Being a 'social science' empiricism is almost obligatory and a neat way to conceal political positions and objectives. The Big Nowhere LA Confidential White Jazz Corruption in police stories usually falls into the 'bad apple' thesis, accusing corrupt individuals rather than police culture. Ellroy's stories deal with power as corruption and places issues at the centre of policing. Rather than police and gangs being opposing armies, or even two sides of one coin, the reader is never entirely certain of the relative positions of law and crime. Ellroy's world is fairly amoral, damnation and redemption are relevant only so far as any particular character thinks they are relevant.
Police violence is still violence, police are mobsters for the state.
LA Confidential LA Confidential fictionalises Bloody Christmas , a notorious incident of police brutality involving racism and police culture which makes interesting reading in the light of Rodney King incident. The protagonists are brutal sketches of masculine power but they somehow engage the reader s sympathy anyway, despite the fact that they would be the villains in a more conventional piece of fiction. In this way Ellroy examines the myths of law enforcement which are prevalent throughout both criminology and crime fiction, analysing policing in terms of power. Usually themes of necessity or a deepening crime problem are invoked to justify the warehousing of violence by the coercive arms of state power. Corruption is usually seen as a threat to legitimate power, Ellroy sees power and corruption as inseparable.