Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T16:40:46.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Police and Clinics

Enforcement and Treatment in the City, 1960–1973

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2013

Get access

Summary

As the federal government restructured its illicit drug regime in a staggered fashion throughout the 1960s, the cities that lawmakers invoked as the intended beneficiaries of their efforts underwent spectacular change. In large cities across America, the demographics of residential life were altered as the result of Puerto Rican immigration and African American migration – and, just as significant, white middle-class exodus to the suburbs. By the middle of the 1950s, as the housing market stabilized after a tumultuous postwar era, a steady stream of roughly one million people per year moved to suburban homes, leaving city life behind. These massive movements of people reshaped the modern landscape of American life, including its political geography. Whereas the country had once been divided along sectional lines – the south, the west, and the north – now its most durable political boundaries were residential: urban, suburban, and rural.

For the first time, the identity of “city” by that reckoning became linked to a sizeable presence of racial minorities; Washington, DC, registered the most dramatic of all the demographic shifts and was declared majority African American by 1963 (54 percent). That same year, African Americans made up more than a quarter of the population in New Orleans, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, and Philadelphia, with Chicago not far behind. During this same time, in these cities and others, urban police departments expanded aggressive drug enforcement from vice squads to general patrol officers, though these were tactics applied primarily to poor, minority neighborhoods most affected by the demographic changes underway. And, although law enforcement embraced a professional ethos, aggressive use of force in these neighborhoods was commonplace – and so too was corruption, especially in narcotics work. Strained relations with police resulted in tense community life defined by racial hostility. In Washington, DC, a young activist named Marion Barry forged his reputation in the community by denouncing police brutality and the autocratic control of the city by its appointed commissioners. In the District and elsewhere, throughout the latter half of the 1960s and especially in 1968, volatile police encounters occasionally escalated into riots. In the worst of these, entire neighborhoods burned.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

