Stanford Franklin and I will be on MSNBC’s Conversations with Carlos Watson tomorrow, Wednesday. We’ll be talking about drug legalization and our op-ed. The show is from 11am-12 noon, Eastern Time. I think we’ll be on from 11:15 to 11:45. Check us out!
Tag: good press
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I’ve been Pepper Sprayed
There are probably hundreds of police blogs out there. Too much chaff and not enough wheat. The only police blog I actually read is Pepper Spray Me. Each post is interesting and it’s all very well written and professionally presented. I hope and assume a book is on the way. Remember the equation: police book = movie-rights staring Denzel Washington = $$$ (except of course, like in my case, when it doesn’t).
I’m sure there are some other gems of law enforcement blogging out there, but I don’t have the patience to find them. If youknow other good police blogs–not too many posts, not too few, not predictable, tells me something I don’t already know–let me know!
Anyway, the author of pepper spray is a bit like Bat Man to me. We run into each other every now and then in the comments section, but I don’t know who he is or where he works. But I know he’s on the side of good.
He wrote an excellent (dare I say even touching) review of my book. Thanks, One Time! I’m glad you liked it. Keep up the good writing and stay safe.
In 1999, Peter Moskos was a graduate student at Harvard University. He wanted to study cops, and figured the best way to do that was to cross the Thin Blue Line.
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Moskos proclaims the War on Drugs a messy failure. He tells why, from his front line experience as a grunt in the war, we’re losing the fight.Cops and sociologists alike can be difficult people to understand. This might lead you to believe that Cop in the Hood will be twice as hard to follow. Not so. Moskos strips away hard to decipher copspeak and sociological mumbo jumbo and presents something easily digestible by the average reader.
Whether you agree or disagree with Moskos’ views on the War on Drugs, he cannot be dismissed as your average know-nothing academic. Moskos is a veteran of a war he disagrees with. But he has walked the walk, respects the brotherhood and, as far as I’m concerned, still bleeds blue.
Read the whole review here.
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I’m Back
I’m back from two weeks in Spain… but I’ll spare you the details except to say there was hiking in the Alpujarras involved. And very sore feet. And lots of pork.
Meanwhile, I was just quoted in a widely read article (the AP is great for that) about dirty narcs in NYC. Though I don’t condone it, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for criminals when they get framed. But there really is nothing worse than framing an innocent man.
And an off-duty black NYPD officer, Omar Edwards, was killed by fellow police officers.
Do white officers ever get killed in similar circumstances? Rarely. I know of only one case, in Florida, when a white officer was shot and killed accidentally by police. He was undercover and busting a group of (gasp) underage college tailgaters.
Part of the problem is that as a police officer chasing a criminal, when you hear police shouting, you don’t think they’re shouting at you. You know you’re police. You feel it. You’re used to hearing commands to show your hands and drop the gun. You shout such commands. You’re a cop. You don’t drop your gun. But you can’t see yourself and see you’re out of uniform and holding a gun. I don’t know what the answer is.
In other news, Nicholas Kristof wrote a powerful piece in the New York Times, Drugs Won the War. He mentions LEAP prominently.
And on Friday I’ll be in Chicago for an interview on WGN’s Milt Rosenberg show. 9 – 11 pm Chicago time. I’m very excited about that. You can listen here.
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“Engaging, even riveting”
Drug War Chronicle reviewed Cop in the Hood a while back and somehow I missed it.
Here it is:
I would imagine that most Drug War Chronicle readers… have little knowledge of or empathy for the men in blue.
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Moskos really shines at getting his comrades to speak openly and honestly about their attitudes, and in that sense, “Cop in the Hood” is as revelatory as it is sometimes disturbing. Such attitudes may be deplorable, but they are also understandable. When all you see is the worst of humanity, it’s easy to get alienated. As one officer put it, “You don’t get 911 calls to tell you how well things are going.”
