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UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Policing Rock Bottom UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Policing Rock Bottom: Regulation, Rehabilitation, and Resistance on Skid Row A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Forrest Daniel Stuart 2012 © Copyright by Forrest Daniel Stuart 2012 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Policing Rock Bottom: Regulation, Rehabilitation, and Resistance on Skid Row by Forrest Daniel Stuart Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology University of California, Los Angeles, 2012 Professor Stefan Timmermans, Chair This dissertation engages a fundamental concern for sociologists, criminologists, and scholars of urban poverty: how authorities attempt to better control marginal social groups, and how those populations counteract and even resist these efforts. Drawing on five years of ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and archival research, the dissertation analyzes daily life on the streets of Los Angeles‘ Skid Row district, a neighborhood widely-regarded as the ―homeless capital of America,‖ distinguished as containing what is arguably the largest concentration of standing police forces found anywhere in the country, if not the world. Tracing the historical trajectory of neighborhood development into current-day, street-level interactions between police officers and Skid Row‘s impoverished and homeless inhabitants, I argue that a new model of social control has emerged, tightly wedding rehabilitative and punitive interventions – what I term ―therapeutic policing.‖ Examining inhabitants‘ everyday experiences of Skid Row in the shadow of policing, ii the text further examines a range of strategies – from quiet subversion to overt opposition – by which those in the neighborhood attempt to resist the mandates of therapeutic policing. Throughout the analysis, I demonstrate that the increasing omnipresence of surveillance, detainments, and arrests in Skid Row, and other marginalized and stigmatized urban neighborhoods, is fundamentally reshaping the manner in which residents come to understand themselves, their peers, and their communities. iii The dissertation of Forrest Daniel Stuart is approved. Jack Katz William G. Roy David A. Snow Stefan Timmermans, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2012 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………...............................................................vii INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………...1 PART I Chapter One: From ―Containment Zone‖ to ―Recovery Zone‖……..………………….34 Chapter Two: From ―Rabble Managers‖ to ―Recovery Managers‖………..…………...96 PART II Chapter Three: Building Sober Bodies………………………………………………….148 Chapter Four: ―Cooling Off the Block‖………………………………………………..205 Chapter Five: Policing the Police……………………………...………………………267 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………....330 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………………....342 v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figures Figure 1: Map of Downtown Los Angeles………………………………………………………..8 Figure 2: Map of Skid Row……………………………………………………………………….9 Figure 3: Skid Row Street Scene……….……………………………………….……………….10 Figure 4: Midnight Mission…………………………………………………….………………..10 Figure 5: The Jonah Project…………………………………………………….………………..11 Figure 6: LAPD Central Division………………………………………………………………..11 Figure 7: All Part I Crimes by Month, Central Division, September 2005 – May 2008……...…16 Figure 8: Skid Row‘s Effect on Downtown without Proposed Containment Plan………………45 Figure 9: Skid Row‘s Effect on Downtown under the Proposed Containment Plan……….……45 Figure 10: Sizes and Locations of Shelters/Mission (1976)..……………………………………59 Figure 11: Sizes and Locations of Shelters/Missions (2010)…………………………………….59 Figure 12: The Down and Out…………………………………………………………………...62 Figure 13: The Nickel Diner……………………………………………………………………..62 Figure 14: Streets or Services (SOS) Process Chart……………………………………………..77 Figure 15: Impromptu Detainment and Interrogation…………………………………………..120 Figure 16: A Group of Men ―Idling‖ Outside of the Union Rescue Mission…………………..128 vi Figure 17: Detaining, Handcuffing, and Interrogating a Woman to Inquire About Her Safety…………………………………………………………………………………...139 Figure 18: ―Body Weight‖ Exercises in Gladys Park…………….…………………………….158 Figure 19: Tyrell‘s ―Triangle‖………………………………………………………………….171 Figure 20: Showing Off A Good Pump………….……………………………………………..187 Figure 21: A Small Sidewalk Shop Selling Canned Food…………...…………………………213 Figure 22: A Sidewalk Shop with an Extensive Inventory……………………………………..233 Figure 23: General Dogon Patrolling on Community Watch…………………………………..278 Figure 24: Catching Officers Slipping………………………………………………………….291 Figure 25: City Maintenance Cleaning Crew With LAPD Escort…………….