The Black and the Blue

Missing Two Very Important Words. In this book by former high ranking ATF agent Matthew Horace, we get an inside look at the problems and perils of policing in America through the eyes of a man who is both black and blue.

The book overall was very surprising to me, as I happen to be a former leader in the Cop Block movement, who has been active in fighting police brutality since a few years before anyone had ever heard of Michael Brown or Black Lives Matter (the organization). It was surprising in its balance, in that he at minimum admitted how bad police are, his own particular abuses, and that this is not “a few bad apples”, but the entire system and culture. All of this was refreshing to hear a cop say, and very welcome.


At the same time, however, rather than fully accept responsibility for not killing people, Horace routinely makes excuses and says that the ultimate responsibility for ending police brutality lies with politicians, community leaders, mental health providers, businesses, indeed anyone but police themselves.


Structure wise, the book spends quite a bit of time - roughly half its 14 total chapters (counting the epilogue as a chapter) - looking at the New Orleans and Chicago police departments specifically. The rest is a more general look using Horace's career as a lens. He looks at a few specific and infamous incidents, including the Danzinger Bridge, the aforementioned Michael Brown case that spawned the Black Lives Matter organization, and the Laquan Mcdonald case that threatened to plunge Chicago into chaos, through the lens of someone who both investigated and trained police in proper procedures, and often makes it a point to point out exactly where the police made the mistakes that resulted in the body bags.
Unfortunately there are also a number of grammar errors throughout the book, often a misplaced word similar to a word that was clearly intended.


Overall, this is a recommended book, if only because it is so thorough, balanced, and from this particular viewpoint. I would still recommend Radley Balko's 2013 classic The Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of Police in America as a better look at the overall issue, but this is a solid companion to that book. I'm going with 3 stars for now, but honestly there was considerable debate within my head between three and four stars, and I can see cases for both.


The reason for the 3 stars? Even while admitting his own abuses, he neglects two very important words America needs to hear from even formerly abusive cops:


I'm Sorry.