Bloody Christmas (1951)

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Bloody Christmas was the severe beating of seven civilians by members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on December 25, 1951. The attacks, which left five Mexican American and two white young men with broken bones and ruptured organs, were only properly investigated after lobbying from the Mexican American community. The internal inquiry by Los Angeles Chief of Police William H. Parker resulted in eight police officers being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 suspended.[1]

The event was fictionalized in the 1990 novel L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy, which was made into a film of the same name in 1997.[2]

  1. ^ Escobar, Edward (May 2003). "Bloody Christmas and the Irony of Police Professionalism: The Los Angeles Police Department, Mexican Americans, and Police Reform in the 1950s" (PDF). Pacific Historical Review. 72 (2): 171–199. doi:10.1525/phr.2003.72.2.171. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 10, 2021.
  2. ^ "L. A. Confidential". IMDb: The Internet Movie Database. Retrieved May 27, 2011.