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While Moskos by no means sugarcoats the behavior or attitudes of his coworkers, his reporting will undoubtedly help readers attain some understanding of how they got that way. Cop in the Hood is also useful for understanding the bureaucratic grinder facing police officers in large urban departments, where they are caught between pressures from above for more arrests, from Internal Affairs to do it by the book, from the neighborhoods to clean out the riff-raff and from the same neighborhoods to respect the civil rights of residents.Moskos brings the added advantage of not writing like an academic. Cop in the Hood is engaging, even riveting, and makes its points straightforwardly. Yes, Moskos references policing theory, but he does so in ways that make it provocative instead of off-putting.
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People interested in the nitty-gritty of street-level drug law enforcement need to read this book. Criminal justice students and anyone thinking about becoming a police officer need to read this book, too. And the politicians who pass the laws police have to enforce (or not), need to read this book as well, although they probably won’t. -
Award Winning Cop in the Hood
I was just informed that Cop in the Hood won an award. How exciting!I won the 2008 PROSE Award for best book in Sociology and Social Work. PROSE is the Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence.
You know… PROSE… recognizing the best books for 33 years and, uh, er, well no, I actually hadn’t heard of them either. But I still happily accept…
No, there’s no cash prize so I don’t think I can quit my day job. But still, it’s an honor nonetheless.
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“Vivid”
Rachel DiCarlo Currie writes a very nice review of Cop in the Hood in The American.
The most encouraging aspect of this book is its portrait of the police officers themselves. Moskos holds his former colleagues in the highest esteem, and he takes offense at claims that urban cops are crooked and racist. There will always be bad apples, but the officers he met were honorable, if a bit hard around the edges. (“We’re not social workers with guns,” one cop joked.) Ultimately, readers ofCop in the Hoodare left with a renewed appreciation for the men in blue.
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“A real treat”
The latest issue of Drug War Chronicle has an excellent reviewof Cop in the Hood.
“As revelatory as it is sometimes disturbing…. Engaging, even riveting”
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From the Brass
Colonel (Ret.) Margaret Patton is the highest ranking woman in the Baltimore City Police Department. Back in 2000, when I was a cop, she was in charge of the Northern District. I don’t think we ever met, but I knew her by reputation, and it was good.
A few months ago, when I was having an exchange with retired police who refused to read my book on principle (apparently, for some, ignorance is not a problem but a principle). Out of the blue, Colonel Patton wrote to tell me what she thought. Let me tell you, I may be a slouched-over academic now, but when I get a letter from a colonel, I sit up straight and at attention, ma’am!
But she put me at ease. She thought it was unfair for people–people she knew and respected–to criticize me for a book they wouldn’t read. She resolved to buy my book, read my book, and let me know what she thought. I already had respect for Colonel Patton as a police officer; I quickly gained respect for Maggie (as she insists I address her) as a person.
Months passed. I thought perhaps she hasn’t written because she had nothing nice to say. A few days ago I sent her a note asking if she had finished my book and again asking for her thoughts. Here is her reply (reprinted with permission):
Hi Peter,
Yes, I certainly did finish your book and enjoyed it very much. I would have sent my “critique” back to you but I thought you were only being nice. I always consider it a privilege to be asked to comment on someone’s work. I pulled your book off my shelf and realized that I had even taken notes while reading it.
Let me first say that I think that the book should be made mandatory reading for every recruit in the Balto. City Police Academy. I would love to be in the classroom listening to the conversations and debates sparked by your experiences. I believe that this dialogue would help to lessen the feelings that nothing of substance is taught or learned while in the academy. The command staff would certainly learn much by readingCop In The Hoodbecause command does forget a lot with each rank they achieve. Granted, they learn a lot with each experience of rank but much is forgotten.
You mentioned that stats should be maintained for recovered drugs and not just for drug-related arrests. I couldn’t agree more and I’m sure that the Lab would have these stats but I have never seen them used for tactical purposes. It would give the city a better understanding of how prolific drugs are and it would help in providing necessary funding for treatment beds and enforcement.
