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Turnpike Trooper
Harrowing experiences and shocking details regarding the societal phenomenon known as, 'Racial Profiling" fill the pages of this true story based on the life of New Jersey State Trooper John Hogan. Following his involvement in the infamous, 'Turnpike Shooting" which ignited the nation's firestorm regarding the issue of racial profiling, observe a first hand look at how New Jersey's politicians, not the facts of the case, influenced the outcome of this tragedy. Turnpike Trooper is an emotional depiction of the selection process and training regiment of the New Jersey State Police and ultimately takes you on patrol on one of America's most dangerous roadways, the enigma known as the New Jersey Turnpike. Witness how Trooper Hogan's unblemished service career, reputation and life were singled out and shattered - solely for political gain by New Jersey's elected officials.
Hardcover
First published September 6, 2005
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May 12, 2012
Turnpike Trooper is possibly the worst book I have ever read. And I have read a lot of books. The only reason I do not think it is the worst book ever written is because I do not possess the self-arrogance to believe that I would just so happen to read that book nor possess the faculties or experiences to make that type of declaration. However, Turnpike Trooper (TT) is, if nothing else, a terrible, terrible book.
TT is an autobiography of New Jersey State Trooper John Hogan. Hogan is known most for the April 23, 1999 shooting of four African American males driving a mini-van on the NJ Turnpike which sparked a national debate on “racial profiling.” The van contained no drugs, weapons or contraband. Hogan spends the majority of the book explaining the actions of pretty much every human being in the state of New Jersey EXCEPT for himself and his partner, James Kenna, who shot the van a total of 11 times. To Hogan pretty much the entire rest of the English speaking world is responsible for the events of that evening, except the two guys who shot bullets into a van.
Hogan spends the first half of the book, predictably, describing his upbringing and his desire to become a police officer. But not just any police officer, no- a State Police Officer. It’s the kind of single-minded determination seen only in highly successful people and serial killers. He goes to the academy where, predictably, we are treated to many stories of how hard it was to train, do push-ups, etc. In other words, watch the first 25 minutes of Full Metal Jacket and you pretty much got the gist of it. Hogan loves it and hates it.
Once Hogan becomes a trooper, you get a great look into his head. He basically loves arresting people. Loves it! (I’ll explain the exclamation point in a minute). He basically spends each waking moment trying to arrest as many people as possible because Hogan is (and he uses this term many times in the book) a “foot soldier in the War on Drugs.” What is striking is just how proud he is of catching anybody he suspects of having drugs. He claims it was a sixth sense he develops and predictably entertains the reader of all the times his “Sixth Sense” is rewarded with large drug busts.
And just as predictably he neglects to tell the readers of all the times his “Sixth Sense” was dead wrong and he was bothering completely innocent people. Well, except for April 23, 1999.
As the book goes on, Hogan’s yahoo streak becomes readily apparent, and in some ways it’s refreshing. Here is a man that is unguarded, unedited and free to be himself. No matter how much I hated this book, the one thing I enjoyed was that Officer Hogan is just being himself without any inhibitions.
And it shows. Repeatedly and to his detriment.
Hogan, obviously, did not have an editor (or if he did, the editor was terrible). There are grammatical errors, typos galore through the book (an obvious one is the symbol < where a , should be. Look down at your keyboard and you will know what I mean), he gets dates blatantly wrong (book was written in 2005 and he claims at one point that the date he was looking forwards to- his graduation – was January 2006! Obviously, he meant January 1996), and he gets certain sayings and expressions horribly mangled (ie: in describing how the judge in his criminal case changed his mind, Hogan writes “The judge did a complete 360 degree turn!” Ah… no…. Officer, if the judge changed his mind completely, than he did a 180 degree turn – so he is now looking the other way. If he did a 360 degree turn he’d be facing in the same direction as he started). And Hogan uses CAPITAL LETTERS, italics, bold, and exclamation points extensively throughout the book to add emphasis. I guess nobody ever taught the officer that if he wants to explain something well enough, you do it with words, step-by-step logic, and then conclusions backed by evidence, and not ZOMG!!!!!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!
