« My Senator on Kelo | Main | I Am Also Reading »
June 30, 2005
Homicide
After reading a recomendation by Jack Dunphy in National Review a few months ago I decided to read Homicide: A year on the Killing Streets by David Simon. It was often a depressing book that follows a squad of Baltimore detectives as they investigate dozens of murders and other deaths across the city. The most depressing part of the book was when Simon estimated that if you committed a murder in Baltimore there was only a 30-40% chance that you would actually go to prison for it. The other startling information was how often people would confess while being interrogated (while others volunteered to the police that they murdered people without even being asked) and how different communities reacted to violence, with some groups not talking to police at all while others would give the police too much information. I definitely could not do that job with the long inconsistent hours and the constant dealing with the worst types of people. The worst part would be the assumption that everyone you dealt with was always lying and that it was your job to out smart and often to out lie them. I definitely lack the ability to match names and faces as well as most of the detectives in the book. The book did have its lighter moments with one detective constantly asking another new detective for a quarter which he always pocketed. My favorite anecdote was the local kid who always stole the pile of cash in street craps games until one day his fellow gamblers got tired of it and shot him. When asked why they did not just kick him out of the games earlier they said they couldn't because "this is America."
Posted by Pete at June 30, 2005 07:08 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.petetheelder.com/mt-tb.cgi/580