My review of James Ellroy’s dark, new novel ran in the back pages Sunday. Perfidia described cops in 1941 Los Angeles allowed to employ murderous, sadistic, racist tactics. Their superiors found it convenient not to notice.
Perfidia was supposed to be fiction. Historical fiction. But on the front page of that Sunday edition of the Miami Herald, my colleague Julie Brown described the same, disturbing ethos among modern-day Florida state prison guards. Until the Herald began investigating awful instances of inmate deaths, their superiors also found it convenient not to notice.
On Friday, knowing that the Herald was about to publish findings about certain guards and their “goon squad” tactics, the Florida Department of Corrections fired 32 officers. It looked like a preemptive move.