O’Neil, Jim with Fazzino, Mel, A Cop’s Take: NYPD, the Violent Years (Frontlee, NY: Barricade Books, 2004), p. 15
Buntin, John, L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America’s Most Seductive City (New York: Harmony Books, 2009)
Wilson, in Parker on Police, Wilson, , ed. (Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1957)
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 US 375 (1963)
Harley Davidson advertisement, The Police Chief 30, no. 4 (April 1963)
Illinois Chiefs Draft Standards Bill,” The Police Chief 27, no. 5 (May 1960): 25
“Chicago High Speed Computer,” The Police Chief 38, no. 9 (September 1961): 27
Rebuilding a Scandal Torn Police Force,” The Police Chief 29, no. 4 (February 1962): 4
Use of Color Photography in DC,” The Police Chief 29, no. 1 (January 1962): 12
President’s Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia, Report on the Metropolitan Police Department (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office), p. 55
Hearings Before the Special Subcommittee on the Metropolitan Police Department of the Committee on DC, House of Representatives, 90th Congress, February, March 1967 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 130
Technical Competence is Not Enough: The Policeman as a Professional,” The Police Chief 27, no. 9 (September 1960), p. 20
Allman, James J., “The Public Attitude Toward Police,” The Police Chief 30, no. 1 (January 1963): 12Google Scholar
Quoted in IACP Conference Summary, The Police Chief 31, no. 7 (July 1964): 47
Hannerz, Ulf, Soulside: Inquiries Into Ghetto Culture and Community (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), p. 25
Pelecanos, George, Hard Revolution (New York: Little, Brown, 2004), p. 7
Borchert, James, Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850–1970 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1980)
Flamm, Michael W., Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), p. 42
President’s Commission on Crime in the District of Columbia, Report on the Metropolitan Police Department (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966), p. 63
Investigation and Study of the Metropolitan Police Department, Report of the Committee on the District of Columbia, House of Representatives, 89th Congress, February 1967 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), pp. 7–8
McMillan, , Hearings Before Special Subcommittee on MPD of the Committee on DC, House of Representatives, 90th Congress, February, March 1967 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 4
Wilson, , War on Crime in the District of Columbia (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1978)
Lusan, Clarence with Desmond, Dennis, Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs (Boston: South End Press, 1991), p. 158
Wilson, Jerry V. in Hearings Before the Committee on the District of Columbia, US Senate, 91st Session, on the Narcotics Crime Crisis in the Washington Area (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1971)
Epstein, Edward Jay, Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America (New York: Putnam & Sons, 1977), p. 105
Clark, Ramsey quoted in Jonnes, Jill, Hep-Cats, Narcs, and Pipe Dreams: A History of America’s Romance with Illegal Drugs (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), p. 197
Hearings Before the Committee on the District of Columbia, U.S. Senate, 91st Congress, on the Narcotics Crime Crisis in the Washington Area (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971), p. 2849
Jackson, Bruce, “Exiles from the American Dream: The Junkie and the Cop,” Atlantic Monthly 219 (January 1967) found in Police in America, Skolnick, and Gray, , eds. (New York: Little, Brown, 1975), p. 196Google Scholar
“Crime in the National Capital,” Hearings before the Committee on the District of Columbia, US Senate, 91st Congress (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 208
Courtwright, et al., Addicts Who Survived: An Oral History of Narcotic Use in America, 1923–1965 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989)
Lindesmith, Alfred R., The Addict and the Law (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965), p. 58
Parsons, James C., “A Candid Analysis of Police Corruption,” Police Chief (March 1973)
Sherman, Lawrence, “Becoming Bent,” in Moral Issues in Police Work, Elliston, and Feldberg, , eds. (New Jersey: Rowman and Allanheld, 1985)
Knapp Commission, “Police Corruption in New York” (August 1972), reprinted in Police in America, Skolnick and Gray, eds., p. 235
Moore, Mark H. et al., Dangerous Offenders: The Elusive Targets of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984)
“Crime in the National Capital,” Hearings before the Committee on the District of Columbia, US Senate, 91st Congress (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 93
Cooley, Will, “‘Stones Run It’: Taking Back Control of Organized Crime in Chicago, 1940–1975,” Journal of Urban History 37, no. 6 (November 2011): 911–32Google Scholar
Kozel, and DuPont, , Criminal Charges and Drug Use Patterns of Arrestees in the District of Columbia (Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, NIDA, 1977)
Robinson v. California, 370 US 660 (1962)
Sullivan, Irene points out, it was “in fact in the area of alcoholism that Robinson was first given its broadest reading.” See Sullivan, “Comments,” Fordham Law Review 396 (1973–74): 371Google Scholar
Arronson, Dienes, and Mucheno, , “Changing Public Drunkeness Laws: The Impact of Decriminalization,” Law and Society Review 12, no. 3 (Spring 1978): 405–36Google Scholar
Lloyd v. United States, 343 F.2d 492 (1964)
Castle v. United States, 347 F.2d 492 (1965)
Watson v. United States, 439 F.2d 442 (1970)
United States v. Moore, 486 F.2d 1139 (1973)
Gorham v. United States, 339 A.2d 401 (1975)
Hentoff, Nat, Doctor Among the Addicts (New York: Rand McNally, 1968)
Kleber, Herbert, “Methadone: The Drug, the Treatment, the Controversy,” in One Hundred Years of Heroin (Westport, CT: Auburn House, 2002), p. 150
Arehart, Joan Lynn, “The Search for a Heroin ‘Cure,’Science 101 (April 15, 1972): 250–51Google Scholar
