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Book Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson  Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson   Summary of the Evidence  Use of Force

Download or read book Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson Summary of the Evidence Use of Force written by U. S. Government and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-05 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At approximately noon on Saturday, August 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson of the Ferguson Police Department ("FPD") shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old. The Criminal Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Missouri, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") (collectively, "The Department") subsequently opened a criminal investigation into whether the shooting violated federal law. The Department has determined that the evidence does not support charging a violation of federal law. This memorandum details the Department's investigation, findings, and conclusions. Part I provides an introduction and overview. Part II summarizes the federal investigation and the evidence uncovered during the course of the investigation, and discusses the applicable federal criminal civil rights law and standards of federal prosecution. Part III provides a more in-depth summary of the evidence. Finally, Part IV provides a detailed legal analysis of the evidence and explains why the evidence does not support an indictment of Darren Wilson.Based on this investigation, the Department has concluded that Darren Wilson's actions do not constitute prosecutable violations under the applicable federal criminal civil rights statute, 18 U.S.C. § 242, which prohibits uses of deadly force that are "objectively unreasonable," as defined by the United States Supreme Court. The evidence, when viewed as a whole, does not support the conclusion that Wilson's uses of deadly force were "objectively unreasonable" under the Supreme Court's definition. Accordingly, under the governing federal law and relevant standards set forth in the USAM, it is not appropriate to present this matter to a federal grand jury for indictment, and it should therefore be closed without prosecution.I. Introduction * II. Summary of the Evidence, Investigation, and Applicable Law * A. Summary of the Evidence * B. Initial Law Enforcement Investigation * C. Legal Summary * 1. The Law Governing Uses of Deadly Force by a Law Enforcement Officer * i. The Shootings Were Not Objectively Unreasonable Uses of Force Under 18 U.S.C. § 242 * ii. Wilson Did Not Willfully Violate Brown's Constitutional Right to Be Free from Unreasonable Force * III. Summary of the Evidence * A. Darren Wilson's Account * B. Physical and Forensic Evidence * 1. Crime Scene * 2. Autopsy Findings * 3. DNA Analysis * 4. Dispatch Recordings * 5. Ballistics * i. Wilson's Firearm and Projectiles Fired * ii. Projectile Recovered from SUV * iii. Gunshot Residue on Brown's Shirt * 6. Fingerprints * 7. Audio Recording of Shots Fired * 8. Wilson's Medical Records * 9. Brown's Toxicology * 10. Ferguson Market Surveillance Video * C. Witness Accounts * 1. Witnesses Materially Consistent with Prior Statements, Physical Evidence, and Other Witnesses and Therefore, Give Credible Accounts * i. Witnesses Materially Consistent with Prior Statements, Physical Evidence, and Other Witnesses Who Corroborate That Wilson Acted in Self-Defense * ii. Witnesses Consistent with Prior Statements, Physical Evidence, and Other Witnesses Who Inculpate Wilson * 2. Witnesses Who Neither Inculpate Nor Fully Corroborate Wilson * 3. Witnesses Whose Accounts Do Not Support a Prosecution Due to Materially Inconsistent Prior Statements, or Inconsistencies With the Physical and Forensic Evidence * IV. Legal Analysis * A. Legal Standard * B. Uses of Force * 1. Shooting at the SUV * 2. Wilson's Subsequent Pursuit of Brown and Shots Allegedly Fired as Brown was Moving Away * 3. Shots Fired After Brown Turned to Face Wilson * C. Willfulness * VI. Conclusion

Book Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson  Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson

Download or read book Department of Justice Report Regarding the Criminal Investigation Into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Missouri Police Officer Darren Wilson written by U. S. Department U.S. Department of Justice and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Department conducted an extensive investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown. Federal authorities reviewed physical, ballistic, forensic, and crime scene evidence; medical reports and autopsy reports, including an independent autopsy performed by the United States Department of Defense Armed Forces Medical Examiner Service ("AFMES"); Wilson's personnel records; audio and video recordings; and internet postings. FBI agents, St. Louis County Police Department ("SLCPD") detectives, and federal prosecutors and prosecutors from the St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office ("county prosecutors") worked cooperatively to both independently and jointly interview more than 100 purported eyewitnesses and other individuals claiming to have relevant information. SLCPD detectives conducted an initial canvass of the area on the day of the shooting. FBI agents then independently canvassed more than 300 residences to locate and interview additional witnesses. Federal and local authorities collected cellular phone data, searched social media sites, and tracked down dozens of leads from community members and dedicated law enforcement email addresses and tip lines in an effort to investigate every possible source of information.

