Original subtitles

This is the city, Los Angeles, California.

The city earns its living mostly in retailing,

heavy industry, aerospace,

motion pictures, and television.

Just about everything it needs to live on

has to be brought in from someplace else.

Our water is piped down

from the Owens Valley in the Sierras.

Turn it off, and two and a half million people

start getting thirsty inside of three days.

Our electric power is produced at Hoover Dam.

Stop that, and the city goes dark in a split second.

It's just about impossible

to be totally self-sufficient these days.

There are ways of feeling like you are.

Some of them are legal. Some of them aren't.

When they're not, then it becomes my job.

I carry a badge.

It was Wednesday, January 3rd.

It was clear in Los Angeles.

We were working the night watch out of Juvenile Division.

The boss is Captain Jack Morris.

My partner's Bill Gannon. My name's Friday.

We were responding to a 459 call.

A grocery store had just been burglarized

by a gang of juveniles.

The story you are about to see is true.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Owner's name is Nat Vollmer. He's in the washroom.

He said he wanted to throw some cold water on his face.

- Pretty shook up. - What's the story?

We've only been here a few minutes ourselves.

Apparently, Vollmer had closed up the store.

He came back a little less than an hour ago and found them here.

A bunch of juveniles, he's sure of that.

They jumped him in here, pushed him around pretty good.

Is he hurt?

Roughed him up, that's about all.

We haven't been able to get much out of him.

Mr. Vollmer, these men are from Juvenile Division.

They want to talk to you.

Yeah, well, they could be from the moon,

as far as I could tell. I can't see them.

Wait a minute.

I found them.

My partner and I'll check around outside.

Would you put in a call to SID?

We already did, Sergeant.

This is Sergeant Friday. My name's Gannon.

Better than nothin'.

I'm blind as a bat without them.

Ah, yes.

I was pretty lucky tonight at that, I guess.

Got my last customer out of here around 5 after 9:00.

Then you came back. Is that right?

- Yes, that's correct. - What time was that?

Oh, it must've been close to 10:30.

What it was, I generally take three steaks

over to Lou, my brother.

Been doing that every so often

since I got this place a couple of years ago.

Let him have the meat wholesale, see.

- Three choice porterhouse. - Yes, sir.

What I'm getting at is I forgot Lou's steaks tonight,

and I came back to get 'em.

I'd just got them out of the meat locker,

wrapped them up, when I felt something was wrong.

- Go on. - I hadn't noticed before,

but that rear door was slightly ajar.

Walked over to check it. I could see a couple of kids

standing right outside in the alley,

a fella and a girl.

I hollered at them, and they ducked.

Right then, these other kids jumped me.

Must've been hiding behind the cases by the door there.

Pushed me around, broke my glasses.

What I think is they heard me come in,

and some of them got out,

and the rest of them couldn't make it,

and they're the ones that jumped me, young hoodlums.

How many of them were there? Would you know?

Well, they knocked my glasses off.

I really couldn't see.

Some more came in... 8, 10 altogether, I'd guess.

A bunch of nuts.

They had what sounded to me like a meeting.

What kind of meeting?

Well, a meeting, you know.

Talk, take a vote. Yeah, they took a vote.

I couldn't follow it all.

Sounded like some of them were for pulling out.

Some of them wanted to stay

and get the rest of the stuff on the list,

and that's what they finally did.

- They said they had a list? - Yeah.

Later on, I could hear them checking the stuff off,

as they took it out.

Peas, string beans, cake mixes,

candles, soda pop, and so on.

Just before they left, one of them said to me,

"Don't get uptight, pops."

Said they didn't mean me any harm.

One of them must've been wearing some kind of bells.

I could hear them. Crazy!

Can you describe any of them?

Well, they knocked my glasses off so quick,

I just couldn't see after that.

What about the two you saw first?

Can you describe them?

Well, they looked about 16, 17.

The boy was average height, kind of short, long hair.

The girl was dark, dressed kind of odd,

one of those shawls or something

with a hole in the middle they put their head through.

Did you hear any names mentioned?

Charley, Clego.

I heard that one a couple of times.

Verna, Vernon, something like that.

Did you notice if they were driving a car?

They needed a truck for the amount of stuff

they took out of here.

I heard two engines start when they left.

Looks like they might've had a cable of some kind,

wrapped it around the bumper of the car

and pulled that window and grill right out.

Anything else, Mr. Vollmer?

Anything one of them might've said maybe?

Well, two of them, men, boys,

got in a sort of argument standing right behind me.

One of them said they'd used force and violence against me,

and that was wrong.

Uh, morally inexcusable, he called it.

