{"id":101493,"date":"2016-07-17T07:40:47","date_gmt":"2016-07-17T15:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=101493"},"modified":"2016-07-17T07:42:49","modified_gmt":"2016-07-17T15:42:49","slug":"wp-review-of-to-protect-and-serve-how-to-fix-americas-police-by-norm-stamper-and-the-war-on-cops-how-the-new-attack-on-law-and-order-makes-everyone-less-safe-by-heather-mac-donald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=101493","title":{"rendered":"WP Review of “To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police” by Norm Stamper and “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe” by Heather Mac Donald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Lozada writes for the Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n

TO PROTECT AND SERVE: How to Fix America\u2019s Police<\/p>\n

By Norm Stamper. Nation Books. 309 pp. $27.99<\/p>\n

THE WAR ON COPS: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe<\/p>\n

By Heather Mac Donald. Encounter Books. 242 pp. $23.99<\/p>\n

Mac Donald, by contrast, sees little wrong in the actions of America\u2019s police, and the tragedy in Dallas, in which five officers were fatally shot by a man who \u201cwanted to kill white people, especially white officers,\u201d lends urgency to her voice. The fact that there have been fewer attacks on officers during the Obama years than under the past four presidents is only partially relevant, since Mac Donald sees the \u201cwar on cops\u201d as a battle over reputation, policy and ideology as much as anything else. She decries the notion that African Americans are treated any worse by law enforcement as a \u201cdangerous lie\u201d and explains away any disparities as a matter of smart policing and grim arithmetic: Since black Americans commit a disproportionate share of murders and other violent crimes, she argues, the police must focus on their neighborhoods. \u201cThe public discourse around policing,\u201d Mac Donald writes, \u201chas focused exclusively on alleged police racism to the neglect of a far more serious and pervasive problem: black crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

…In \u201cThe War on Cops\u201d \u2014 so subtle with a badge in crosshairs on the book cover \u2014 Mac Donald is almost grudging in her admission of any misdeeds by American police. \u201cTo be sure, any fatal police shooting of an innocent person is a horrifying tragedy, and police training must work incessantly to prevent such an outcome.\u201d And later, she adds, \u201cof course, police departments must constantly reinforce the message of courtesy and respect for the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be sure. Of course! But Mac Donald invariably takes the police\u2019s self-assessment at face value, regarding any external requirements as onerous, unjust and ideologically motivated. The book is replete with attacks on journalists, activists and anyone else who questions police behavior toward African Americans. She calls out \u201cthe elites\u2019 investment in black victimology,\u201d the news media\u2019s \u201cthrill of righteousness\u201d as it \u201clovingly chronicled\u201d every protest against police violence, and the \u201ccodependency between reporters and rioters.\u201d (Her attack on The Washington Post\u2019s Pulitzer-winning coverage of police shootings get its very own chapter.) Her opponents aren\u2019t just wrong, they all must be liars with a left-wing agenda.<\/p>\n

Mac Donald is best known for her promotion of the \u201cFerguson effect\u201d \u2014 the notion that police officers are pulling back from vigorous law enforcement because they fear being branded as racists and that U.S. crime is rising as a result. Though crime is increasing following a decades-long decline, rates remain historically low. In the book, she acknowledges that the argument is \u201chotly contested,\u201d but she stands by it. (FBI chief James Comey has given some support to the idea of a Ferguson effect, while Attorney General Loretta Lynch has dismissed it entirely.)<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s message is harsh: There is nothing wrong with black America that is not the fault of black Americans. If black drivers endure more traffic stops, it\u2019s because they must speed more. If there are disproportionate numbers of black Americans in prison, that\u2019s just an accurate reflection of perpetrators of crime. And Mac Donald criticizes The Post\u2019s database of police shootings for categorizing as \u201cunarmed\u201d those victims who, in her mind, behaved violently enough to have it coming. She ridicules as liberal \u201cexculpation\u201d any notion that crime is linked to poverty or discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica does not have an incarceration problem; it has a crime problem,\u201d she writes. \u201cAnd the only answer to that crime problem is to rebuild the family \u2014 above all, the black family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos Lozada writes for the Washington Post: TO PROTECT AND SERVE: How to Fix America\u2019s Police By Norm Stamper. Nation Books. 309 pp. $27.99 THE WAR ON COPS: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,570],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blacks","category-police"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t