Something for your Summer Reading List (Book by Norm Stamper)

[Pangloss]

Norm Stamper was the chief of police in Seattle during the 1999 WTO-related riots there. His book about it came out about a month ago, and looks very interesting. Stamper was apparently seen as a progressive, reformist police chief, and it must have been a blow to left-of-center supporters of reform in the police department when all this came down. I'm afraid I don't know much about it -- just what I've read in the links below -- so I'm just setting the table here, don't take my comments as definitive. Check out these links for more info:

 

Amazon has the book for sale here .

 

From the book description:

 

Norm Stamper, formerly chief of the Seattle Police Force and deputy chief of the San Diego Police Department, has written a story unlike any other. Part memoir, part polemic on the state of policing in America, Breaking Rank melds progressive politics with hard-boiled reportage in the tradition of Charles Bukowski and Elmore Leonard.

 

With provocatively titled chapters like "Why White Cops Kill Black Men" and "Sexual Predators in Uniform," Stamper reveals a force that can be racist, corrupt, overly militaristic, and chauvinist, yet is also made up of brave and good men and women. He reflects upon what it is like to kill a man, why drugs should be decriminalized, the correct approach to prostitution and gun control, and how the force should be trained for the future. Stamper’s prescriptions for change are both reasoned and challenging, but at no time does Breaking Rank become didactic— it is a riveting story told from the perspective of one of America's top cops on the street.

 

Here are two interesting links. The first one is a story about Stamper, and the second one is a chapter from the book that has been reprinted in Seattle Weekly. The links do not ask for registration at the moment.

 

A Good Cop Wasted (Story in Seattle Weekly)

 

Book Excerpt from Seattle Weekly

[husmusen]

Sounds like an interesting book.

It never hurts to get all sides of a story.

 

Cheers.