Jill Leovy

This was one of the most affecting books I have read in a while. Two cops trying to make the streets of south LA safer for everybody. One cop pays a very high price. If I didn't know I was reading non-fiction I could swear I was reading Dickens so clear and uncompromising this painting of the underbelly of a city. The stifling courtroom. The painfully slow wheels of justice and the chaos of the hot streets at night.

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

FRTC

A wrenching look at the pervasive homicide suffered in black neighborhoods LA. Fair and sympathetic, and amazingly dry-eyed considering all the fear and misery involved. Very well-written and researched with extensive footnotes. Goes back and forth between individual people, depicted with great humanity, and overall statistics and trends.

Seek to understand. So which is it? Too many black males in prison for murder or not enough? This author claims the answer to black on black violent crime is to value every life to the point that every murder is investigated and prosecuted. In the short term, this seems like it would put more black men in prison.