Regardless, all of this could be overlooked had the editor’s absence not been so obvious in the most pertinent place possible: keeping Hogan from labeling himself, in not so many words, as a yahoo so drugged on his own desire to advance his own career that the concept of “protect and serve” is as foreign as many of the “suspects” he pulled over. If Hogan is anything it is this: self-serving and ready to blame as many people more possible than to take responsibility himself. His career was the only thing in his life: he was unmarried, had no children and was absolutely hell bent on making “Trooper of the Year” for 1998 and 1999. As the tale unfolds, Hogan even lists all of his arrests during that time period, expounding on the drugs he took off the street. And one can only think: if you pulled over this many people and your attitude was always “I need to make arrests”, doesn’t that actually increase the likelihood that you will do something dangerous and possibly destructive in an attempt to “get the bad guys?” And isn’t it very likely that you will hurt innocent people in doing so?
As the book goes on, the reader has in the back of his or her mind, the reality that Hogan is racing head long into April 23, 1999. On that date, Hogan will be accused of shooting at 4 black men in a van. How do Hogan’s actions leading up to that event explain his character? Simple: he pulls over lots and lots of black, Latino and foreigners (usually people of color). But Hogan explicitly claims that he is not racist (he used exclamation points, but you get the idea). But there is a problem:
In the 200+ page book, Hogan never describes pulling over a white person. Not once.
And so, on April 23, 1999 Hogan and Kenna see a white mini-van driving erratically. They pull it over. The driver and passenger swap seats (the driver had a suspended license); the passenger had no experience driving a stick. Suddenly, Kenna appears at the passenger window and knocks on the window with something (Hogan does not say if it was the flashlight or, more ominously, his gun). Hogan is still getting out of his car when Kenna starts yelling and the van starts jolting backwards. The driver – having never operated a sick before –accidentally puts the vehicle in reverse. The driver actually ends up striking Hogan.
So, what is the logical response? If you are a police officer, apparently, you start shooting. And boy did they ever. The two troopers shot the van a total of eleven times, seriously wounding three of the four occupants. Hogan states that he was convinced that the occupants had drugs, weapons, and “the mother load” as he predicted. Turns out, actually, the most dangerous thing the boys had was a basketball, and they were harmlessly going to North Carolina for a game. No drugs, no weapons. Nothing. Whoops.
Hogan and Kenna are, of course, charged with multiple crimes, not least of which was attempted murder and reckless endangerment. They are also charged with minor offenses of falsifying police documents. Hogan claims that all officers falsify some documents and I, regrettably, believe him. As the book unfolds, Hogan has nothing but savage contempt for any and all politicians who he feels turned on him. He blames them for not coming forward and doing the right thing (which Hogan himself can never articulate). Hogan says that things should have been kept quiet and “internal.” I am sure that’s the way many people who make horrible mistakes would feel. But Hogan never addresses the reality: he was a public servant who was entrusted with the task of protecting the citizens of New Jersey: not filling them with lead. Therefore, it must be public because the mistake made left three young men seriously hurt and a fourth probably scared out of his mind. Hogan feels he was unfairly treated, but never answers the obvious question: What did you expect? You shot 4 black guys for no reason at all. Did you just think it would all “go away?”
Hogan has nothing but bitterness and anger for Governor Christie Todd Whittman and all the other politicians who were in office at the time of the shooting. He calls them names (scum bags etc), flings wild invectives at them and then, almost comically, claims he is not bitter about any of it. Again, an editor would have been valuable. But remember, these were the same politicians that Hogan loved when he was doing the war on drugs. They wrote him letters, piled accolades on him, and helped advance his career.
Hogan’s response seems to be: You shoot up one van with 4 innocent people in it and suddenly, you’re a pariah!” I know, Trooper Hogan, the nerve of some people.
As the story unfolds one thing becomes clear: New Jersey was harassing and pulling over black people for years for simply driving South (from New York) on the pike. But Hogan never states that this was the result of any planned coordinated effort on the police’s part. Instead, Hogan says, it was simply police officers doing their work. He never states that the police ever intentionally trained people on how to “racial profile.” He says they never gave a class on it and it was never in a manual. I had to ask myself if Hogan was serious or not: did he really think that those who criticized the NJ police thought that they gave classes in racial profiling? Did he ever stop to think that the racism was institutional and not as open-faced as being in the manual?
