Those looking for elements of the Red Scare in this movie may be overlooking an aspect of life in the 1950's that was closer to the everyday lives of Los Angelinos: that the LAPD was one of the most corrupt departments in the country, and Webb was polishing apples for police chief William Parker by presenting his cops as honest dispensers of justice. We may accept Friday's "bumper-to-bumper" harassment of a suspect because he "knows" he's guilty, but at the same time, the cops were doing this and much worse to ordinary citizens, especially blacks and Latinos. Webb stops short of lighting his Chesterfields with a copy of the Bill of Rights, but clearly he, like the PD, saw it as a list of amusing suggestions. Ironically, Joe Friday has a testy exchange with a member of a grand jury about the ethics of wire tapping. When the jury member suggests that once criminals know their phones are being tapped, they'll just conduct their business on street corners. Friday's reply, "And we'll have a cop on every one of 'em!" came as Parker was pulling beat officers off the street and having them work from patrol cars. (Of course, Parker supported Webb when "Dragnet" did stories about the dangers of guns in the hands of children, much to the consternation of the NRA, but that's a topic for the listing of the TV show. Anyway, people can be more complex than we think them)
