Customer Reviews

Our Enemies in Blue

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Williams' book is a grown-up's antidote to the standard histories of policing. Criticism of this well-researched book *must* rely on shrill misdirection, i.e. "he's an anarchist," because there is really no other avenue. There is no slack in this work and it is a fine companion piece to Katya Komisaruk's "Beat The Heat: How To Handle Encounters With Law Enforcement." Five Stars, no hesitation.

This book will appeal to those of you who are already educated to the reality that police exist for one reason and one reason alone : To maintain the current class order and hierarchies of society.
Let's be honest here. Poor people go to jail. Not the rich.
The idea that this book is filled with "distortions, lies, urban myths, twisted logic,absurd claims and bizare conlusions" (as one reviewer wrote) is certainly true if you've spent your life living in those wonderful, white, suburban hoods. If, however, you grew up in the neighborhoods consisting primarily of poor, black folk, you'll have no trouble seeing where the author is coming from. The fact that people either love or hate this book speaks volumes in and of itself. It proves many of the points the writer is trying to make. The police no longer 'protect and serve' the citizens of this country. If they ever did. They protect and serve the masters of America. The rich policy makers. The ruling white class.
You may not believe this, but that does not make it any less true.

Mr Williams exposes not only the extreme ignorance among the general population (as evidenced by the one-star reviews) of the United States regarding police abuse and corruption, but the institutions that benifit from the existance of a police force. It's no accident that those in positions of power rely on brute force to keep the "rabble" in line. Since 9/11 the violations into people's lives in the form of "sneak-n-peek searches", the TIPS program, spying into library reacords - and then threatening the librarians with prosecution if they inform anyone of this activity - is completely outrageous. The increasing number of unjustifiable searches and seizures, arrests and killings by the police in their "War on Drugs" fiasco has led to the biggest increases in prison populations and deaths. A greater increase in law enforcement does not mean a more protected populace; on the contrary, the more cops you have on the streets the more crime there is. Remember, police forces don't want to eliminate crime all together, because then there would be no reason for a police force, and all the graft and corruption that exists within them. Also, the culture of the police acts as a safe haven for those who have an authoritarian mentality. So, when the powers-that-be want your head clubbed by a cop, he shouldn't be that sympathetic towards your condition.

*Our Enemies in Blue* is a fantastic analysis of the systemic nature of bolice corruption and brutality. Williams brilliantly takes on the major myths about police - that they have the most dangerous job there is, that brutality is rare, that corruption and violence are the fault of a few bad apples, and that they do good for communities. Williams charts the history of the modern police state from its British and American roots. This book is of urgent necessity for anyone that opposes racism and dreams of a better world.

While a claim of bias might be accurate, the history and statistics inside the book show how far from simple minded the author is. A simple mind would not be able to figure out the Police are here to serve the interests of the wealthy. A simple mind would dismiss an entire book because of their desire to go with the crowd rather than question what is presumed to be a necessity.

Hopefully more and more people will come to realize that the Police are here to keep the majority(the 99% of Americans who are fed a bone and kept happy by their unbelievably blind and childish materialistic desires) in line and following the bias rules (difference of jailtime for cocaine vs crack for example) so the wealthy 1% can keep stealing the money from them. To sit here and deny the problems with violent police officers, racist and class-warfare laws directed at those with the numbers to change the system for the better would be extremely arrogant and simple minded.

Here's hoping the future generation will overcome the ridiculously baseless concepts of a free society with opportunities for everyone as long as you work hard and look out to the world and realize the reason we are hated is because of our scary ability to sleep at night while policies are not created to actually help those in need but rather to keep them "in their place."

Very well researched. Every controversial claim is backed up with a wealth of scholarly information.

