten years later the ACLU and
other citizen groups began investigating the Public Disorder Intelligence
Division. In 1983, years after the police commission had ordered PDID to
destroy more than 50,000 espionage files, many of these files turned up
again. The commission then ordered PDID to disband, whereupon it changed
its name to the Anti-Terrorist Division. This was a slick move that used
the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles as an excuse.
By 1992, LAPD officer Mike Rothmiller was fed up. He blew the whistle
by claiming that the Organized Crime Intelligence Division was the real
culprit, while PDID had been more or less a media diversion all along.
Since 1957 OCID has collected files on everyone, from movie stars to
politicians, and even planted a mole in the mayor's office. Rothmiller
was an OCID detective from 1978 to 1982, and enjoyed access to many of
these files. In this book he reports numerous instances of unwarranted
surveillance, ugly racism, and routine perjury by the LAPD. It's not a
pretty picture, but it's much more accurate than those cop shows on TV.
ISBN 0-671-79657-7
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