Book The Criminal Investigation into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown

Download or read book The Criminal Investigation into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown written by U.S. Department of Justice and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Criminal Investigation into the Shooting Death of Michael Brown" by U.S. Department of Justice. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Book Department of Justice report regarding the criminal investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson  Missouri police officer Darren Wilson

Download or read book Department of Justice report regarding the criminal investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson Missouri police officer Darren Wilson written by United States. Department of Justice and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Police Use of Force

    Book Details:
  • Author : Michael J. Palmiotto
  • Publisher : CRC Press
  • Release : 2016-08-05
  • ISBN : 1315352915
  • Pages : 184 pages

Download or read book Police Use of Force written by Michael J. Palmiotto and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-08-05 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Police use of force has been a major concern for police departments and citizens in the United States since the 1840s, when police first started carrying guns. Starting with a historical introduction, Police Use of Force presents readers with critical and timely issues facing police and the communities they serve when police encounters turn violent. Dr. Palmiotto offers in-depth coverage of the use of force, deadly force, non-lethal weapons, militarization of policing, racism and profiling, legal cases, psychology, perception and training, and violence prevention. Police Use of Force also investigates many case studies, both famous (Rodney King) and contemporary (Ferguson, MO). Essential reading for both criminal justice professionals and academics, this text places police conflict within a complex, modern context, inviting cogent conversation in the classroom and the precinct.

Book Criminal Profiling

    Book Details:
  • Author : Brent E. Turvey
  • Publisher : Elsevier
  • Release : 2022-10
  • ISBN : 0128155833
  • Pages : 920 pages

Download or read book Criminal Profiling written by Brent E. Turvey and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2022-10 with total page 920 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, Fifth Edition, maintains the same core foundation that made previous editions best sellers in the professional and academic community worldwide. Written for practicing behavioral analysts and aspiring students alike, this work emphasizes an honest understanding of crime and criminals. Newly updated, mechanisms for the examination and classification of both victim and offender behavior have been improved. In addition to refined approaches toward international perspectives, chapters on psychological autopsies, scene investigation reconstruction, court issues and racial profiling have also been added. Outlines the scientific principles and practice standards of BEA-oriented criminal profiling, with an emphasis on applying theory to real cases Contains contributions from law enforcement, academia, mental health fields, and forensic science communities Includes a complete glossary of terms, along with an instructor website and student companion site

Book Criminal Law

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jens David Ohlin
  • Publisher : Aspen Publishing
  • Release : 2021-09-14
  • ISBN : 1543835139
  • Pages : 1129 pages

