In early 1975, Pink Floyd introduced that they’d tour the U.S. in April whereas working to complete the upcoming album Want You Had been Right here. Floyd followers snapped up the tickets, particularly in Los Angeles, the place the band scheduled what Billboard referred to as “an unprecedented five-night stand” between April 23-27 on the Los Angeles Sports activities Enviornment.
Rock followers within the Metropolis of Angels rejoiced, whereas Edward M. Davis seethed. The self-proclaimed “meanest police chief within the historical past of the US” hated rock music and all of its trappings. After changing into town’s prime cop in 1969, Davis doubled-down on a division coverage that noticed L.A. rock followers arrested for minor offenses whereas attending exhibits. Rolling Stone reported in 1975 that “hundreds” of live performance attendees had been charged with every thing from marijuana possession to underage consuming since 1967. The Free Press spelled out the plain the identical yr: Davis’ unstated, unofficial coverage “is to discourage rock occasions within the metropolis of L.A.”
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Within the weeks main as much as Pink Floyd’s residency on the Sports activities Enviornment, rumors swirled that the LAPD meant to make use of the exhibits as a possibility to ship a public message about drug use at concert events. In help of this declare, one fan would inform Rolling Stone that in his March arrest at a Robin Trower gig, he heard a cop say: “When you assume that is one thing, you should see what we’re going to do on the Sports activities Enviornment.”
That first evening of Pink Floyd’s stand there, roughly 75 officers, each plain-clothed and uniformed, swarmed via the group. By the tip of the night, 88 followers had left in handcuffs. The following evening, 134 extra confronted the identical destiny. Jim Rissmiller, one of many two males who promoted the concert events, criticized the police, saying officers “dragged children out of the viewers. … I’ve by no means seen such an angle of aggressiveness.”
Davis stood earlier than an viewers of his personal on the Los Angeles Hilton whereas Pink Floyd carried out on April 25. Chatting with Rotary Membership members, Davis used the event to denounce the goings-on throughout city. “Tonight on the Sports activities Enviornment, underneath three governmental companies, they’ve a dope competition,” he stated. “You can get stoned simply strolling via the place.” In help of Davis’s rivalry, police later estimated that about 70 p.c of the group was smoking pot at that first Floyd present.
By the point Pink Floyd left city, the arrest complete had reached an eye-popping degree. In complete, the LAPD arrested 511 people for varied offenses. Whereas a lot of the fees (364) concerned “easy possession” of marijuana, different fees included “minors underneath the affect” and “sexual perversion,” a cost levied at children who sought launch at a close-by park.
Within the wake of Pink Floyd’s performances, a big backlash towards Davis’ insurance policies developed. The supervisor of the Sports activities Enviornment and the present’s promoters each termed the LAPD’s habits as “harassment.” The Los Angeles Occasions reported that the fan habits on the exhibits was “orderly” and advised that native cops had a “double customary” when it got here to policing rock followers. Most significantly, the civilian-controlled Los Angeles Police Fee referred to as Davis to the carpet after complaints flooded in from the general public.
A yr after the concert events, the Los Angles Occasions reported that Davis’ plan price town $35,523 in common and time beyond regulation pay for the officers concerned, and that solely six instances really went to trial, with out a single responsible verdict.
Within the face of this criticism, Davis was unrepentant. He labeled the supervisor of the Sports activities Enviornment a “crybaby,” and declared that California legislators who’d contemplate decreasing prison penalties for pot had been “irresponsible, no-good sons of bitches.”
Regardless of Davis’ public defiance, strain from the media and the police fee finally pressured him to alter course in the course of the remaining two years he served as chief. In October, police made few arrests at an Elton John live performance at Dodger Stadium, an strategy consistent with Davis’ post-Floyd promise to metropolis officers that at “massive rock concert events … regulation enforcement efforts will likely be targeting the extra severe violations of the regulation (e.g. the gross sales and use of arduous narcotics).”
Confronted with the disapproval of enormous swaths of the general public and rising numbers of politicians, Davis backed down. Within the years that adopted, proof of this shift was within the air at concert events within the metropolis: When home lights dropped, pot people who smoke indulged, realizing that the LAPD would look the opposite means whereas the efficiency was underway.
Edward M. Davis, you could be certain, remained none too happy.
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Gallery Credit score: Nick DeRiso
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