Rise of the Warrior Cop : The Militarization of America's Police Forces ISBN: 9781610392129 Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Perseus Books Group Digital rights:Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time Subjects: Social Science;
"Are cops constitutional?" It's a bold and provocative question, and the more Balko (Overkill) delves into the history of law enforcement, the more that question seems worth considering. And yet it's not the mere presence of a police force that concerns the Cato Institute policy analyst (he readily concedes that one is necessary to any functional society); it's the force's gradual militarization that bothers him and many who've found themselves on the wrong side of a SWAT team. Our country's "founding statesmen were adamant about the dangers of armed, standing forces," but Balko argues that we have strayed far from their vision. From the creation of the first SWAT teams in response to the violent riots of the 1960s, to the literal war on drugs, the much-publicized crackdowns on the Occupy movements, and the increasingly frequent deployments of heavily armed units to address minor incidents (underage drinking, anyone? unlicensed barbers?), the list of questionable tactics and militarized raids has grown longer with each passing year, especially in the wake of 9/11. The problem, Balko insists, is that we "tend not to take notice of such long-developing trends, even when they directly affect us. The first and perhaps largest barrier to halting police militarization has probably been awareness." After reading Balko, you'll be aware, alright-and scared. Agent: Howard Yoon, Ross Yoon. (July 9) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Radley Balko is an investigative journalist and reporter at the Washington Post . He currently writes and edits the Watch , a reported opinion blog that covers civil liberties and the criminal justice system. He is the author of the 2013 book Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces , which has won widespread acclaim, including from the Economist, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal , and Publishers Weekly , and was named one of the best investigative journalism books of the year by the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University.
Since 2006, Balko has written dozens of pieces on Hayne, West, and Mississippi's forensics disaster. His January 2013 investigation, "Solving Kathy Mabry's Murder: Brutal 15-Year-Old Crime Highlights Decades-Long Mississippi Scandal," was one of the most widely read Huffington Post articles of 2013. In 2015, Balko was awarded the Innocence Project's Journalism Award, in part for his coverage in Mississippi.
