The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement

Matthew Horace, security expert and news commentator, has worked at almost every level of law enforcement. He is, at his core, "just a cop." But he's also "male black," police shorthand for African American, always viewed as threats, armed with an inescapable weapon--"the very skin we're in."
 
Horace and former Los Angeles Times editor Ron Harris interviewed law enforcement professionals, elected officials, community advocates and survivors of police violence of every race, gender and political affiliation. The goal? To profile police forces and how they affect violence, particularly as perpetrated against African Americans.
 
The Black and the Blue exposes systemic misconduct that plagues law enforcement, stretching the implicit biases we all carry to more than just a few bad apples. Unacceptable procedures are "woven into the fabric of local policing," creating "a culture of disregard... for the people [police] are paid to serve." Horace highlights cases where cops went wrong without accountability, while recognizing officers are sent into a cultural divide lacking proper tools.
 
In the end, "[t]he question isn't whether we have racism, it's what we're going to do about it." Horace's work is more light-shining than problem-solving, but cultural change requires recognizing the existence of a problem. It is a start to push back against the idea that "it is officially reasonable to be afraid of a person just because he is black. And because you fear him, it is okay to kill him." If anger and sorrow haven't flooded to the surface when the last page is turned, go back and start again. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review
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