On pages 108 and 109 you discussed the problem with the dispatch of calls for service including foot patrol and rapid response. You are just so on the mark with these observations.
I am so sorry that you didn’t have the opportunity to work for Major Lewandowski. He was way beyond everyone in his thinking. He took the “good police” out of their cars and put the inexperienced and lazy ones in the cars. This, of course, was met with resistance because everyone wanted a car. He would sit by the computer and re-assign calls for service putting some on hold because of more serious calls waiting. You can just imagine how the dispatchers felt about this. He ran into much resistance because the system was not set up for this type of strategy. His dream was for officers to be provided with real time crime information at roll call – now it can be done. You two would have made a fantastic team!
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If I had been your editor I would have liked to have seen you personalize your story more, maybe even bordering on an autobiography. … BUT, your book as written, is perfect for the academy.It would have been interesting to read about your parents and your upbringing. Why did you decide to become a sociologist and why did you decide to go to Harvard? Did your girlfriend think that she was getting involved with an academic and then you went off to become a police or did she think that she was getting involved with a police who then turned into an academic. How do your students react to you as a former police?
You are interesting because of the decisions you made and it would be interesting to see how you were influenced along the way to make these decisions (as a child, young adult, student, police trainee, police and now professor). The book could be titledProfessor Outside The Hood.[…]
If the present police commissioner was smart, he would bring you down to run the police academy although I am sure it would be a step down for you. Your insight into the drug world and law enforcement is outstanding and I hope that this is not the last book you write.
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Again, I enjoyed your book and I am so proud that you were a Baltimore Police Officer and a good one.Personally, I would love to hear conversation and debate in the police academy on any subject. But, alas, that’s not the role the academy plays.
When I was there, I offered to lecture to my class during any of the many downtime hours that filled those 6 months. I thought why not? So much time was spend doing nothing. And I’ve lectured on crime and deviance at Harvard. If nothing else it would relieve myboredom. But nobody took me up on the offer.
I could never figure out why so much time is spent “learning” how to write reports in a classroom when that kind of knowledge can be learned so quickly on the street.
I think 911 and the police car are the two biggest obstacle to real positive change in any police department. I was talking about foot patrol in my class last week and one of the N.Y. police officers said, “It will never happen!” And this the day after a black man was elected president of the United States.
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Cop in the Classroom
Gelf Magazine has an excellent interview with me in advance of me being part of the Non-Motivational Speakers Series this coming Thursday.
It’s always a little scary to read what you said. Because sometimes you didn’t say it. Other times you did say it, but it’s not what you meant.
In this case, I said it, I meant it, and damn if I don’t sound downright clever at times. My compliments to Michael Gluckstadt who interviewed me and wrote it up.
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New Yorkers:
Mark your calenders for next Thursday, October 23. I’ll be entertaining the crowd with discussions about policing, the war on drugs, and Cop in the Hood. All this at the wonderfully titled “Non-Motivational Speakers Series.” Tell your friends.
Best yet, this event is at a bar. No, none of that stuffy academic pretension (no pipes or tweed jackets with arm patches). And it’s free.
You’ll love it. And even if you don’t, what’s it matter? You can drink yourself silly. That’s certainly myplan.
Happy Ending Lounge
302 Broome St.
(between Forsyth and Eldridge)
212-334-9676
J/M/Z/F to Delancey
B/D to Grand Street
Look for the hot-pink awning with the words “Health Club” on it.
Doors open at 7:30.
Event starts at 8 sharp.
FREE!“This monthly event features an above-average lineup of decidedly non-motivating authorities, each presenting views alternative and overlooked on a veritable goody bag of topics. A different theme is tackled clothesline-style each month, including comedy, culture jamming, religion, amateur pornography, and other such matters of head-scratching import.”