Download or read book Criminal Law written by Jens David Ohlin and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 1129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purchase of this ebook edition does not entitle you to receive access to the Connected eBook with Study Center on CasebookConnect. You will need to purchase a new print book to get access to the full experience, including: lifetime access to the online ebook with highlight, annotation, and search capabilities; practice questions from your favorite study aids; an outline tool and other helpful resources. Jens Ohlin’s Criminal Law is designed to respond to the changing nature of law teaching by offering a shorter, flexible, and more doctrinal approach, with an emphasis on application. Materials are presented, in a visually lively style, via a consistently structured pedagogy within each chapter: Doctrine (treatise-like explanation), Application (cases), and Practice/Policy (questions providing an opportunity for normative critique of the law and exploration of practical and strategic challenges facing criminal lawyers). Theory is integrated into the doctrine section rather than conveyed through law review excerpts, so as to help students make the necessary connections to doctrinal issues. Aggressively-edited cases help keep the length to a minimum, and modern cases will engage younger students and professors. New to the Third Edition: New materials on mass incarceration, the “defund the police” movement, and prison abolition Revised chapter on Felony Murder, taking into account recent doctrinal developments, including California’s repeal of the doctrine Revised chapter on Provocation New Problem Case dealing with “Swatting” New chapter on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice, covering obstruction of justice, perjury, bribery, corruption, and contempt of court Professors and students will benefit from: Structure and content which line up with how professors actually teach the course, as opposed to how the course was taught a generation ago Integrated notes throughout the casebook, directing students to view a series of 20 short video clips that bring the doctrinal controversies to life in a fictional courtroom Shorter-than-average casebook length, helping to make it more manageable for professors with reduced course hours Brief chapters, each focusing on a single doctrine Innovative pedagogy emphasizing application of law to facts (while still retaining enough flexibility so as to be useful for a variety of professors with different teaching styles) Theory interwoven into doctrine materials (rather than rigorous law review excerpts) New, fresh, tightly-edited cases Post-case notes and questions to invite closer examination of doctrine/application and to generate class discussion “Problem Case” boxes (featuring high-profile cases and which include discussion questions) Hypotheticals “Afterward” boxes (following some cases) “Advice” boxes “Practice and Policy” sections in each chapter, urging students to consider how the various actors in the process (prosecutors, defense counsel, judges and juries) make particular decisions and the strategic calculations that informed them, and make this casebook more practice-ready than others Open, two-color design with appealing visual elements (including carefully-selected photographs)

Book The Law of the Police

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rachel Harmon
  • Publisher : Aspen Publishing
  • Release : 2021-02-16
  • ISBN : 1454891130
  • Pages : 944 pages

Download or read book The Law of the Police written by Rachel Harmon and published by Aspen Publishing. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 944 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This important new book provides materials and analysis for law school classes on policing and the law. It offers a resource for students and others seeking to understand and evaluate how American law governs police interactions with the public. The book provides primary materials, including cases, statutes, and departmental policies, and commentary and questions designed to help readers explore policing practices; the law that governs them; and the law’s consequences for the costs, benefits, fairness, and accountability of policing. Among other issues, the notes and questions encourage readers to consider the form and content of the law; how it might change; who is making it; and how the law affects policing. Part I introduces local policing—its history, its goals, and its problems; Part II considers the law that regulates criminal investigations; Part III addresses the law that governs street policing; and Part IV looks at policing’s legal remedies and reforms. Professors and students will benefit from: Chapters and notes designed to allow flexibility—allow professors to assign materials selectively according to the needs of the course. As a result, the casebook can serve as materials for a range of lecture and discussion-based courses on the law regulating police conduct; on legal remedies and reforms for problems in policing; or on more specific topics, such as the use of force or constitutional rules governing police conduct. Descriptions of controversial policing encounters and links to and discussion of videos of such incidents—help students practice applying the law, consider its policy implications, and gain awareness of contemporary controversies on policing. Diverse primary materials, including federal and state cases and statutes and police department policies—provide a broad exposure to the types of law that govern public policing. Photos, links to videos, protest art, and charts—pique student interest, enable richer discussions, and provide additional context for legal materials in the book. Integration of scholarly work on policing, on the law, and on the impact of police practices—enables students to make more sophisticated assessments of the law. Notes and questions—designed to (a) highlight alternative strategies lawyers might use to change the law, and (b) raise comparative institutional questions about who is best suited to regulate the police. Discussion of legal topics relevant to contemporary discussions of policing—studied nowhere else in the law school curriculum.

Book The War on Cops

    Book Details:
  • Author : Heather Mac Donald
  • Publisher : Encounter Books
  • Release : 2016-06-21
  • ISBN : 1594038767
  • Pages : 196 pages

Download or read book The War on Cops written by Heather Mac Donald and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2016-06-21 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Violent crime has been rising sharply in many American cities after two decades of decline. Homicides jumped nearly 17 percent in 2015 in the largest 50 cities, the biggest one-year increase since 1993. The reason is what Heather Mac Donald first identified nationally as the “Ferguson effect”: Since the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, officers have been backing off of proactive policing, and criminals are becoming emboldened. This book expands on Mac Donald’s groundbreaking and controversial reporting on the Ferguson effect and the criminal-justice system. It deconstructs the central narrative of the Black Lives Matter movement: that racist cops are the greatest threat to young black males. On the contrary, it is criminals and gangbangers who are responsible for the high black homicide death rate. The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of “mass incarceration.” A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that “black lives matter” than today’s data-driven, accountable police department. Mac Donald gives voice to the many residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want proactive policing. She warns that race-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. This book is a call for a more honest and informed debate about policing, crime, and race.

