LAPD Red Squad

The LAPD Red Squad is the common name for a division of the municipal Los Angeles Police Department, in California, United States, that was focused on limiting the activities of left-wing individuals and organizations in the city.

As one artist later summarized the organization's actions of the late 1920s and 1930s: "Red Hynes' 'red squads' were running rampant, raiding union headquarters and homes, and creating havoc among the liberals.

"[7] Historian Frank Donner wrote in 1990, "In Los Angeles, however, more than in any other city in the country, the role of the police department and its red squad as clients of business interests in combating dissent and unionism was from the start openly proclaimed and was implemented over the years with only minimal concessions to changes in political climate, accountability requirements, reform movements, recurring corruption scandals, and adverse court decisions...all of the red squads were guided by highly conservative political values, but in Los Angeles right-wing zealotry reigned supreme.

[11] According to historian Edward J. Escobar, when the Mexican government removed Hill as consul in October 1936, it was not because of the contents of dossier but because the very act of its creation and distribution was evidence of "manifest hostility" from LAPD.

The Red Squad under Davis and Hynes found that "simple intimidation or a good beating could get the job done" as effectively as arrest, prosecution, and incarceration, without all the time-consuming paperwork and procedure.

[12] For instance, during a Los Angeles City Council meeting, the Red Squad attacked leftists present to protest against the LAPD Red Squad raid on the John Reed Club art show, beating ACLU president Clinton J. Taft, two war veterans, and attorney Leo Gallagher,[13] "leaving him with broken glasses and two black eyes".