This book deftly serves up a wealth of material to try to convince your liberal friends (I'm presuming 'you' are a radical) that the police really are a pillar of racism and capitalism, and not simply a bunch of oppressed workers who don't understand that the protesters they are hitting on the head are actually on their side. But even better, Williams account has real intellectual substance, both historical and sociological. As history, he grounds the evolution of the police in the evolution of American racism, dating back to the slave patrols. As sociology, he scoops the 'bringing the state back in' crowd, which, for all its talk about the importance of looking at institutions of the state, has missed the growing autonomy and political power of the police in the US. My only kvetch is that he fails to look more than superficially at the roots of public support for the police--but I suppose you can't do everything in one book.

Mr. Williams book, despite its shocking title, neither proves the police to be "our" enemy nor offers any constructive suggestions as to how to correct existing police excesses. The book relies on the archaic concept of the "capitalist" or "ruling" class and the "worker" class as the basis for its argument. I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Williams truly sees these divisions in 21st Century America. The current American service economy filled with small business people and contract labor is not the 19th Century of Mr. Williams' fond memory. He writes for a country of robber barons and oppressed workers that never existed. In his vastly simplified view of the Industrial Revolution, Mr. Williams idientifies the police as the iron fist of capitalist control of American society. It is a view that might have found more traction 100 years ago than today.

The only solutions he offers are policing without the state. The two hopeful examples he cites involve homogenous minority communities, without access to the perquisites of the majority. The people's court he cites as a sign of hope could not survive in a diverse society such as our own. He is also forced to readily admit that the solution he proposes was for the accused often worse than existing system.

The book is full of misrepresentations and inconsistencies that seriously undermine his basic thesis. He claims that while police are currently obessed with officer safety, policing is not a particularly dangerous line of work. He cites government statistics that show mining and agriculture as more deadly. This completely misses the point. The relevant statistic would be the number of homicides within a given field. Seen in that light, policing is suddenly much more dangerous than mining or agriculture. Mr. Williams tells of the Boston Police strike of 1919. While arguing that police are an unnecessary instrument of capitalist oppression, he tells of city overcome by looting, vandalism and gang rape when three quarters of the police went on strike. This would hardly seem to prove police unnecessary. Yet Mr. Williams seems unaware of this contradiction. This is not an isolated problem,but occurs throughout the book. Mr. Williams frequently cites court cases or the passage of laws as part of police abuses. Legislatures pass laws, judges interpret them, police enforce them. This distinction seems to elude the author.

This book is probably an enormous hit on college campuses where undergraduates can complain about the time a police officer caught them necking or made them pour out their beer and the injustice that represents. The greater injustice seems to me to be that Mr. Williams oppressed poor workers at the Soft Skull Press by making them print this nonsense and that he keeps this book from poor workers by charging $17.95 a copy.

This book is so full of distortions, lies, urban myths, twisted logic,absurd claims and bizare conlusions; that you wonder when reading it, if the author is really serious or the whole thing is some kind of Saturday Night Live parody. On the back cover where they print the endorsements you have Ward Churchill (of little Eichmans fame) and convicted cop executioner Muma. You think they must be kidding, who in their right mind thinks these guys endorsement adds to the credibility of your book.
One expects books like this to be biased and demagogic, but make some effort to be persuasive to those who may be sympathetic to their point of view.
Reading this book is like listening to a paranoid Schizophrenic ramble on about how the CIA has installed a listening device into one of there fillings. You are so tempted to say it's not the CIA, its the NSA that puts listening devices in peoples fillings.
I would read the 5 star ratings with some skepticism; I would interpret them as approvals of the premise not necessarily the quality of the content.

This is without a doubt the most biased and poorly written book I have seen in recent years. The author clearly has chosen the path of the unsilent minority. The author bashes Police and Police Agencencies. They are stereotyped in a fashion far more simple minded than the author accuses them of being themselves. Accusing law enforcement of wrong doing is what sells, whether or not what is said is true or not. The author chose to make a buck rahter than speak the truth. This book shows his ingnorance and unrealistic approach and report of America in this day and age. Rather then search for comprehensive solutions to the crime in this nation, the autor has chosen to jump onto the band wagon and mearly criticize. No talent, no realism, and no originality. A dollar is a dollar as is obvious with this book.