Ricky Sakamoto-Pugh

Ricky Sakamoto-Pugh is a fifth year graduate student in modern Mexican history. He received his master's degree in American History from Middle Tennessee State University in June of 2019. He is interested in the history of urban policing in Mexico in the years following the Second World War. Ricky's master's thesis, “THOSE WHO WOULD CONTROL IT TO THEIR OWN ENDS”: POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS IN SAN JOSÉ, CALIFORNIA 1960-1970 explored the relationship between police and community in San José in the wake of the Watts riots. His analysis examined the role of organizational culture and professional identity cultivated in the pages of the city's local rank-and-file police association’s weekly bulletin and their impact on efforts to improve police-community relations.