Then the other one said, no, that they were,

uh, a sovereign political body...

I'm pretty sure those were the words he used...

And that they had a perfect right

to do anything in their own self-defense.

- Now, what do you make of that? - Hard to say.

And then the one said maybe they ought to go through my pockets.

I've got about $14 on me.

But the others told him to forget it,

and they were just gonna stick to the stuff on the list.

- Anything else? - Oh, one other thing.

What's that, sir?

I noticed they could've used a bath.

Can you give us a list

of the things that were stolen, Mr. Vollmer?

Well, that'd be pretty hard without a good pair of glasses.

I have a spare set at home.

I'll make it up for you first thing in the morning,

- if that'd be all right? - Fine.

I looked around the block. I talked to several people.

Nobody noticed anything. Picked this package up.

- Yeah? - Near the head of the alley.

Looks like somebody just tossed it out.

Has your store name on it, Mr. Vollmer,

- on the paper tape. - What's in it?

Three choice porterhouse.

They just threw them away.

Thursday, January 4th, 4:15 p.m.

We met with the team from Burglary-Auto Theft Division.

They told us, in the past ten days,

there had been two burglaries using a similar MO

in widely-separated parts of the city:

a hardware store, and a drugstore.

And, like Vollmer's Market,

there were no usable fingerprints.

We obtained the DR numbers

and copies of the lists of the articles

that had been stolen from the last two burglaries.

5:20 p.m. Nat Vollmer had sent over

the results of his inventory.

Any narcotics on that drugstore list we got from Burglary?

A roll of bandages, 1-inch, roll of bandages, 2-inch,

butterfly closures, adhesive tape, antiseptics.

Looks like mostly medicine cabinet stuff.

Triangular bandages, elastic bandages,

suntan lotion... a case of that...

Aspirin, eight transistor radios,

four cartons transistor batteries,

12 flashlights, two cell,

four cartons D batteries, four snakebite kits.

Oh, here's one, codeine, 50 30-milligram tablets.

Don't see any hard stuff outside of that.

Yeah.

A couple of antibiotics and penicillin.

Hardware store list: four axes, two shovels,

two saws, six hammers, two rakes,

two hoes, gardening stuff,

300 feet of quarter-inch manila rope,

some galvanized chain, one butcher knife,

paring knives, spatulas,

cooking utensils, pots, pans,

one kettle, one coffee pot, four frying pans,

plastic plates, cups,

knives, folks, spoons.

Sounds like they're planning a camping trip.

Or an expedition. Vollmer's list here.

They took 200 pounds of potatoes,

50 pounds of onions,

string beans, eight cases,

peas, eight cases, chili, four cases,

spaghetti and meatballs, four cases,

canned corn beef, canned stew,

50 pounds of flour, sugar, salt,

pepper, a case of shortening,

rice, macaroni, tea, coffee,

cocoa, canned milk, powdered milk,

an assortment of prepared cake mixes,

and a case of canned icing.

Right here: three cake pans,

wire cooling racks, one egg beater.

- What do you figure? - I wish I knew.

Two cases of cookies,

six cases of assorted candy,

five, 10, 13, 17... 22 cartons

of various kinds of soft drinks.

- Just the staples, Joe. - Pretty good list.

They got just about everything.

No, not quite, and they've had two shots at it, too:

the drugstore and the market.

- What's that? - Soap.

During the next 12 days,

there were two additional burglaries using the same MO.

The first was an electrical supply house

in West Los Angeles,

from which a gasoline-powered portable generator

and several extension cords had been stolen.

The second was a discount record store in North Hollywood,

from which two phonographs

and 84 record albums were taken.

Both times, the method of entry was through a back window.

In each case, the thieves apparently took

only those articles they came for,

and they ignored anything else of value.

There was no additional evidence or eyewitnesses.

Thursday, January 18th, 10:45 p.m.

The paperwork on the series of burglaries

was beginning to pile up.

How're you getting along there, Joe?

All right.

I suppose you're using the same words we always do:

proceed, suspect vehicle,

scene of occurrence, notify,

inform, like that.

- What else? - Makes a dull report, Joe.

Well, we're not supposed to be writing literature.

- Sign of atrophy, too. - What?

I said atrophy, Joe. I meant it in the sense of

a wasting away of the mental process.

- Thanks. - Your mind's no better than the symbols you use.

Keep using the same ones over and over again,

and your mind's bound to waste away.

Lack of use, basic law of nature.

It's not too late for you, though.

Dozens of ways to say the same things in here,

but with little shifts in meaning,

greater precision, new words.

I'm expanding my mind, Joe.

