The Traffic Stop

“In the annals of warfare, it is the consensus of historians that civil wars are more vicious and brutal than foreign wars. Sometimes during the course of living in close proximity to fellow citizens, differences in opinion, in values, in ideology -- or even the pursuit of power -- will boil over into a conflagration in which the aftereffects last long beyond the initial conflict. To some degree The Traffic Stop emulates that. In the never ending war between law enforcers and law breakers, sometimes the more vicious enemies are the ones sworn to serve as our allies and protectors, such as it is …. This is where The Traffic Stop begins.” - Mike Beringhele In 1977 on a Southern California street, a city police officer makes what he believes to be a routine traffic stop. It is anything but routine. Unknown to him, this officer is now face-to-face with two Mexican Mafia assassins … on parole and armed. With the gang members in custody for booking on parole violation, a tangled web of criminal activity and corruption begins to emerge. Month-by-month, strand by strand, police investigators unravel a twisted mass of corruption, crime and murder that ultimately ensnares not only gang members and former felons, but implicates elected and appointed local and state officials. This single traffic stop and its subsequent shock waves would pit members of law enforcement against one another and lead to incriminations reaching the highest levels of state government. (Less)