By Paul Lieberman
This is the true story of a group of hard headed cops going up against a group of hard headed criminals in the 1940's and 1950's. there was so much going on in those decades inside the Los angeles Police Department and inside the criminal world and between the two groups that this book never lags in interest. It is necessarily also the story of early LA and the early corruption in the police department, along with the efforts to make things right among the police. It is the story of the wars inside organized crime in LA, the murderius competition for illegal profit and power. This was before the era of the Miranda warning and other court decisions limiting what the police could do, but the public still cared about how the police operated and the police managed to get into trouble often with their tactics. At the same time, the public knew their cops were up against a vicious, corrupting element, and they wanted their police to win. The Gangster Squad, operating in this pressure cooker of criticism and cheering, fought for "small victories", trying to wear down the bosses of organized crime. Read this book and out how it all ended. It is a whirlwind read and eye opening on the subject of law enforcement in american big cities fifty years ago.
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