Matthew Horace has spent twenty-eight years in law enforcement across the nation and in Guam during his time as both a police officer in Arlington, Virginia and then later for the ATF as both an officer and then as a leader, rising through the ranks to the highest levels. As an officer, he is quite competent to talk about matters concerning the police. As an African American, he is beyond qualified to talk about racism in America. The problem with cops is that they see African American men as dangerous, a stereotype that has long been around since slavery days and is no truer than it is of other races.

But black cops on the force will look at African American men and see them as a threat, just as he himself did in 1986 when he went on a domestic disturbance call between two male lovers where the Latino man wanted his boyfriend out of the house and the boyfriend in question was a large black man. Both Horace and his partner felt the need to draw their guns on the guy when he didn't want to do what they asked him to do, but they didn't because he started to cry and he finally cooperated with them. But it was a testy situation for a few moments there when he didn't want to do what they were asking them to do. Horace also realizes that the man wasn't being a threat and to draw his weapon would have escalated the situation and possibly made him a threat. His size and race was not a weapon being used against them no matter how threatened they felt by it.

He examines many cities including Baltimore, Ferguson, New Orleans, and Chicago and how bad things have been in the past and are now and how someone is trying to change things. With each city, he talks about you can't imagine anything worse and then he writes about another city. In Ferguson, they had a system of writing people up for tickets for anything and everything and sending people to jail if they couldn't pay, then fining them extra after that for going to jail. One man, Fred Watson, who lived in St. Louis, came to Ferguson to play some basketball. He had just finished and was sitting in his car resting about to go home when a crooked cop spotted him and came up and gave him seven bogus tickets such as driving while license provoked even though his license was fine and he wasn't driving. When he tried to get them dismissed he got two more added on the false declaration in that he identified himself as Fred when his ID says his name is Freddie and failure to comply which is something the cops lodge at black people who complain. Watson had a job doing security work for the National Geospatial Agency. He could not have an arrest on his record especially one that said that he didn't comply with the officers. He got a lawyer and fought it, but lost every opportunity to get it dropped or moved to another venue. 26% of Ferguson's budget was made up of money from tickets and they didn't want to lose a dime of that money by moving it to another jurisdiction. Watson lost his job and went through his savings for law school. He had trouble finding another job. He had just about given up on having the charges dropped when the investigation into the Michael Brown case shown a light onto these practices and things started to change. The judge got arrested. After about five years the charges were cleared. But the damage has been done to his life, to his family. Charges were brought against the cop, who had done this to so many people, but were ultimately dismissed, which so often happens.

In these cities, they are making great strides to make things better. For some, this isn't the first time they've cleaned house such as in New Orleans. But will these new leaders live up to their new ideas of policing by trying to be less racially biased and less forceful and more conflict resolution savvy? In Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson had risen through the ranks to his current position but he wasn't going to let things remain the way they were. And he proved it in late 2016 not long after getting his job when a bad police chase happened and ended with an unarmed dead black man in handcuffs, the medical examiner ruled it a homicide. Five months later in 2017, another cop while off duty, had trouble with his neighbor and was known for harassing his neighbor. One night he went up and shot and killed him. Johnson stipped him of his police powers and then shortly after that he was charged with murder. The people of Chicago are beginning to believe in the police again in part because of Eddie Johnson and the plans he has implemented and the way he has trained his officers to treat the public.

But the problem with crime is the lack of education and the lack of jobs. Adolphus Pruitt, the head of the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP noticed something about the murder victims of St. Louis area. Not a single one of them had graduated high school and nearly all of the murderers had not graduated high school. And to get a good job you need education. You also need companies to invest in areas.

When people are out of work they will steal or sell drugs to feed their families. Give them a better opportunity and they will take it and then you'll have less violence on the streets from gangs.

This book describes some pretty horrific things that have happened across America to African Americans by cops. From simply being pulled over for no reason to being gunned down in the streets while unarmed for doing nothing at all. This book is very thought provoking and offers answers to why blacks are getting killed in the first place by non-cops and by offering ways to fix it, because as he says those black lives matter too. It also shows how historically African Americans have been abused by cops over a century and how cops now seem to want to change that, though it is a growing experience filled with crooked cops that must be gotten rid of and cops that have no business being cops fired from the force. And lots of training needs to happen continuously to help cops to help them to be able to handle situations before they escalate into a situation where someone ends up dead. He also includes sections written by actual police officers who are white, black, gay, straight, female, male, who tell what they think of policing and their experiences on the force. I think it provides a much needed other voice that that doesn't always agree with him. Horace has written an excellent book that I believe is really worth reading. It's a powerful book that hits you between the eyes no matter the race or sex of the reader. He doesn't pull any punches and I like that about him. This is an incredible book that I cannot recommend highly enough. I give it my highest rating five out of five stars.

Quotes

Violence has car keys. I suggest people get involved before it knocks on your door. Just like drugs. It’s coming to your door. It’s coming for your child.

-Matthew Horace and Ron Harris (The Black and The Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement p 202)

*In the book he remarks that black people are three times more likely to get killed by police. He also takes a few pages to point out that the mentally ill are sixteen times more likely to get killed by police and that the police are in no way equipped to deal with the mentally ill and that they shouldn't be the ones handling them. Seeing that bald number I'd have to agree. Someone else needs to be dealing with them other than the cops. People with medical knowledge. So why aren't they? He doesn't go into details about this so my question gets no answer. ( )