Kid Thugs Are Spreading Terror through the Streets

Abstract

The Watts uprising and anti–police abuse activism ushered in a shift in politics and policing marked by Tom Bradley’s election and his commitment to liberal law-and-order policies. Focusing on the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice Planning and efforts to combat youth crime during the 1970s, this chapter shows how a combination of liberal and conservative politicians and criminal justice officials focused on reforming a juvenile justice system they believed to be too lenient on youth offenders. By posing rehabilitation and diversion as alternatives to arrest and imprisonment, they provided the police with new discretionary authority to enter social institutions to supervise youth of color. In doing so, the police created new anti-gang units, such as the Community Resources against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) units and drug bust programs to monitor youth of color.