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Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City
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About This Book
Journalist and law professor Rosa Brooks goes beyond the blue wall of silence in this radical inside examination of American policing In her forties, with two children, a spouse, a dog, a mortgage, and a full-time job as a tenured law professor at Georgetown University, Rosa Brooks decided to become a cop. A liberal academic and journalist with an enduring interest in law's troubled relationship with violence, Brooks wanted the kind of insider experience that would help her understand how police officers make sense of their world--and whether that world can be changed. In 2015, against the advice of everyone she knew, she applied to become a sworn, armed reserve police officer with the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Department. Then as now, police violence was constantly in the news. The Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum, protests wracked America's cities, and each day brought more stories of cruel, corrupt cops, police violence, and the racial disparities that mar our criminal justice system. Lines were being drawn, and people were taking sides. But as Brooks made her way through the police academy and began work as a patrol officer in the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods of the nation's capital, she found a reality far more complex than the headlines suggested. In Tangled Up in Blue, Brooks recounts her experiences inside the usually closed world of policing. From street shootings and domestic violence calls to the behind-the-scenes police work during Donald Trump's 2016 presidential inauguration, Brooks presents a revelatory account of what it's like inside the blue wall of silence. She issues an urgent call for new laws and institutions, and argues that in a nation increasingly divided by race, class, ethnicity, geography, and ideology, a truly transformative approach to policing requires us to move beyond sound bites, slogans, and stereotypes. An explosive and groundbreaking investigation, Tangled Up in Blue complicates matters rather than simplifies them, and gives pause both to those who think police can do no wrong--and those who think they can do no right.
Reviews
"She sympathises, too, with the stress that can turn cops cynical ..."
"But Brooks's book is also about more than just policing as an institution, or even her own experiences as a cop: It is a deeply personal family memoir, and a meditation on questions of race, class, gender, and family inheritances."
"Anecdote by anecdote, she builds to a cautious analysis of how 'even normal, careful, lawful policing often ends up compounding devastating social inequalities,' even if few officers display overt racism."
"This immersive, illuminating, and timely account takes a meaningful step toward bridging the gap between what American society asks of police and what they're trained to deliver."
"revealing and well-written ..."
"Blending memoir with sharp commentary on social justice issues, Brooks's empathetic work is ideal for readers curious about policing and police reform in the United States."
"Through her stories, Brooks avoids a didactic, finger-waving lecture on the virtues or failings of the criminal justice system."
"Through evocative storytelling coupled with research and analysis, she explores what on-the-ground policing in a low-income neighborhood looked like for her ..."
"The author's look at the Dickensian 'secret city' is both revealing and appalling, and she delivers sometimes-surprising news along the way ..."
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