Book Between the World and Me

Download or read book Between the World and Me written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by One World. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.

Book The Lynching of Cleo Wright

    Book Details:
  • Author : Dominic J. CapeciJr.
  • Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
  • Release : 2014-10-17
  • ISBN : 0813156467
  • Pages : 352 pages

Download or read book The Lynching of Cleo Wright written by Dominic J. CapeciJr. and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 20, 1942, black oil mill worker Cleo Wright assaulted a white woman in her home and nearly killed the first police officer who tried to arrest him. An angry mob then hauled Wright out of jail and dragged him through the streets of Sikeston, Missouri, before burning him alive. Wright's death was, unfortunately, not unique in American history, but what his death meant in the larger context of life in the United States in the twentieth-century is an important and compelling story. After the lynching, the U.S. Justice Department was forced to become involved in civil rights concerns for the first time, provoking a national reaction to violence on the home front at a time when the country was battling for democracy in Europe. Dominic Capeci unravels the tragic story of Wright's life on several stages, showing how these acts of violence were indicative not only of racial tension but the clash of the traditional and the modern brought about by the war. Capeci draws from a wide range of archival sources and personal interviews with the participants and spectators to draw vivid portraits of Wright, his victims, law-enforcement officials, and members of the lynch mob. He places Wright in the larger context of southern racial violence and shows the significance of his death in local, state, and national history during the most important crisis of the twentieth-century.

Book Racial Profiling

Download or read book Racial Profiling written by Alison Marie Behnke and published by Twenty-First Century Books ™. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, racial profiling affects thousands of Americans every day. Both individuals and institutions—such as law enforcement agencies, government bodies, and schools—routinely use race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of an offense. The high-profile deaths of unarmed people of color at the hands of police officers have brought renewed national attention to racial profiling and have inspired grassroots activism from groups such as Black Lives Matter. Combining rigorous research with powerful personal stories, this insightful title explores the history, the many manifestations, and the consequences of this form of social injustice.

Book Ghettoside

    Book Details:
  • Author : Jill Leovy
  • Publisher : One World/Ballantine
  • Release : 2015
  • ISBN : 0385529988
  • Pages : 386 pages

Download or read book Ghettoside written by Jill Leovy and published by One World/Ballantine. This book was released on 2015 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in Los Angeles each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursued justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle"--Publisher's description.

Book Who Do You Serve  Who Do You Protect

Download or read book Who Do You Serve Who Do You Protect written by Maya Schenwar and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays and reports examining the reality of police violence against Black and brown communities in America. What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young Black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness? This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against Black, brown, indigenous, and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police. Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of Black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement’s treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting. There are also specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young Black men using police informant, and the failure of Chicago’s much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere provocation: the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe. Contributors include William C. Anderson, Candice Bernd, Aaron Cantú, Thandi Chimurenga, Ejeris Dixon, Adam Hudson, Victoria Law, Mike Ludwig, Sarah Macaraeg, and Roberto Rodriguez. Praise for Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? “With heartbreaking, glass-sharp prose, the book catalogs the abuse and destruction of Black, native, and trans bodies. And then, most importantly, it offers real-world solutions.” —Chicago Review of Books “A must-read for anyone seeking to understand American culture in the present day.” —Xica Nation “This brilliant collection of essays, written by activists, journalists, community organizers and survivors of state violence, urgently confronts the criminalization, police violence and anti-Black racism that is plaguing urban communities. It is one of the most important books to emerge about these critical issues: passionately written with a keen eye towards building a world free of the cruelty and violence of the carceral state.” —Beth Richie, author of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation

Book Critical Race Judgments

    Book Details:
  • Author : Bennett Capers
  • Publisher : Cambridge University Press
  • Release : 2022-04-21
  • ISBN : 1316732592
  • Pages : 725 pages

