Tangled Up In Blue

Tangled Up In Blue

Adult nonfiction
"We're caught in a vicious spiral: as American cities and states
slash funding for education, health care, rehabilitation programs, and
other social services, the resulting poverty and hopelessness fuel
more crime and dysfunction, which leads to calls for more police and
higher law enforcement budgets--but the more we spend on enforcement,
the less we have available to spend on the vital social services that,
in the long run, help reduce crime..."
Rosa Brooks, author of Tangled Up In Blue: Policing The American
City, was married with the proverbial husband, two children, and dog.
She was a tenured law professor at a prestigious university at a time
when colleges are increasingly axing tenure tracks in favor of using
adjuncts. In many people's minds (including mine) she was living her
best life.
Maybe the security and routine felt a tad stifling. Maybe she
wanted one more challenge while she still felt capable of taking it.
She found a very big one. She applied to the Washington DC police
department to undergo rigorous training and become a fully armed
police officer.
The people in Brooks' life were far from supportive of her
decision. Colleagues who had researched topics like police brutality
and systemic racism in law enforcement feared that she was going over
to the dark side. Not to mention that her mother is a long time
activist and investigative journalist who, at that point considered
police officers to be the enemy of the people.
Brooks was not deterred. She applied and received her
acceptance letter in 2016. In Tangled Up In Blue she candidly shares
her experiences of training and placement in one of DC's desperately
poorest precincts, candidly including her mistakes and shortcomings.
That in itself makes for fascinating reading.
The book is, however, greatly enhanced by her often sobering
observations. Some of her most cogent concern the ways in which
arresting people and putting them in prison for far from violent
crimes, sometimes necessitated by factors such as dire poverty, can
set them on dire trajectories which it will be impossible to escape.
Brooks presents readers with the need for widespread reform. In
a speech she makes to college people and law enforcement personnel she
exhorts:
"And here's the challenge: it's up to us--and particularly, to
those of you who are young--to find a better way forward. We need to
acknowledge the very real threats we face, but at the same time, we
need to develop new legal and institutional safeguards to keep America
from becoming a society that's obsessed with security at the expense
of both liberty and justice. I have a few ideas about how to do this--
but I know that you will have better ones."
On a purrrsonal note, I am in serious countdown mode. Emily and I had
a productive shopping trip. Now all 25 backpacks are ready to go. I
plan for tonight. Meanwhile when I went to Orono Thrift Shop I found
a bin of awesome brand new children's backpacks for $1 each. Can you
believe that? I snapped up 11 to get ready for kids who move into the
park and probably next fall. I have money to snap up bargains like
that. I volunteered at the library for the last time until my next
vacation. Grad school gets pretty hectic. (Jules)
I am glad that cats don't go to grad school. We don't need to. We
are purrrfection incarnate. (Tobago)
A great big shout out goes out to all who contributed to the backpack
project and will continue to do so in the future. It is now a
tradition!
Tobago and Jules Hathaway



Sent from my iPod