admin
22 December 2023
I don\'t like cops. If you knew me personally, this wouldn\'t come as a surprise to you. And before you get on my sack about \"My dad is a cop and blah blah blah...\" just chill the fuck out. Just like the suburban white woman that tries to make up for separating herself from minorities by having a \"black friend\", I have a friend that is a cop. He is a police officer in the San Francisco area, and he even voted for Bush! (Gasp!) But he\'s still one of the kindest and nicest people I\'ve ever met, and I love him dearly.
So, no, I don\'t hate all cops. But my experiences and run-ins with cops (I have been both unjustly fingerprinted on the hood of a squad car for no reason, and approached by a cop with his hand on his gun) has caused me to think of them as being far from their glowing personae of protectors of the community\'s good and innocent.
This brings me to Our Enemies In Blue (Soft Skull Press), a critical analysis of our police force written by Kristian Williams.
The first thing you should know is that this is no anti-cop hippie rant. This book is a well-constructed and thorough-as-hell study about police brutality and their abuse of power and control. Williams delves into almost every realm of police corruption, from Rodney King and the racial agenda, to the repression of the working class, and police states and riots. In addition to that, the book goes into the history of American policing and why we are bred to think that we need to be protected. This dip into our societal psyche was extremely interesting, because it\'s just not something you really think about. The masses just kind of assume that the police are there to help us, not hurt us, and we go with the flow. But after you read this book you may no longer be led so easily.
Again, it is not my goal to incite unnecessary violence or hatred toward cops, and that\'s not the goal of the book, either. But if you\'re interested in learning more about who the police really are, and what their purpose in society actually serves, pick this book up.
So, no, I don\'t hate all cops. But my experiences and run-ins with cops (I have been both unjustly fingerprinted on the hood of a squad car for no reason, and approached by a cop with his hand on his gun) has caused me to think of them as being far from their glowing personae of protectors of the community\'s good and innocent.
This brings me to Our Enemies In Blue (Soft Skull Press), a critical analysis of our police force written by Kristian Williams.
The first thing you should know is that this is no anti-cop hippie rant. This book is a well-constructed and thorough-as-hell study about police brutality and their abuse of power and control. Williams delves into almost every realm of police corruption, from Rodney King and the racial agenda, to the repression of the working class, and police states and riots. In addition to that, the book goes into the history of American policing and why we are bred to think that we need to be protected. This dip into our societal psyche was extremely interesting, because it\'s just not something you really think about. The masses just kind of assume that the police are there to help us, not hurt us, and we go with the flow. But after you read this book you may no longer be led so easily.
Again, it is not my goal to incite unnecessary violence or hatred toward cops, and that\'s not the goal of the book, either. But if you\'re interested in learning more about who the police really are, and what their purpose in society actually serves, pick this book up.
artid
2941
Old Image
7_5_enemiesinblue.jpg
issue
vol 7 - issue 05 (jan 2005)
section
entertainmental