Word: parker
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...caused by Negro lawlessness. But who or what caused that? The most frequent, and most serious, charges were: 1) that Mayor Sam Yorty had ignored the legitimate needs of the city's Negroes, and 2) that the outburst was in large measure a protest against Police Chief William Parker's cops. It was too impassioned a time for final judgments, but Angelenos and others familiar with the Negro's private and public grievances against the city administration began last week to weigh the evidence on both sides...
...William Parker, a 63-year-old native of Lead, S. Dak., is a crusty cop who neither drinks nor smokes, is married to a former policewoman, and lives in a modest suburban home protected by a massive chain-link fence. He joined the L.A. police force 38 years ago, won a law degree by studying nights and, though little liked by less austere fellow officers, rose rapidly. Parker was appointed chief in 1950. In a traditionally precarious post−the average tenure of his predecessors was 18 months−Parker has lasted 15 years, and made the Los Angeles Police...
Despite Negro charges that his cops are mostly Southerners, the great majority are native to the West Coast. They must have an IQ of at least 110. Parker's force has one Ph.D., 15 officers with masters' degrees, 15 with law degrees, 208 B.A.s, 288 with two-year college certificates, 375 with police academy diplomas; more than 2,000 policemen are taking outside courses. Though it has the highest pay rates of any police force in the U.S., the department is seriously undermanned, has only 5,018 men to cover 458.2 sq. mi.−ten cops...
...Revolution Against Authority." In a way, Chief Parker is too successful. He is probably the most respected law-enforcement officer in the U.S. after J. Edgar Hoover. His published views on law enforcement, Parker on Police, are required reading for lawmen all over the U.S. At home, the very fact that he has survived three city administrations−and helped them to survive−gives him enormous power and prestige. Moreover, unlike most cops who are content to tend their roses or go fishing in off hours, William Parker (few call him Bill) is a compulsive and all-too-articulate...
Inevitably, Chief Parker's moralistic judgments make the newspapers. His favorite theme is that morality and respect for the law are the world's last hopes of survival in an era of ethical collapse that is leading only to socialism. As he puts it: "There has been a worldwide revolution against constituted authority. A police officer is the living, physical symbol of authority, and so it is against him that this resentment is frequently directed. It is hard for me to believe that our society can continue to violate all the fundamental rules of human conduct and expect...