- Is that so? - Pejorative.

Now, there's a good one I encountered.

Normally, I would say came across.

See what I mean?

- Yeah. - That's a Thesaurus, Joe.

I know. I've seen them.

Just waiting for a case to come along

where I can drop pejorative into the report.

- Try obfuscate. - Say, I like that one!

Confuse, muddle, not very clear.

Funny.

- Sergeant Friday? - That's right.

- Wilson, Central Division. - Yeah, Wilson?

The lieutenant said you were working this case.

We picked up three kids in a truck

in the back of a sporting goods store on Broadway.

They're bringing them up now. Sure a lot of stuff.

- Yeah? - 14 sleeping bags,

14 air mattresses, ground cloths, parkas,

cook stoves, four rifles,

about 200 rounds of ammunition.

We found this on the back bumper of their car.

The suspects identified themselves

as Dennis J. Meldon, Charles L. Vail,

and Paul Seever.

They were advised of their constitutional rights.

Their parents were notified.

Charles Vail and Paul Seever were from Fresno.

Both their fathers said they would fly to Los Angeles

the following morning.

We first interrogated the boys separately without success.

11:40 p.m.

We began questioning all three of them together.

These were found on the floor of the truck.

Those are mine. Asparagus seeds.

I bought 'em and paid for 'em.

I suppose you're gonna make a federal case out of it.

I talked to Vollmer.

He wants to come down in the morning.

I said it'd be all right. Who's that?

He owns a grocery store that was burglarized.

He saw two of the kids.

And you're gonna let him take a look at us?

- That's right. - It'd be a waste of time.

Well, we've got lots of it.

Tell us about the sporting goods store.

Oh, that ought to be obvious, even to you,

especially after the other fuzz told you all about it.

- You tell us. - Who were the other kids?

The arresting officer said there were at least six others.

You were driving the truck. You blocked the alley with it.

The rest of them got away in a blue '64 Pontiac sedan.

Oh, now we both know.

You stole 14 sleeping bags and 14 air mattresses.

What were you gonna do with them?

Now, look, I'll save you some trouble.

We're not gonna tell you anything you don't already know,

and we're not gonna tell you anything about anybody else.

Is that right?

You'd turn blue before you get anything out of us.

Paul, Charles, I talked to your parents.

- Yeah? - Yeah, so?

They say you haven't been home for two months.

Where have you been staying?

I've been staying with him.

- Where's that? - Around.

- Where's your pad? - The world...

The universal refuge of human kindness and love.

- That's some address. - The best.

A little tough getting mail, isn't it?

Your parents are worried about you.

- So? - You're not concerned?

I can give you the whole bit, word-for-word.

I wrote to 'em.

Used one of those mail forwarding services

you see in the ads.

I don't see why they're so worried.

What do they call you? Charlie, Chuck?

The old man calls me Chuck. I like Charlie.

It was kind of amusing, watching you guys.

That right?

You try to act friendly, get in with us, con us.

It's pretty clumsy, though.

Think so? Who's Clego?

Was Vernon with you tonight?

I don't know. He didn't say.

All right, come on down and land.

You people are in big trouble here.

We've got you made on this hardware store,

and you know what that can mean.

We thought about this possibility.

We expect the power structure's

gonna try to retaliate against us.

It'll delay things, of course.

But not much, and it's not gonna stop it.

It's gonna happen with or without us.

- What's gonna happen? - I don't think I'll tell you.

Where'd you get the truck?

- I borrowed it. - You mean you stole it.

No, borrowed is the word.

The registered owner is James B. Perkins.

Have you borrowed it from him before?

- Yeah. - How often?

As often as we needed it.

Perk's one of the good folks.

Perk's all right.

The usual distortion of social values, no perception.

Perception of what?

If you have to ask, pops, you ain't got any either.

What were you going to do with the rifles you stole?

Well, shoot 'em, man.

- At what? - Not at people.

I know how your minds work. You're conditioned.

We've rejected the concept of violence.

Except sometimes, like pushing an old man around.

We were just gonna shoot animals, goats, pigs,

that sort of thing.

Do you know how to handle a rifle?

- That's right. - You have guns at home?

- No, I learned. - Where did you learn?

I learned, man. I learned, that's all.

- All right, huh? - That's all.

No more dialog. We don't have to talk to you.

We've got rights, even here.

- Especially here. - You'd better believe it.

- How about other people? - Huh?

Do they have rights?

Well, like, who do you mean?

Like the people you stole from.

Well, ours are more important.

How do you figure?

Well, because we're right, and they're wrong.

They're rotten! The whole society is, all of ya.

