Anxiety about organized crime from “back east” is as old as the City of Los Angeles itself.
The LAPD Gangster Squad was created in 1946 to keep the East Coast Mafia out of the city. Organized crime activity was so prevalent in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 1950s that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) formed a dedicated “Gangster Squad” that sometimes bent the rules to intimidate powerful mobsters and fight their criminal operations. Gangs and terrorists are a much bigger concern in the 21st century, and the typical Los Angeles County criminal defense attorney probably defends more accused drunk drivers and shoplifters than mobsters. We don’t hear very much about the Mafia in Los Angeles these days.
