Judges and Judiciary
Oct. 1, 2026
Judicial courage in the shadow of impunity: The Bloody Christmas reckoning
Judge Joseph L. Call refused to let LAPD bury Bloody Christmas in 1952--and the accountability fight he helped start hasn't ended.
Christmas morning 1951. Dozens of LAPD officers at Central City Jail dragged seven young men out of their cells and beat them for 95 minutes straight. Fists, boots, batons. Five of the victims were Mexican American, two were white. Broken bones, ruptured organs, injuries that never fully healed. This wasn't some rogue night-shift excess. It was payback for a minor bar fight the night before, juiced up by rumor and holiday drinking. "Bloody Christmas," they called it later. It...
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