As Hogan’s criminal story unfolds, he complains bitterly about being “guilty until proven innocent” and how the whole system seemed arrayed against him; how attorneys were so expensive and how he was being railroaded. You know, explaining the feelings and sentiments of probably 95% of the people accused of crimes by the New Jersey State Police every day. In other words, the system was fine when Hogan was doing the finger pointing; but when the finger was pointed at him- well then, obviously, the system wasn’t working. Obviously.
Hogan complains how the case dragged on and on. What Hogan fails to admit (but I suspect he comprehends) was that the state of New Jersey ensured that the charges dragged on and on so as to get pushed down the bottom of the news page. Soon, other stories would be more important and this would be lost in the political shuffle. It seemed to me that Hogan was being politically protected. The state did an abysmal job prosecuting him, making so many mistakes that any judge with even a hint of judicial appreciation would have found an easy excuse to dismiss the charges. All the while, the state would have to look like they were doing something as civil rights leaders and activists kept the story in the media eye.
However, the judge dismissed the chargers, based entirely on prosecutorial misconduct and not on lack of evidence. I wonder how Officer Hogan would have reacted had one of his “big busts” been dismissed in a similar fashion? The state then appealed, won, and then half-heartedly brought the charges again a second time. Hogan pled guilty to the charges of falsifying documents, the state settled its claim against the victims for close to $13 Million and that was that. That was in early 2002, and Hogan even goes so far as to claim that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were a kind of “divine intervention.” Yeah, like I said, he really needed an editor.
Hogan’s last chapter is actually the best: he describes, step by step, how he went through the system and how the state of New Jersey had specifically not trained him in racial profiling. He explains that it was his “Sixth Sense” that made him believe that minorities were carrying the drugs. He also freely (and unabashedly) admits that he never once arrested or heard of a major drug arrest involving a white person. Hogan actually does a good job of explaining why this is so, and his logic, for the only time in the book, at least passes the “smell test” and is not just stupefyingly dumb.
However, Officer, that was never the issue. The issue was never that you did not pull over enough drugs; the issue was always how many innocent people were you badgering in an attempt to get your arrest numbers up, to stop “the bad guys” and feed your appetite for adventure? Officer Hogan is quick to point out that up until April 23, 1999 he had never had a complaint against him…
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Officer Hogan constantly decries the events that happened to him, while never taking responsibility for his own actions. In 200+ pages we never read why he or Kenna thought it reasonable to shoot 11 bullets into a van that had no drugs, guns or other contraband. Never does Hogan say who fired first or why they were firing at all. Never does Hogan ever say “Look, I may have acted too fast, but…” To Hogan, there is a black and white to these issues: good guys and bad. Good guys always do good and bad guys always do bad. He was the good guy that night so everything he did was good. So, if something went “wrong” than it could only be “a tragedy,” and certainly not the result of his poor decision making or desire to arrest somebody.
The book provides no deep insight into law enforcement, racial profiling, racial injustice, the criminal justice system, or drug enforcement. While there are some interesting parts to the book, it is a massive waste of time and space. It is simply the excuse machine of one angry young man who thinks everyone was out to get him and who never, not once, takes responsibility for his completely reckless actions. Avoid at all costs.
TT is an autobiography of New Jersey State Trooper John Hogan. Hogan is known most for the April 23, 1999 shooting of four African American males driving a mini-van on the NJ Turnpike which sparked a national debate on “racial profiling.” The van contained no drugs, weapons or contraband. Hogan spends the majority of the book explaining the actions of pretty much every human being in the state of New Jersey EXCEPT for himself and his partner, James Kenna, who shot the van a total of 11 times. To Hogan pretty much the entire rest of the English speaking world is responsible for the events of that evening, except the two guys who shot bullets into a van.
Hogan spends the first half of the book, predictably, describing his upbringing and his desire to become a police officer. But not just any police officer, no- a State Police Officer. It’s the kind of single-minded determination seen only in highly successful people and serial killers. He goes to the academy where, predictably, we are treated to many stories of how hard it was to train, do push-ups, etc. In other words, watch the first 25 minutes of Full Metal Jacket and you pretty much got the gist of it. Hogan loves it and hates it.
