Somewhat slanted, but less so than a lot of its detractors seem to imply. A decent read, and with consistently solid citations. Definitely not an, "I liked it," But very much a worthwhile read. ( )

A solid, interesting collection. I think if you're reading alongside other work about policing and police abolition right now (as I know many of us are, myself included,) I don't know that there's a whole lot here that is super new that isn't covered in more detail elsewhere. I think these short pieces through definitely could be used in excerpt, and I do think that the chapter on police violence against pregnant women in particular was the most new information to me and the most enraging in part because of that. If you want an easy entry, this is definitely a great place to start, and there are number of different voices from activists and writers, if you would prefer that to some other books out there that might be more academic (which isn't to say this isn't rigorous, but I think this is maybe an easier read than even like The End of Policing, which I read right before this.)

Definitely pick up if you're interested in teaching short pieces on police violence! Super worth it from a teaching perspective, I think. ( )

For anyone interested, this is still available as a free ebook from Haymarket. It's an anthology of stories/essays from journalists and activists and I found the first half (which focused on police brutality) informative and the second half (focused on resistance movements and community responses to police violence) energizing and provocative.

Enlightening and strong, needed and a beacon, written five years ago but could be today. I've quoted extensively from the book on my blog: https://niklasblog.com/?p=24887 ( )