The Long Beach ‘social vagrant’ investigations, 1914

From the Archives Defense attorney in 1914 Long Beach sting case attacks police tactics

By Hailey Branson-Potts

An at­tor­ney rep­res­ent­ing one of 31 men ar­res­ted on sus­pi­cion of “so­cial vag­rancy” in Long Beach a cen­tury ago ques­tioned the tac­tics of un­der­cov­er po­lice of­ficers who ren­ted an apart­ment from his cli­ent and spied on him as he flir­ted with a de­coy of­ficer. Her­bert N. Lowe, a loc­al flor­ist, was ul­ti­mately ac­quit­ted.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 11, 1914