Once Hogan becomes a trooper, you get a great look into his head. He basically loves arresting people. Loves it! (I’ll explain the exclamation point in a minute). He basically spends each waking moment trying to arrest as many people as possible because Hogan is (and he uses this term many times in the book) a “foot soldier in the War on Drugs.” What is striking is just how proud he is of catching anybody he suspects of having drugs. He claims it was a sixth sense he develops and predictably entertains the reader of all the times his “Sixth Sense” is rewarded with large drug busts.
And just as predictably he neglects to tell the readers of all the times his “Sixth Sense” was dead wrong and he was bothering completely innocent people. Well, except for April 23, 1999.
As the book goes on, Hogan’s yahoo streak becomes readily apparent, and in some ways it’s refreshing. Here is a man that is unguarded, unedited and free to be himself. No matter how much I hated this book, the one thing I enjoyed was that Officer Hogan is just being himself without any inhibitions.
And it shows. Repeatedly and to his detriment.
Hogan, obviously, did not have an editor (or if he did, the editor was terrible). There are grammatical errors, typos galore through the book (an obvious one is the symbol < where a , should be. Look down at your keyboard and you will know what I mean), he gets dates blatantly wrong (book was written in 2005 and he claims at one point that the date he was looking forwards to- his graduation – was January 2006! Obviously, he meant January 1996), and he gets certain sayings and expressions horribly mangled (ie: in describing how the judge in his criminal case changed his mind, Hogan writes “The judge did a complete 360 degree turn!” Ah… no…. Officer, if the judge changed his mind completely, than he did a 180 degree turn – so he is now looking the other way. If he did a 360 degree turn he’d be facing in the same direction as he started). And Hogan uses CAPITAL LETTERS, italics, bold, and exclamation points extensively throughout the book to add emphasis. I guess nobody ever taught the officer that if he wants to explain something well enough, you do it with words, step-by-step logic, and then conclusions backed by evidence, and not ZOMG!!!!!!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!
Regardless, all of this could be overlooked had the editor’s absence not been so obvious in the most pertinent place possible: keeping Hogan from labeling himself, in not so many words, as a yahoo so drugged on his own desire to advance his own career that the concept of “protect and serve” is as foreign as many of the “suspects” he pulled over. If Hogan is anything it is this: self-serving and ready to blame as many people more possible than to take responsibility himself. His career was the only thing in his life: he was unmarried, had no children and was absolutely hell bent on making “Trooper of the Year” for 1998 and 1999. As the tale unfolds, Hogan even lists all of his arrests during that time period, expounding on the drugs he took off the street. And one can only think: if you pulled over this many people and your attitude was always “I need to make arrests”, doesn’t that actually increase the likelihood that you will do something dangerous and possibly destructive in an attempt to “get the bad guys?” And isn’t it very likely that you will hurt innocent people in doing so?
As the book goes on, the reader has in the back of his or her mind, the reality that Hogan is racing head long into April 23, 1999. On that date, Hogan will be accused of shooting at 4 black men in a van. How do Hogan’s actions leading up to that event explain his character? Simple: he pulls over lots and lots of black, Latino and foreigners (usually people of color). But Hogan explicitly claims that he is not racist (he used exclamation points, but you get the idea). But there is a problem:
In the 200+ page book, Hogan never describes pulling over a white person. Not once.
And so, on April 23, 1999 Hogan and Kenna see a white mini-van driving erratically. They pull it over. The driver and passenger swap seats (the driver had a suspended license); the passenger had no experience driving a stick. Suddenly, Kenna appears at the passenger window and knocks on the window with something (Hogan does not say if it was the flashlight or, more ominously, his gun). Hogan is still getting out of his car when Kenna starts yelling and the van starts jolting backwards. The driver – having never operated a sick before –accidentally puts the vehicle in reverse. The driver actually ends up striking Hogan.
