Police Brutality: An Anthology [Hardcover]

Jill Nelson (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

From the beating of Rodney King to the shooting by New York City police officers of the unarmed and innocent Amadou Diallo, incidents of police brutality have galvanized and polarized the nation in a way few other contemporary events have. This is a collection of 13 essays - by academics, historians, social critics, a Chicago congressman, and an ex-New York City police detective - placing this centuries-old problem in historical and intellectual context, and underscoring the profound influence police brutality has had in shaping the American identity.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For many Americans, the brutalizations of Rodney King, Amadou Diallo, and Abner Louima by police officers were shocking, out-of-the-ordinary events. For urban blacks and other minorities, however, they represent the extremes of daily life in an unspoken war with an "occupying army: the police." The 12 essays in this provocative anthology aim to push through the "public haze, thick and oppressive that surrounds the issue" of police brutality, to make clear the pervasiveness of the problem and how, ultimately, it affects us all. The contributors--prominent academics, activists, writers, and a retired black police officer--trace the roots of police presence in African American communities from slavery to the present and demonstrate how the racialization of crime has justified and perpetuated police brutality. The authors offer compelling analyses of the racial, class, and gender components of minority relations with the police and their implications for society as a whole. In a series of searching questions, Katheryn K. Russell asks, "What does it mean when a society ritually sacrifices the constitutional and civil rights of its racial minorities?" Richard Austin shows how the image of the black male has been criminalized and assesses the toll stereotyping has taken on black men's psyches. Patricia J. Williams even looks at the Columbine high school shootings in light of racial profiling versus the "innocent profiling" of white males despite their showing violent tendencies.

This collection is not a diatribe, however. Most of the contributors offer up legitimate solutions, from a dismantling of the police department to demands for social and economic equality. Ultimately, what stands out is the authors' stories. Each of them has suffered some personal humiliation at the hands of police, and many list others who have been killed or maimed by police, but who barely made the news. Blacks and other minorities will nod their heads in recognition while the rest of America discovers a parallel universe where the assumption that people are innocent until proven guilty doesn't exist. Police Brutality is an important work on an issue that can no longer be ignored. --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

In tones ranging from soulful to provocative to didactic, these 12 fiery essays by a variety of distinguished contributors argue that there is currently a plague of police brutality, foisted upon minority communities as a result of drug war "innovations" in policing. Editor Nelson (Volunteer Slavery), who teaches journalism at CCNY, addresses in a terse introduction the "outrage," "disgust" and "sadness" she felt after the police shooting of unarmed Amadou Diallo in New York City, which drove her to assemble this volume. Most of the contributions are excellent and even startling. Most thought-provoking is journalist and critic Stanley Crouch's fusion of harsh personal recollection (of his teenage brother being pummeled after heckling a police officer) balanced by the more modulated idea that the real danger to minority communities is their alienation from the police. Columbia law professor Patricia Williams contrasts the presumption of guilt that appears to hover over black youths with the presumption of innocence that allowed Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris to amass guns, ammunition and grenades in Littleton, Colo. Gripping "secret histories" of black experience come from Claude Clegg III's fascinating reconstruction of Elijah Muhammad's nascent Nation of Islam and its alternate hostility toward and pragmatic cooperation with the FBI and with Mayor Daley's Chicago machine. Other pieces (by NYU historian Robin D.G. Kelley and novelist and poet Ishmael Reed, among others) take an overly rhetorical, separatist tone. In light of the egregious violations represented by the tragic figures of Abner Louima, Rodney King and other victims of actual and alleged police brutality, one forgives this volume its forcefulness. This is a memorable and useful contribution to an increasingly volatile national dialogue.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393048837
• ISBN-13: 978-0393048834
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,969,998 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant and Necessary Work, May 9, 2000

By 

Dick Gregory, Civil Rights Activist (Plymouth, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Police Brutality: An Anthology (Hardcover)

In the wake of such extreme incidents of police brutality in the cases of Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima in New York City, and general heightened awareness of police misconduct nationwide, it is an understatement to simply say that this book is timely. However, beyond being timely, this work provides a brilliant historical overview of police brutality that the more recent victims and protestors need in order to connect them to the larger struggle that individuals like myself have been battling for decades. Along with connecting the young to the old, probably the most powerful element of Nelson's work is how it connects police brutality to the overriding issue of institutionalized racism in America.

Not only is this book a must read, it's a must study for anyone concerned with equality for all.

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading, May 5, 2000

By 

Fred (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Police Brutality: An Anthology (Hardcover)

This book is a must read for anyone who cares about the quality of justice in our society. Nelson and the contributing authors make their case in compelling fashion, and with the undeniable ring of truth. Incisive, well-written, and carefully measured, Nelson has compiled a devastating critique of U.S. police brutality towards blacks, and an equally powerful critique of the white complacency that allows it to happen. This isn't a rant. It is tightly controlled writing, and the collective work of the authors never sacrifices it justifiable dismay for loose indignation. Nelson's contributors also have thoughtful, pracitical suggestions for pulling ourselves out of this condition.

From the introduction: "Essays examine the roots of the police presence in African-American communities from the era of slavery until today, as well as the ways in which race and crime are framed and how the racialization of crime justifies and perpetuates racial brutality."

I'd love to see her next book examine the brutalities of the Texas prison system.

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Police Brutality An Anthology Edited By Jill Nelson, April 4, 2003

By 

Larry Murphy (Fresno, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Police Brutality: An Anthology (Paperback)

Outstanding! People who say this book is one sided must be living on the comfortable side; therefore, they have trouble seeing the truth. I have been out of the police business for several years, and I guess I had sort of fallen into a "read no evil, see no evil" trance. This book, along with Blue VS Black by John L. Burris, has given me a jolt back to reality. You can bet I will be doing more reading on this subject! There is police brutality in this country, Folks, and it is more frequent and involves more officers than we want to believe. Even the ones not swinging the sticks or spraying the pepper spray (among the many possibilities) are usually watching or walking away without taking any actions to prevent it. And yes, the brutality is being brought to bear upon Blacks and Hispanics far more frequently than to others. Just spend several years in a police locker room, as I did, and you will come to know the depth of the problem. Not only is racism carried out against people of color on the streets, it is carried out against police officers of color as well. I am the author of Blackjack and Jive-Five, a book about INTERNAL police racism. I lived the story. I know!