ALAN writes:

In 1962, William H. Parker, then police chief of Los Angeles, nailed the evils around him: resentment against authority, mass communications, automobile culture, women working outside the home, and the weakening of American families. These are a few of the reasons why he was often vilified. But I suggest he could see, think, and speak with pinpoint accuracy. It would be a phenomenal achievement if American men today could do half that well.

“….since the end of world War II, I think there has been a world-wide revolution against constituted authority. A police officer is the living, physical symbol of authority and so it is against him that this resentment is frequently directed.

“….I do think technological changes in American life have largely disrupted, if not destroyed, the home influence. At the time when communications and freedom of movement were rather limited, the family was in control. One gravitated to the home for all one’s social life, or most of it. Now, of course, the home has become the place where many people just keep their clothes and eat and sleep.

“It was a tragedy when the mothers of America went out of the home and became wage-earners. Many of them had to do it. But I believe that raising a family is a full-time job. We haven’t made any formal, scientific study of case histories of juvenile crime here to relate the crime to the family and home life of the juvenile. But we have seen that divorce and the breaking-up of the home and the attitude that children are an unfortunate accident of marriage rather than a purpose of marriage are so often in the background of juvenile criminals that we just expect these attitudes today…..”

— Los Angeles Chief of Police William H. Parker. Interviewed by Donald McDonald, Dean-elect of the College of Journalism of Marquette University. St. Louis Police Journal, June 1962, p. 3.

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