During his 28-year career, Matthew Horace rose through the ranks from a police officer working the beat to a federal agent working criminal cases in some of the toughest communities in America to a highly decorated federal law enforcement executive managing high-profile investigations nationwide. Yet it was not until seven years into his service- when Horace found himself face down on the ground … ground with a gun pointed at his head by a white fellow officer-that he fully understood the racism seething within America’s police departments.
Through gut-wrenching reportage, on-the-ground research, and personal accounts from interviews with police and government officials around the country, Horace presents an insider’s examination of archaic police tactics. He dissects some of the nation’s most highly publicized police shootings and communities to explain how these systems and tactics have hurt the people they serve, revealing the mistakes that have stoked racist policing, sky-high incarceration rates, and an epidemic of violence.
“Horace’s authority as an experienced officer, as well as his obvious integrity and courage, provides the book with a gravitas.” — The Washington Post
“The Black and the Blue is an affirmation of the critical need for criminal justice reform, all the more urgent because it
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Missing Two Very Important Words. In this book by former high ranking ATF agent Matthew Horace, we get an inside look at the problems and perils of policing in America through the eyes of a man who is both black and blue.
The book overall was very surprising to me, as I happen to be a former leader in the Cop Block movement, who has been active in fighting police brutality since a few years before anyone had ever heard of Michael Brown or Black Lives Matter (the organization). It was surprising in its balance, in that he at minimum admitted how bad police are, his own particular abuses, and that this is not “a few bad apples”, but the entire system and culture. All of this was refreshing to hear a cop say, and very welcome.
At the same time, however, rather than fully accept responsibility for *not killing people*, Horace routinely makes excuses and says that the ultimate responsibility for ending police brutality lies with politicians, community leaders, mental health providers, businesses, indeed *anyone* but police themselves.
Structure wise, the book spends quite a bit of time – roughly half its 14 total chapters (counting the epilogue as a chapter) – looking at the New Orleans and Chicago police departments specifically. The rest is a more general look using Horace’s career as a lens. He looks at a few specific and infamous incidents, including the Danzinger Bridge, the aforementioned Michael Brown case that spawned the Black Lives Matter organization, and the Laquan Mcdonald case that threatened to plunge Chicago into chaos, through the lens of someone who both investigated and trained police in proper procedures, and often makes it a point to point out exactly where the police made the mistakes that resulted in the body bags.
Unfortunately there are also a number of grammar errors throughout the book, often a misplaced word similar to a word that was clearly intended.
Overall, this is a recommended book, if only because it is so thorough, balanced, and from this particular viewpoint. I would still recommend Radley Balko’s 2013 classic The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of Police in America as a better look at the overall issue, but this is a solid companion to that book. I’m going with 3 stars for now, but honestly there was considerable debate within my head between three and four stars, and I can see cases for both.
The reason for the 3 stars? Even while admitting his own abuses, he neglects two very important words America needs to hear from even formerly abusive cops:
I’m Sorry.
Thank you Net Gallery for an advanced copy of The Black and the Blue by Matthew Horace.
This is a great book, it follows police brutality from the prospective of a black man. The part about shootings and harassment back in the day by white men to black men doesn’t surprise me it’s knowing it’s still going on. In this book we learn more about police abuse particularly to black officers, the many shootings of young black men like Michael Brown etc. Black Lives Matter. I really didn’t know there was that many shootings of black men until reading this book. It’s a enormous outcry in my mind. All in all this book is very interesting and kept me reading. I hated what Mr. Horace went through and the other black officers. This story needed to be told and everyone should pass this book around. Thank you Mr. Horace for telling this much needed book, it’s about time someone did.
One line will stay with me for a long time: If you call 911 who know who will show up. Scary thought.
Thanks again