What You Didn't Know About LAPD History - Chief Daryl Gates Can Tell You

SWAT is for Special Weapons And Tactics. If you think it's odd that a word like "and" makes it to the acronym, you're absolutely right - it was put in later. The first name that occurred to Gates was "Special Weapons Attack Team" and his boss said there was no way he would allow the word "attack" in the name. So Daryl said, how about "Special Weapons And Tactics?", and got a green light.

What is hardest to comprehend is that people who perform these kinds of acts are not necessarily mentally unbalanced. That's what's scary. THey understand right and wrong. They are just evil. Society flinches from the truth. We do our best to find psychological and sociological reasons to excuse behaviors that our mind won't accept for what it is - evil.  We've been bothered by how easily the murderers have been able to coax the victims to go along with them. Now, this witness confirmed our worst fears. Hiding in what could be mistaken for an unmarked car, the two men had pulled Lauren over and acted like police officers. Unlikely as it seemed that a couple of police officers were committing the murders, we'd been around long enough to have seen police officers do almost evertying, unfortunately. So we couldn't write that off. We began looking at certain officers. Still, even though the murderers knew a lot about evidence in crime scenes, they didn't have to be cops. I told Bill Harriman, a retired LAPD lieutenant with a PhD and a mind for computers and Carl Holt, also a retired LAPD officer and a computer whiz, "What I want you to do is study the locations where the victims were found. Get the exact time of death from the coroner and collate that to the extend you can with the time their bodies were dumped." One of our numerous problems was the none of the victims had been murdered at the location where they had been found. When all the information was compiled, Bill and Carl made a circle surrounding the approximate area where all of the murders could have taken place. It was a circle a mile in radius. Studying it after the case had been solved, I could see that, right in the middle of the circle, was the home and automobile upholstery shop of Angelo Bono Jr.

As the hunt for the Hillside stranglers intensified, in the early months of 1978, so did LAPD's search for a new chief. After eight years, Ed Davis concluded he wanted to run for governor. An interim chief - assistant chief Robert Rock - was named. I was determined that the successor would be me. People running the city had other ideas, however, and intended to go outside the department to seek its chief. They were tired, they said, of what they called the "LAPD mentality". This mentality had been exemplified by Ed Davis, Tom Redden and Bill Parker - chiefs who would not be bullied by politicians. But, in the eyes of the city leadership, this mentality represented an independence that bordered on arrogance.

Wikipedia says Gates' mother was Mormon. If you ever have a doubt about which parent was the Mormon, this section will dispel it forever :

Where my father was, what he was doing, I never knew. The Glendale police, however, did.

One of my worst memories was the first time they came for him. There was a knock on the door and out front stood these uniformed people. While these massive uniformed people were rushing in, my father was scurrying out the back door.

We moved again to Highland Park. It was a working-class neighborhood with a fairly mixed ethnic makeup. In 1935, my father hit bottom - picked up for public drunkenness, he had been thrown in jail again, but this time, he told me, many years later, he had such DT's he thought he was going to die. It was at that point he said he decided "I had to do something or I'd be dead." He stopped drinking cold turkey, and our lives immediately improved. He took a job with a plumbing company. Over the next years, I came to know my new Dad as a bright, witty, extremely well-read man. He taught me to box. By the time I was 15, I announced I intended to be a professional fighter. I joined the school boxing club. Unfortunately, I got into a number of unscheduled fights - a clash of teenage contradictions. I was outwardly shy and inwardly brimming with competitiveness and ego. I carried with me the indelible feeling of being an outsider that poverty instills in a child. My father's son, I was quick to sense injustice and even quicker to resent a bully. And, in my mind, there was no bigger bully than a cop.

What's DT? I didn't know either (thank you chatGPT) :

In the context of alcoholism, "DT" refers to "delirium tremens." Delirium tremens is a severe and potentially life-threatening condition that can occur during alcohol withdrawal. It is characterized by sudden and severe mental or neurological changes, including confusion, tremors, hallucinations, and agitation.

Delirium tremens typically occurs in individuals with a history of heavy alcohol consumption who abruptly stop or significantly reduce their alcohol intake. It usually begins within 48 to 96 hours after the last drink, but it can occur later in some cases. Delirium tremens is considered a medical emergency and requires immediate medical attention.

The symptoms of DT can vary but may include severe confusion, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, fever, excessive sweating, seizures, and intense tremors. Without prompt medical intervention, delirium tremens can be fatal.