There was a basic difference between the kind of pressure the Angels got in Oakland and the kind they felt
elsewhere. In Oakland it was not political, not the result of any high-level pressure or policy decision – but
more of a personal thing, like arm-wrestling. Barger and his people get along pretty well with the cops. In
most cases, and with a few subtle differences, they operate on the same motional frequency. Both the cops
and the Angels deny this. The very suggestion of a psychic compatibility will be denounced – by both groups –
as a form of Communist slander. But the fact of the thing is obvious to anyone who has ever seen a routine
confrontation or sat in on a friendly police check at one of the Angel bars. Apart, they curse each other
savagely, and the brittle truce is often jangled by high-speed chases and brief, violent clashes that rarely make
the papers. Yet behind the sound and fury, they are both playing the same game, and usually by the same
rules.