Lindesmith, Alfred R., The Addict and the Law (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965), p. 51
Stillman, Sarah, “The Throwaways,” New Yorker (September 3, 2012): 38–47
“Crime in the National Capital,” Hearings before the Committee on the District of Columbia, US Senate, 91st Congress (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 80
Hearings Before the Committee on the District of Columbia, U.S. Senate, 91st Congress, on the Narcotics Crime Crisis in the Washington Area (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971), p. 2723
Hearings before the Committee on the District of Columbia, U.S. Senate, 91st Congress, on the Narcotics Crime Crisis in the Washington Area (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971), p. 2658
Hearings before the Committee on the District of Columbia, U.S. Senate, 91st Congress, on the Narcotics Crime Crisis in the Washington Area (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1971), p. 2818
Massing, Michael, The Fix (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 102
Hearings before Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, Committee on the Judiciary, US Senate, 92nd and 93rd Congress (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973) [hereafter: “Bayh Hearings”], p. 4
DuPont, and Greene, , “The Dynamics of Heroin Addiction Epidemic,” Science 181 (August 1973): 719Google Scholar
DuPont, Robert L., “Treating Heroin Addicts in Washington,” Delaware Medical Journal, February 1972, p. 36Google Scholar
Brown, Bertram S., “Drugs and Public Health: Issues and Answers,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 417 (January 1975): 117Google Scholar
Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearings on Drug Abuse Control Amendments (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1970), p. 563
Anderson, Terry M., The Movement and the Sixties: Protest in America from Greensboro to Wounded Knee (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996)
Burns, Stewart, Social Movements of the 1960s: Searching for Democracy (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990)
Farber, David, The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s (New York: Hill and Wang, 1994)
Gitlin, Todd, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (New York: Bantam Books, 1987)
Graham, Gael, “Flaunting the Freak Flag: Karr v. Schmidt and the Great Hair Debate in American High Schools, 1965–1975,” Journal of American History 91, no. 2 (September 2004): 522–43Google Scholar
Spann, Edward K., Democracy’s Children: The Young Rebels of the 1960s and the Power of Ideals (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 2003)
Cmiel, Kenneth, “The Politics of Incivility,” in The Sixties: From Memory to History,Farber, David, ed. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994)
Rasmussen, Nicolas, On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine (New York: New York University Press, 2008)
Thompson, Hunter S., Hell’s Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (New York: Ballantine Books, 1966), p. 273
Herzberg, David, “‘The Pill You Love Can Turn On You’: Feminism, Tranquilizers, and the Valium Panic of the 1970s,” American Quarterly (March 2006): 79–103Google Scholar
Tone, Andrea, The Age of Anxiety: A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers (New York: Basic Books, 2009)
Hearings before Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Judiciary, US Senate, 89th Congress, January, May, June, July 1966 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966)
Hearings before Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Judiciary, US Senate, 89th Congress, January, May, June, July 1966 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966), p. 334
Senate Committee on Judiciary, Report on S.3246, Controlled Dangerous Substances Act of 1969 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), p. 2
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Controlled Dangerous Substances (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Leary v. United States, 395 US 26 (1968), p. 26
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Controlled Dangerous Substances (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Committee on Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Report on S.3246, Controlled Dangerous Substances Act of 1969 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969)
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Controlled Dangerous Substances (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Controlled Dangerous Substances (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Controlled Dangerous Substances (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Committee on Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Report on S.3246, Controlled Dangerous Substances Act of 1969 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969)
Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearings on Drug Abuse Control Amendments (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1970)
Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Controlled Dangerous Substances (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Subcommittee on Public Health and Welfare, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, Hearings on Drug Abuse Control Amendments (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1970)
Schneider, Eric C., Smack: Heroin and the American City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)
Gilmore, Ruth Wilson, Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)
Perkinson, Robert, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire (New York: Picador, 2010)
Rachal, Patricia, Federal Narcotics Enforcement: Reorganization and Reform (Boston: Auburn House, 1982)
Wilson, James Q., The Investigators: Managing FBI and Narcotic Agents (New York: Basic Books, 1978)
Epstein, Edward Jay, Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America (New York: GP Putnam, 1977)
Skretny, and Sugrue, , “White Ethnic Strategy,” in Rightward Bound, Schulman, and Zelizer, , eds. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×