Tangled Up in Blue - Rosa Brooks

[Saluki]

I listened to the audiobook and this was really interesting.  The author grew up in a very politically left household.  Her mother is the author of the best selling book "Nickel and Dimed" and Rosa has childhood memories of being on labor union picket lines with her mother instead of picnics in the park. She ended up becoming a law professor at Georgetown and writes legal articles on police reform and the military, despite never having worn a uniform.  So she decided to see it from the other side and volunteered to become a reserve office in Washington DC.

 

Many smaller cities have volunteer firefighters, but not many have volunteer police.  In NYC, there are auxiliary police, who don't carry guns, and are used for crowd control during marathons or parades etc.  But they are expected to radio for police if they see something, not make arrests themselves.  Being an unpaid person interacting with criminals is probably not a great idea if you are a military age male in peak physical shape, but if you are a female law professor in her 30s, who is short and wouldn't be able to take a middle schooler in a fair fight, it's kind of ridiculous. DC, which is statistically a high crime city has volunteer "reserve" officers who go through the same police academy training as regular officers, and when they graduate are given a gun and a police cruiser and expected to respond to calls just like paid officers 

 

She starts out very skeptical of police and pro-criminal but softens her stance when she sees what they have to go through and the people that they interact with. Besides the voyeuristic aspect of watching a fish out of a water, it had some interesting takes on policing that she wouldn't have if she had stayed in her ivory tower. For instance, since cities have cut budgets for drug treatment, mental health, and homeless services, whenever there is a problem involving one of these issues, the only thing they have left to respond is a police officer who has no training in that area.  

 

There are always comments in cop shows about not wanting to arrest someone because of all the paperwork, but some of her descriptions of the bureaucracy are very eye opening.  

[james22]

3 hours ago, Saluki said:

She ended up becoming a law professor at Georgetown and writes legal articles on police reform and the military, despite never having worn a uniform.  So she decided to see it from the other side and volunteered to become a reserve office in Washington DC.

 

Crazy, but: respect.