About a week ago I caught “Bastards of the Party” and was blown away. Being a fan of all sorts of gangster movies (don’t ask) I’ve always wondered how LA gang culture evolved into what it is today and how the rivalries started. From a movie-making perspective it seemed that the story of the rise of gang culture would be way more marketable than an endless string of stereotype-enforcing narratives, something that didn’t glorify Scarface, guns, and race wars. Or maybe not (see commentary in this movie).
But finally, I saw that movie.
BASTARDS OF THE PARTY traces the timeline from that “great migration” to the rise and demise of both the Black Panther Party and the US Organization in the mid- 1960s, to the formation of what is currently the culture of gangs in Los Angeles and around the world.
The documentary also chronicles the role of the Los Angeles Police Department and the FBI in the evolution of gang culture. During his tenure from 1950 to 1966, Chief William H. Parker bolstered the ranks of the LAPD with white recruits from the south, who brought their racist attitudes with them. Parker’s racist sympathies laid the groundwork for the volatile relationship between the black community and the LAPD that persists today.
Former? current? member of the Bloods, Cle “Bone” Sloan, narrates and directs, explaining his and his family’s involvement in the gangs while covering the history of Los Angeles area gangs from the 1950s through the present that considers the social and economic marginalization of blackness in the US. This is an intensely political film that I absolutely cannot recommend enough.
You can watch it on You Tube in ten parts or catch it on HBO, and because it’s Saturday and you don’t have anything to do, all ten parts are linked below. Alas, embedding is disabled.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Slight correction to the text you’ve quoted: the chief of the LAPD from 1950 to 1966 was not Robert Parker, but William H. Parker.
I blame HBO.
Fuck shit fuck! “This video has been removed by the user.”
It is an excellent video. I’ve said time and time again. Mentors, (Jim Brown) caring and counseling does more in a person’s life than building prisons. Punishment is the least effective way of changing behaviors.
In Nashville I can watch this movie at anytime because I have Comcast Digital ON DEMAND . Try this if you have Comcast digital cable:press ON DEMAND on your remote device, then scroll to PREMIUM CHANNELS, then choose HBO ON DEMAND, then choose either HBO SPECIALS OR DOCUMENTARY. i FORGOT WHICH ONE COMES FIRST. BUT IT IS FREE. aND AS YOU KNOW WITH ON DEMAND, YOU CAN STOP WHENEVER YOU WANT AND RESUME AT ANYTIME, REWIND AND SO FORTH….
Hi. My name is Keiana Cooper and I happen to love this document. Because at first I thought gang banging was cute and fun and at first i thought if i was to do something like it, it would be cool and it would make me cool in a way. Well after watching this clip i changed my mind. “BROTHERS” are getting killed everyday when they walk out of there houses. Having to worry about what kind of life there children are going to have. In the clip I remember Monster say its not a lifestyle its a death style. And i find that to be true. I grew up in South San Diego. And there aint nothing but bloods or “wanna be bloods,” you could say. it aint as bad as in the movie but its bad enough. One day i heard my baby sister say “what’s brackin blood.” And she is only 3 years old and it hurts me to hear her say that. Well thats all the time I have right now but best believe i will be here to read what everyone else has to say.