© MMXX V.1.0.0
by Morley Evans
COMPTON
COUNTY COURTHOUSE
In 1990, I completed a study for the Reason Foundation. The study compared the cost of providing municipal services by municipal workers with contract workers doing the same work. My research took me all over Los Angeles City and County. I entered LA on the 3rd of January and left on 25 November. Hundreds of City and County employees combined with private contractors to dig up the data I needed. They had mountains of data going back for decades. Pete Schabarum was one of the Supervisors. Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States. They liked privatization. Everyone cooperated. Americans know their stuff. I learned more about Los Angeles than most people know who live there.
The first thing I learned is that Los Angeles is the largest urban county in the United States. There is nothing else like it.
Los Angeles County, California, officially the County of Los Angeles, is the most populous county in the nation, with more than ten million inhabitants as of 2018. It is the largest non-state-level government entity in the United States. Its population is greater than that of 41 individual U.S. states.
There are 88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles county such as the cities of Los Angeles, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Glendale, and Beverly Hills, alongside unincorporated cities, towns, and big open spaces. The City of Los Angeles contains a mountain range! Top that, New York! I double-dog dare you!
The City of Los Angeles has a mayor, a city council, a police department and a fire department. The County of Los Angeles has the Board of Supervisors. These five (5) people run the County. The Sheriff and his Deputies are the law in the County of Los Angeles. The County of LA has a fire department.
California's courthouses and jails are the jurisdictions of the counties. This is true in other states. Prisons are the jurisdiction of the State and the Federal Government. U.S. Marshals are responsible for courtroom security and for prisoners. There are many police forces operating in Los Angeles County including the LAPD; the Sheriff; the Highway Patrol; the U.S. Marshal Service; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Tobacco, Alchohol, and Firearms; and the Department of Immigration and Naturalization. The bus department has its own police force. Pinkertons and Wackenhut are big private detective companies. LA is an interesting place. Philip Marlow is there somewhere.
There have been standoffs between the LAPD and the Sheriff's Deputies.
Compton is located in South-Central Los Angeles County. Compton has a reputation for being the most dangerous city in the United States. Compton is an old city that has been taken over by black renegades. It is the home of the Crips and the Bloods.
I went there one morning in an LAPD squad car. (The Sheriff provides policing today in Compton.) The officer who drove the car was armed to the teeth. A pump shotgun was mounted vertically on the dash. The tires were bullet-proof. The military suspension gave a solid ride. We were ready for war and connected to HQ by computer, TV, and radio in case we needed reinforcements. Camp Pendleton in North San Diego County is nearby.
As we drove through Compton that morning, I observed that everything looked peaceful. "You don't want to come here at night," he replied. The officer told me this story.
"After the courthouse had been completed, someone started shooting at it. The west wall is riddled with bullet holes. This went on for years. It was never solved. One afternoon a judge was working at his desk. A bullet whizzed past his nose and lodged in the wall. Outraged, the judge picked up his phone and read the riot act to one of the Supervisors."
"You'd better fix this Goddamn problem NOW or else," he screamed!
"The Supervisor had all the windows on the west side of the courthouse replaced with bullet-proof glass."
No problemo. That's how people do things in the City of Angeles.
We drove into the parkade in a special lane reserved for police. More to come.
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