Rights? Don't make me sick.

Ah, yeah, there's a lot of talk about 'em, sure,

but what's going on? What are people doing?

That's what counts. Corruption, hypocrisy.

You say one thing out of the corner of your mouth

and then turn right around

and do whatever you can get away with,

as long as it pays, huh? Look around!

You wouldn't see it, would you.

Nah, you're part of it. You helped make it that way.

Poverty, oppression, moral bankruptcy,

aggression, suppression, the ghettos.

And what happens when people try and demand their rights, huh?

You hit them over the head!

And now you take what's going on in Vietnam.

If that doesn't turn your stomach...

Well, we have renounced your whole, lousy,

materialistic society. You're wrong!

Now, how does that grab you, Mr. High and Mighty Fuzz?

Not much.

- Who's gonna run the boat? - What boat?

Well, there aren't any pigs or goats around here,

except on some of the offshore islands.

In the next few days, this bunch you run with

is gonna have to steal a boat, aren't they?

You think you've got it all worked out,

don't you, Sherlock? Well, you don't.

What's involved here is a concept so pure,

so sophisticated in its simplicity,

that you'd never understand it.

You just don't communicate, man!

Yeah, well, I understand one thing.

You'd better start communicating with us and right now,

because when you come up for a hearing,

no judge is gonna take the time

to listen to all your wise talk.

Now, it's your choice. You want to do it the hard way?

That's fine. Let's quit for the night.

I'm getting bored.

You wouldn't be so bored if you'd understand.

Understand what?

That you're a bunch of young would-be toughs

that'd still be on a stealing spree

if you hadn't been caught? What's there to understand?

- Tell him. - You know we took an oath.

I, for one, don't want to be considered

a common garden variety thief.

What we're doing is above all that.

I say we tell him and straighten him out.

Yeah, might be better.

Why don't you tell 'em why, Charlie?

Oh, we come down here, Paul and me.

I mean, I couldn't take it at school anymore.

School.

Now, there's a real conveyor belt of conformity.

And my family, no values.

You talk about poverty of the spirit? Man!

And so we come here looking for something.

We found Denny and these other kids.

They're just like us, the same ideas,

and I mean, they're beautiful people,

and we can talk to 'em.

We cut right through all the false values.

So we drew up a compact, an agreement,

and it says it all there in the beginning.

"We do hereby freely bind ourselves in love,

"each one to the other,

"and dedicate ourselves to the attainment

"of freedom of expression without qualification,

"for the human spirit,

and to the total renunciation of material values."

- Beginning to make sense? - Not so far.

Man, we've organized a new society,

a new order of things, a perfect order,

and the key to it is getting rid of materialism.

Nobody owns anything. Everybody owns everything.

Who else is in this with you? End of the line.

Where do you plan to set up this Utopia?

- We've got a place. - Where?

I can't tell you that.

You've got it all worked out.

That's right, a perfect form of government.

Nobody's ever made it work.

- We will. - No, you won't.

Why not?

You haven't got perfect people.

You recognize this?

We're aware you confiscated it.

After you tried to steal it.

If you want to be technical.

Along with three others. Do something for me.

What's that?

Show me where the safety is. No, never mind.

I'll hold it. You just point it out.

Show me where it is.

You?

Well, I'd have to look it over.

How about you?

You're gonna start running around this new Utopia of yours

with four high-powered rifles,

and you don't know where the safety is.

Well, it wouldn't be hard to figure out.

You're really gonna have a ball

setting up this new country of yours, aren't you?

Lying around, listening to the radio and the phonograph,

eating whenever you feel like it.

All of you are city kids.

Great chance of somebody getting hurt,

liable to break a leg, take off a foot with an ax,

- get shot. - Man, you're outta sight.

Somebody's gonna get sick... Bad cooking, dirty pans.

That many kids, it'll happen sooner or later.

Yeah, we thought of that.

Oh, yeah, you have penicillin, don't you?

Well, that's what it's for.

You ever hear of penicillin shock?

Happens in maybe one case out of ten,

something like that.

Can kill you in a matter of minutes.

Look, don't give me that "might happen"

or "liable to" jazz, huh?

People have gone off and made it before,

plenty of them,

going all the way back to the Pilgrims.

They had a few things going for them that you don't.

They knew how to hunt, how to use an ax,

how to build a house, start a fire without matches

and bank it at night so it wouldn't go out.

You know how to do all that, of course,

and you're gonna grow this.

Uh, yeah, I really dig fresh asparagus.

When do you think you'll eat it?

Well, this summer.

Asparagus takes two years.

The Pilgrims could raise their own food, which you can't.

