The Choirboys
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For the Australian rock band The Choirboys, see The Choirboys (band).
The Choirboys is a 1975 book written by novelist and former LAPD policeman Joseph Wambaugh.
The story is a tragicomic look at the on- and off-duty exploits of a group of policemen in Los Angeles' Rampart District who conduct unauthorized end-of-watch meetings or "choir practice" sessions in MacArthur Park, one of which ends with the accidental shooting of a young park transient. The accident is referred to frequently throughout the course of the novel. The meetings almost always involved heavy drinking and occasional group sex with a pair of lusty waitresses. "The Choirboys" is considered an indictment of police hierarchy in general especially because of the way the investigation into the shooting was handled.
Though a movie based on the book was released in 1977, Wambaugh refused to have his name associated with the picture as he (and most critics) considered it to be subpar.
Due to the success of the book and later movie, in the United States police officers sometimes use the slang term "choir practice" to refer to any recreational activity after work.
The choirboys and their unit numbers
7-A-85: Roscoe Rules and Dean Pratt
Henry "Roscoe" Rules is depicted as a no-nonsense "black-glove" cop who was nicknamed "Roscoe" during a choir practice when he referred to his unauthorized blackjack as a "roscoe" after hearing the term on a late-night TV movie. Dean "Whaddayamean Dean" Pratt is a young officer greatly affected by alcoholic beverages to the point where even simple questions are meant by mindless, pleading counter-questions, usually "Whaddaya mean?"
7-A-33: Spencer Van Moot and Father Willie Wright
Van Moot is one of the oldest of the Choirboys and their great provider, taking advantage of free meals, cigarettes and such traditionally offered to uniformed officers. Van Moot usually spends choir practices complaining about his failing marriage. Wright is a young Jehovah's Witness also in a bad marriage who joins the group out of loneliness. His drunken litanies earned him the nickname "Father."
7-A-77: Calvin Potts and Francis Tanaguchi
Potts is an educated and recently divorced black officer teamed with Tanaguchi, a Japanese-American prankster born in East Los Angeles who considers himself to be an honorary Latino. Their unofficial nicknames are "The Gook and The Spook."
7-A-1: Spermwhale Whalen and Baxter Slate
Herbert "Spermwhale" Whalen is the oldest and toughest of the group who saw service as a transport pilot in World War II, the Korean War and even the Vietnam War as a reservist. Slate is an intellectual, university-educated with a degree in classic literature and takes some delight in confounding Roscoe Rules with his vast vocabulary.
7-A-29: Sam Niles and Harold Bloomguard
Niles and Bloomguard are ex-Marines who were trapped in a Viet Cong spider hole during their tour of duty in Vietnam. Bloomguard is something of a physical and emotional weakling who clings to Niles as a sort of "father figure." Niles developed severe claustrophobia from his experience in Vietnam which in turn contributed to the shooting accident.