Download or read book Critical Race Judgments written by Bennett Capers and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-21 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By re-writing US Supreme Court opinions that implicate critical dimensions of racial justice, Critical Race Judgments demonstrates that it's possible to be judge and a critical race theorist. Specific issues covered in these cases include the death penalty, employment, voting, policing, education, the environment, justice, housing, immigration, sexual orientation, segregation, and mass incarceration. While some rewritten cases – Plessy v. Ferguson (which constitutionalized Jim Crow) and Korematsu v. United States (which constitutionalized internment) – originally focused on race, many of the rewritten opinions – Lawrence v. Texas (which constitutionalized sodomy laws) and Roe v. Wade (which constitutionalized a woman's right to choose) – are used to incorporate racial justice principles in novel and important ways. This work is essential for everyone who needs to understand why critical race theory must be deployed in constitutional law to uphold and advance racial justice principles that are foundational to US democracy.

Book Handcuffed

    Book Details:
  • Author : Malcolm K. Sparrow
  • Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
  • Release : 2016-04-26
  • ISBN : 0815727828
  • Pages : 274 pages

Download or read book Handcuffed written by Malcolm K. Sparrow and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2016-04-26 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current crisis in policing can be traced to failures of reform. “Sparrow surely is right to condemn policing directed only at crime rates rather than community satisfaction.” –The New York Times Book Review In the past two years, America has witnessed incendiary milestones in the poor relations between police and the African-American community: Ferguson, Baltimore, and more recently Baton Rouge, St. Paul, and Dallas. Malcolm Sparrow, who teaches at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is a former British police detective, argues that other factors in the development of police theory and practice over the last twenty-five years have also played a major role in contributing to these tragedies and to a great many other cases involving excessive police force and community alienation. Sparrow shows how the core ideas of community and problem-solving policing have failed to thrive. In many police departments these foundational ideas have been reduced to mere rhetoric. The result is heavy reliance on narrow quantitative metrics, where police define how well they are doing by tallying up traffic stops, or arrests made for petty crimes. Sparrow's analysis shows what it will take for police departments to escape their narrow focus and perverse metrics and turn back to making public safety and public cooperation their primary goals. Police, according to Sparrow, are in the risk-control business and need to grasp the fundamental nature of that challenge and develop a much more sophisticated understanding of its implications for mission, methods, measurement, partnerships, and analysis.

Book Playing the Race Card

Download or read book Playing the Race Card written by Linda Williams and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The black man suffering at the hands of whites, the white woman sexually threatened by the black man. Both images have long been burned into the American conscience through popular entertainment, and today they exert a powerful and disturbing influence on Americans' understanding of race. So argues Linda Williams in this boldly inquisitive book, where she probes the bitterly divisive racial sentiments aroused by such recent events as O. J. Simpson's criminal trial. Williams, the author of Hard Core, explores how these images took root, beginning with melodramatic theater, where suffering characters acquire virtue through victimization. The racial sympathies and hostilities that surfaced during the trial of the police in the beating of Rodney King and in the O. J. Simpson murder trial are grounded in the melodramatic forms of Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Birth of a Nation. Williams finds that Stowe's beaten black man and Griffith's endangered white woman appear repeatedly throughout popular entertainment, promoting interracial understanding at one moment, interracial hate at another. The black and white racial melodrama has galvanized emotions and fueled the importance of new media forms, such as serious, "integrated" musicals of stage and film, including The Jazz Singer and Show Boat. It also helped create a major event out of the movie Gone With the Wind, while enabling television to assume new moral purpose with the broadcast of Roots. Williams demonstrates how such developments converged to make the televised race trial a form of national entertainment. When prosecutor Christopher Darden accused Simpson's defense team of "playing the race card," which ultimately trumped his own team's gender card, he feared that the jury's sympathy for a targeted black man would be at the expense of the abused white wife. The jury's verdict, Williams concludes, was determined not so much by facts as by the cultural forces of racial melodrama long in the making. Revealing melodrama to be a key element in American culture, Williams argues that the race images it has promoted are deeply ingrained in our minds and that there can be no honest discussion about race until Americans recognize this predicament.