Skid Row Beat [Paperback]

Loren W. Christensen (Author), Loren Christensen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999 | ISBN-10: 1581600127 | ISBN-13: 978-1581600124

"When I first came on the Portland PD," says Officer Loren Christensen, "skid row was a Wild West show nearly as insane as Saigon, where I had just spent a year. Its wine-soaked streets were teeming with drunks, dopers, jackrollers, pimps, crazies, fighters and killers, all crammed into a filthy 12-square-block area where violence was an hourly event and death loomed nearly every bloody night." With honesty and flair, Christensen offers a rare curbside glimpse into the gritty urban world of skid row. In this colorful tribute to the cops who have worked skid row, as well as the characters who have lived there, Christensen preserves for all time that place where, for decades, man's inhumanity to man revealed itself in a million sordid stories.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Loren Christensen began his law enforcement career in 1967 when he served in the army as a military policeman in the United States and in Vietnam. He joined the Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau in 1972 and retired in 1997. During those years, he specialized in street gangs, defensive tactics, dignitary protection, and patrolling the bizarre streets of skid row. He now writes full time and teaches martial arts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581600127
• ISBN-13: 978-1581600124
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,482,092 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Mr. Christensen began training in the martial arts in 1965 and continues to this day. Over the years he has earned a total of 11 black belts, eight in karate, two in jujitsu and one in arnis. As a result of his tour in Vietnam and nearly three decades in law enforcement, Mr. Christensen's focus in the martial arts - writing, teaching and training - has always been on street survival, not competition. He has starred in seven martial arts training videos.

In August of 2011, Mr. Christensen was inducted into the martial arts Masters Hall of Fame in Anaheim, California, receiving The Golden Life Achievement Award.

As a professional writer since 1978, Mr. Christensen has penned 46 published books with five publishers, dozens of magazine articles, and edited a police newspaper for nearly eight years. He has written on the martial arts, missing children, street gangs, school shootings, workplace violence, riots, police-involved shootings, nutrition, exercise, prostitution, and various street subcultures. His first first fiction--Dukkha: An Eye for an Eye--was recently published by YMAA Publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredibly funny, poignant and gross, July 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Skid Row Beat (Paperback)

I loved this book and so has everyone I have lent it to. I laughed, was moved and disgusted all in the same story. It's an incredible revelation of the human condition. The anecdotes, which range from one to four pages long, chronicle events from the 70's and 80's, as well as a few recent incidents, in an area one officer in the book called, "A place forgotten by God."

Policing was indeed different back then, and if you've been around long enough, this curb side look at skid row will have you laughing and saying to yourself, "Oh yea, I remember that." Like any good story teller, Christensen has woven some tales together and modified some he could not other wise have told.

While Loren lived most of these stories, other officers contributed a few. Some of the anecdotes are so disgusting that you will have to put the book down, though a short time later you will want to pick it up and resume where you left off. There are four chapters: Characters, Sex, Violence and Bodily Excretions, and Loren says there are several stories that could have fit into all of them. He says that Skid Row Beat is not for the easily offended, the overly politically correct, or those who view community policing as a religious experience. The tales run the gamut from absolutely hilarious, to stomach-turning gross, to poignant. One story will offend, another will move you, and another you will retell to your friends. Skid Row Beat is a quick read and I suspect more than one copy will find its way into the "library" next to the porcelain throne where one can read a story or two, put the book down and pick it up the next time you are making a visit.

This book reflects a time before "politically correct" was even a thought, much less a phrase. Times were different, and after reading the book you can only reflect that we have come a long way since the days when it was still a crime to be drunk in public, and the beat cop was expected to "take care of business" on his district. Many of the skid row beat cops were street monsters who were tough as nails on the outside, but with hearts bigger than all of outdoors.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, November 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Skid Row Beat (Paperback)

Reading the stories in SKID ROW BEAT is like eating potato chips: you can't stop after just one. I was moved emotionally, sickened and then forced to laugh out loud. Read this book. It's a winner

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As real as it gets, December 3, 1999

By 

Jeremy Schlott (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Skid Row Beat (Paperback)

A two word phrase can sum up my opinion of Loren Christensen's book, Reality Check. This book's look at what life is like on skid row is an in your face description of what some people have to go through each and every day. At times I found myself laughing out loud, and others weeping out loud, all with the realization that this was not fiction, it was truth. In Christensen's classic literary genius, he was able to not only capture my attention and mind, but my heart as well.