………………..317 Figure 26: Sixth and San Julian Streets Prior to the Lavan Injunction…………………………321 Figure 27: Sixth and San Julian Streets Following the Lavan Injunction………………………322 Tables Table 1: All Part I Crimes by Area and Time, Central Division………………………………...15 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are numerous people, far too many to possibly list here, without whom this project would not have been possible. The members of my committee proved indispensible throughout all stages of the research. Stefan Timmermans, my dissertation chair and graduate advisor, consistently went far beyond the call of duty to provide constant support, guidance, and constructive criticism from my first day of study at UCLA to the final days of writing. His heroic efforts and unique sense of humor often gave me the emotional boost necessary to remain excited and committed to this work. Jack Katz‘s incredible ability to re-examine and re-interpret social interaction kept me constantly probing for deeper understandings. Conversations with Professor Katz have informed much of my understanding of what it means to do sociology. Bill Roy has been a source of sage and uplifting advice throughout my doctoral training. Through his steadfast encouragement and mentoring, Professor Roy has taught me to continue to look for the ―sociological‖ in social processes. Through support and personal example, David Snow has had a tremendous impact on me and my work, charting a path in the subject matter that I aim to extend into the future with my own research. I owe many thanks to the faculty, staff, and fellow graduate students in the UCLA Department of Sociology. In particular the Ethnography Working Group and Public Sociology Working Group were fundamental in honing not only my ideas, but the kind of academic I aspire to become. My family and friends provided support in truly astounding ways. My mother, Bobbi, and my brother, Matthew, have nourished my intellectual curiosity from childhood to present. Their unconditional love and confidence has been infused with high expectations. Our stimulating (if heated) discussions across the dinner table have allowed me to push beyond my comfort zone and against many previously held ideas. viii This project would have certainly been impossible without the support, friendship, and occasional protection provided by those in Skid Row that became my close friends over the course of my fieldwork. I particularly want to thank the LACAN family for bringing me into their struggle, and showing me just how much I did not know. My days spent under the hot summer sun, exploring Skid Row‘s streets alongside General Dogon and the Community Watch Team will remain some of the fondest memories of my entire life. Lastly, but certainly not least, this research has been supported financially by a number of sources. The dissertation has been supported by: a University of California Diversity in the Graduate Study of Social Science Summer Research Grant, a Peter Kollock Distinguished Graduate Teaching Award, a Charles E. and Sue K. Young Graduate Student Award, an American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship, a UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship, and a John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. ix FORREST STUART University of California, Los Angeles Department of Sociology EDUCATION Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Sociology, Expected August 2012 M.A. University of California, Los Angeles, Sociology, 2008 M.S. American University, Justice, Law, & Society, 2006 B.A. University of California, Santa Cruz, Politics, 2004 AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION Urban Sociology, Crime and Punishment, Law and Society, Social Interaction, Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements, Ethnographic Methods PUBLICATIONS Deener, Andrew, Steve Erie, Vlad Kogan, and Forrest Stuart. Forthcoming 2012. ―Planning LA: The New Politics of Neighborhood Development and Downtown Revitalization.‖ In New York and Los Angeles: The Uncertain Future, edited by David Halle and Andrew A. Beveridge. New York: Oxford University Press. Stuart, Forrest. Forthcoming 2012. Review of Hobos, Hustlers and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco, by Teresa Gowan. Sociological Forum. Stuart, Forrest. 2011. ―Constructing Police Abuse after Rodney King: How Skid Row Residents and the LAPD Contest Video Evidence.‖ Law and Social Inquiry 36 (2): 327-353. (Lead Article) Stuart, Forrest. 2011. ―Race, Space, and the Regulation of Surplus Labor: Policing African-Americans in Los Angeles‘ Skid Row.‖ Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society 13 (2): 197-212. Stuart, Forrest. 2010. ―From the Shop to the Streets: UNITE HERE Organizing in Los Angeles Hotels.‖ In Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy, edited by Ruth Milkman, Victor Narro, and Joshua Bloom. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Saguy,
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