And even so, half of them died the first year.

But you prepared for that, too, didn't you?

I don't know what you mean.

You've got shovels. All right, so big deal.

We're not the frontiersmen of all time,

but Denny and Paul, these are very bright people,

intelligent and mature. And high principled.

That's right.

What was that one about materialism?

- We reject material values. - Oh, yeah.

What are you gonna do when the batteries run down?

We've got a generator.

And when there's no more gas?

Okay, so we don't listen to the radios.

- That's not vital. - But food is...

And you're gonna run out of it sooner than you think.

Then you figure you'll start eating wild goat.

Well, it's not prime rib,

but maybe you'll acquire a taste for it.

You'd better, three times a day.

What do you do when you run out of ammunition?

We'll figure it out.

Or haven't you thought that far ahead?

I hope you have, because if you haven't,

you'll starve to death.

Unless you can explain to me how you'll make it

without $4,000 of somebody else's property,

then I'd call that pretty material.

Where does that leave your principles?

Well, come on. We're listening.

The only principle you've rejected is paying for it,

and that makes you just what you're afraid

you'll be called: common garden variety thieves.

You just don't understand. Maybe we do, son.

Don't think you have a corner

on all the virtue vision in the country,

or that everybody else is fat and selfish,

and you're the first generation to come along

that's felt dissatisfied. They all have, you know?

About different things, and most of them didn't have

the same opportunity and freedoms that you do.

Let's talk poverty.

Most places in the world, that's not a problem.

It's a way of life. And rights?

They're liable to give you a blank stare,

because they may not know what you're talking about.

The fact is, more people are living better right here

than anywhere else ever before in history.

So, don't expect us to roll over and play dead

when you say you're dissatisfied.

It's not perfect, but it's a great deal better than when we grew up.

A hundred men standing in the street

hoping for one job,

selling apples on the street corner.

That's one of the things we were dissatisfied about,

and you don't see that much anymore.

You're taller, stronger, healthier, better educated,

and you'll live longer than the last generation,

and we don't think that's altogether bad.

You've probably never seen a quarantine sign

in your neighbor's door: diphtheria,

scarlet fever, whooping cough.

Probably none of your classmates are crippled with polio.

You don't see many mastoid scars anymore.

We've done quite a bit of fighting all around the world.

Whether you think it was moral or not,

a lot of people are free today to make their own mistakes

because of it, and that may just include you.

I don't know.

Maybe part of it's the fact that you're in a hurry.

You've grown up on instant orange juice.

Flip a dial, instant entertainment.

Dial seven digits, instant communication.

Turn a key, push a pedal, instant transportation.

Flash a card, instant money.

Shove in a problem, push a few buttons,

instant answers.

But some problems you can't get quick answers to,

no matter how much you want 'em.

We took a little boy into Central Receiving Hospital yesterday.

He was 4 years old.

He weighs eight and a half pounds.

His parents just haven't bothered to feed him.

Now, give me a fast answer to that one,

one that'll stop that from ever happening again.

And if you can't settle that one,

what about the 55,000 Americans

who will die on the highways this year?

That's nearly six or seven times the number

that'll get killed in Vietnam.

Why aren't you up in arms about that?

Or is dying in a car somehow moral?

Tell me how to wipe out prejudice.

I'll settle for just the prejudices

you have inside yourselves.

Show me how to get rid of the unlimited capacity

for human beings to make themselves believe

that they're somehow right and justified

in stealing from somebody or hurting somebody,

and you'll just about put this place here out of business.

Don't think that we're telling you

to lose your ideals or your sense of outrage.

They're the only way things ever get done,

and there's a lot that still needs doing,

and we hope you'll tackle it.

You don't have to do anything dramatic

like trying to come up with a better country.

You can find enough to keep you busy right here.

While you're at it, don't break things up

in the name of progress,

or crack a placard stick over somebody's head

to help him see the light.

Be careful of his rights,

because your property, and your person,

and your rights aren't any better than his,

and next time, you may be the one to get it.

We remember a man who killed 6 million people

and called it social improvement.

So hang in.

Don't try to build a new country.

Make the old one work.

It has for over 400 years, and by the world's standards,

that's hardly more than yesterday.

Now, we want the names of the rest

who were in this with you,

and we want to know where you've stashed

all the things you've stolen.

Okay, but it was a beautiful notion.

That's about all I can say.

Yeah, son, that's about all you can say.

The court sustained the allegations

that the subjects had committed burglary,

and with the other members of the gang,

had conspired to commit burglary.

The subjects had no history of delinquency

and were referred to the Probation Department

for rehabilitative programs.