Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the Police [Paperback]

Jackie Sheeler (Editor), Bob Holman (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

On a daily basis police save lives, take lives, and risk their own lives. This is the first collection that allows us to see this: police officers not just as brutalisers or heroes but as complicated human beings in a position that is sometimes terrifying, sometimes rewarding and often questionable. It is this exploration of the dynamic point of understanding that makes Off The Cuffs unique. Existing books on police and policing give us a single point-of-view, a black and white story that portrays cops as either saints or villains. Divided into four sections - "Eyewitnesses," "Insiders," "Victims & Perpetrators," and "Dreamers" - Off The Cuffs gives us a diversity of voices, telling stories of fear, apprehension, love, brutality, death, sorrow, joy, hope and resolve. Out of this multiplicity of voices: convicts, police, bike messengers and established poets such as Charles Simic, Martin Espada, Kevin Young and Colette Inez - emerges a dialogue showing us the infinite shades of blue that surround the profession and the profession's relationship to the society they are sworn to protect. Off The Cuffs adds an important and unheard piece to this body of work: the usually disparate voices of cops, prisoners and everyone in between engaging with one another within the pages of one book.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Sheeler speaks truly when she says her anthology is both about police brutality and a tribute to the police. The poems in it appear in sections according to perspective. "Eyewitnesses" report everything from Rochelle Ratner's observation of police not noticing a man sleeping in a park to Sparrow's fed-up warning to New York Mayor Giuliani after "seeing" too many unarmed blacks shot by cops. In the fat heart of the book, "Victims & Perpetrators" are objects of compassion, condemnation, and mixed emotions on the parts of poets intimate with them. The "Insiders" include teachers of prisoners, correctional personnel, and one prisoner; while the "Dreamers" of the last section project visions of cops as they might be and of cops as some fantasize they are. Unjust, but not entirely baseless, rants sit next to expressions of deep love. The formal poems "An Operation" by master poet Thom Gunn and "Street Justice," a Kiplingesque ballad by the LAPD's Nat Read, stand out amid all the free verse, but nearly every piece here is a stunner. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

""This amalgam of sometimes tender, often brutal and always engrossing short poems explores the relationships between cops and civilians, victims and protectors, perpetrators and oppressors."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 281 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press; First Edition edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887128816
• ISBN-13: 978-1887128810
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,271,071 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Read!, October 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Off the Cuffs: Poetry by and about the Police (Paperback)

A wonderful collection of poems reflecting a wide spectrum of feelings about the police.

A worthy read!