No Lights, No Sirens : The Corruption and Redemption of an Inner City Cop [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "It was the early eighties..." (more)
Key Phrases: street mopes, gun collar, little junkie, Red Hook, John Conroy, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Virtually every cliché in every noirish police melodrama ever filmed by Hollywood turns out to be the God's-honest truth, to judge by this pulpy memoir. Cea, a television writer who recently sold three network pilots, chronicles his former career as a NYPD officer during the 1980s, from his bushy-tailed academy stint to his soul-destroying ordeal in the "Badlands" of Brooklyn. His beat is a Dantean landscape populated by-in order of decreasing humanity-whores, crackheads, junkyard dogs, "scumbag" defense attorneys and Internal Affairs desk-jockeys who don't understand that you can't play by the rules when you're on the street. Cea soon finds himself "test-i-lying" to prevent perps from being sprung on technicalities and plying snitches with stolen heroin in exchange for information. The oft-scripted existential dilemma of law enforcement-"'to fight them, you have to BECOME THEM!'"-duly wrecks his marriage and sends him into a funk of paranoia and rage. Cea apparently has an exact recall of events and conversations from decades ago, but the lavish detail piles up more stereotype than gritty verisimilitude. He faithfully quotes every "yo" and "bitch" uttered by the trash-talking ghetto poets he encounters and arrests, and his reconstructions of his own lurid arias to the nihilistic honor of cops-"'a filthy toilet bowl full of maggots is what this city is....and the only ones who stand between the babies and the furnace are saps like me! ME!'"-go on for pages. Somewhere in here there's an intriguing account of gradual corruption and the weird psychological dynamic between cops and criminals, but it's buried beneath a hackneyed, overwrought screenplay-in-waiting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

When he retired from the NYPD, the author was the fifth-most-decorated officer in the department's history. And he was still only in his early thirties. So why would an ambitious, aggressive, highly respected detective end his career so early? Because, like others before him, Cea had fought bitter battles with his own conscience over the way he did his job. The book explores one of a police officer's toughest dilemmas: When and how much is it necessary to bend the rules in order to catch the bad guys? This isn't a story of police corruption in the manner of Serpico or Prince of the City. This one is about moral corruption, about one man's personal descent into dishonesty. There is much to learn from Cea's frank and sometimes shocking memoir, which is written in honest, gritty prose. This may gather the kind of off-the-book-pages coverage necessary to reach a mass audience, but its strongest appeal will be to aficionados of true-crime and cop nonfiction. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• ISBN-10: 0060587121
• ASIN: B000EXYZPO
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #378,242 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BOOM!, May 27, 2005

By	Casandra Luara "crime lover" (Santa Fe New Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Lights, No Sirens: The Corruption and Redemption of an Inner City Cop (Hardcover)

I just finished reading No Lights No Sirens. I was rocked into the reality of hell that the author lived through and the people he had to deal with every day had to live through as well. The author made me feel as if I were there voyeristically watching something I definitely should not be witnessing. I read it in two nights, something I would not advise another reader to do, as in any horrific true crime book, it gave me chills and nightmares. The dialogue and prose was so conversational it didn't feel like I was reading, but listening and watching a very noir like film. I absolutely was blown away by this book. There is so much more to tell, and so much I learned about one mans opinion of an over worked and broken justice system, one he tried to fix himself but almost died in the process. Read this book, but not at night - trust me! It was a fascinating and scary slap into a dark dark world. I loved the book and can't wait for the sequel. What happened to the author after the fact? Please write another one!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW - what an amazing ride! , May 23, 2005

By	Frank Segler (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Lights, No Sirens: The Corruption and Redemption of an Inner City Cop (Hardcover)

I just finished reading this book, and I was hoping there were more titles by Robert Cea. Unfortunately there is only this one. Attn: Mr. Cea, can you hurry up and write another one? Thanks!

The author's writing style makes you feel like you are right there, with him in the car, in the run down bars and in the back alleys of New York City.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who can handle the language and violence. Beyond that what emerges is a book of complete and open honesty. You can see where every step seems to be a logical next step in policing. Let a heroin junkie go to get info on a perp with a gun. Thats a good move. A gun gets people killed, a junkie just kills himself. But a small step like that leads to him being completely intertwined with the mean streets and he ends up paying for it.

No more details than that. Its just too good :)

Buy it! You will not be able to put it down.

On a slightly different note, it shows how cops are the real backbone of our system, and they get dumped on from everyone. Defense attorneys, the media, even citizens groups - all for their own political gain. That really sucks, because a lot of good people probably get crushed by the system, who were just there doing a good job. I hate to think about that, but I am sure its true.

Enjoy !!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book I would recommend..., May 31, 2005

By	CJ Lombardi, NJ "CJ Lombardi, NJ" (new jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Lights, No Sirens: The Corruption and Redemption of an Inner City Cop (Hardcover)

I probably rate books a little different than the average person. I rate a book on two things that are very important to me. 1.) Does the book suck me into the characters and hold my attention? Do I want to keep reading or can the next chapter wait until tomorrow? 2.) Does the book take me through the story at a good pace and can I follow the book through no matter what kind of time line the author uses. I hate books that jump around to much and it takes until I am 75% through until the story finally makes sense.
Having said that, I couldn't put this book down. It was a true story of a cop that had to bend the rules to make justice work. I personally think he was way more corrupt than he believed he was but hey, if the author wants to see himself as a good guy, who I am to judge. This cop as are many, was addicted to the excitement of the streets. The uncertainty of the street fueled him every day. It ran through his blood and gave him life. The author takes you with him through the stake outs, arrests and money making of the drug business in NY. Great book I would def recommend it!