So, what is the logical response? If you are a police officer, apparently, you start shooting. And boy did they ever. The two troopers shot the van a total of eleven times, seriously wounding three of the four occupants. Hogan states that he was convinced that the occupants had drugs, weapons, and “the mother load” as he predicted. Turns out, actually, the most dangerous thing the boys had was a basketball, and they were harmlessly going to North Carolina for a game. No drugs, no weapons. Nothing. Whoops.
Hogan and Kenna are, of course, charged with multiple crimes, not least of which was attempted murder and reckless endangerment. They are also charged with minor offenses of falsifying police documents. Hogan claims that all officers falsify some documents and I, regrettably, believe him. As the book unfolds, Hogan has nothing but savage contempt for any and all politicians who he feels turned on him. He blames them for not coming forward and doing the right thing (which Hogan himself can never articulate). Hogan says that things should have been kept quiet and “internal.” I am sure that’s the way many people who make horrible mistakes would feel. But Hogan never addresses the reality: he was a public servant who was entrusted with the task of protecting the citizens of New Jersey: not filling them with lead. Therefore, it must be public because the mistake made left three young men seriously hurt and a fourth probably scared out of his mind. Hogan feels he was unfairly treated, but never answers the obvious question: What did you expect? You shot 4 black guys for no reason at all. Did you just think it would all “go away?”
Hogan has nothing but bitterness and anger for Governor Christie Todd Whittman and all the other politicians who were in office at the time of the shooting. He calls them names (scum bags etc), flings wild invectives at them and then, almost comically, claims he is not bitter about any of it. Again, an editor would have been valuable. But remember, these were the same politicians that Hogan loved when he was doing the war on drugs. They wrote him letters, piled accolades on him, and helped advance his career.
Hogan’s response seems to be: You shoot up one van with 4 innocent people in it and suddenly, you’re a pariah!” I know, Trooper Hogan, the nerve of some people.
As the story unfolds one thing becomes clear: New Jersey was harassing and pulling over black people for years for simply driving South (from New York) on the pike. But Hogan never states that this was the result of any planned coordinated effort on the police’s part. Instead, Hogan says, it was simply police officers doing their work. He never states that the police ever intentionally trained people on how to “racial profile.” He says they never gave a class on it and it was never in a manual. I had to ask myself if Hogan was serious or not: did he really think that those who criticized the NJ police thought that they gave classes in racial profiling? Did he ever stop to think that the racism was institutional and not as open-faced as being in the manual?
As Hogan’s criminal story unfolds, he complains bitterly about being “guilty until proven innocent” and how the whole system seemed arrayed against him; how attorneys were so expensive and how he was being railroaded. You know, explaining the feelings and sentiments of probably 95% of the people accused of crimes by the New Jersey State Police every day. In other words, the system was fine when Hogan was doing the finger pointing; but when the finger was pointed at him- well then, obviously, the system wasn’t working. Obviously.
Hogan complains how the case dragged on and on. What Hogan fails to admit (but I suspect he comprehends) was that the state of New Jersey ensured that the charges dragged on and on so as to get pushed down the bottom of the news page. Soon, other stories would be more important and this would be lost in the political shuffle. It seemed to me that Hogan was being politically protected. The state did an abysmal job prosecuting him, making so many mistakes that any judge with even a hint of judicial appreciation would have found an easy excuse to dismiss the charges. All the while, the state would have to look like they were doing something as civil rights leaders and activists kept the story in the media eye.
However, the judge dismissed the chargers, based entirely on prosecutorial misconduct and not on lack of evidence. I wonder how Officer Hogan would have reacted had one of his “big busts” been dismissed in a similar fashion? The state then appealed, won, and then half-heartedly brought the charges again a second time. Hogan pled guilty to the charges of falsifying documents, the state settled its claim against the victims for close to $13 Million and that was that. That was in early 2002, and Hogan even goes so far as to claim that the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were a kind of “divine intervention.” Yeah, like I said, he really needed an editor.
Hogan’s last chapter is actually the best: he describes, step by step, how he went through the system and how the state of New Jersey had specifically not trained him in racial profiling. He explains that it was his “Sixth Sense” that made him believe that minorities were carrying the drugs. He also freely (and unabashedly) admits that he never once arrested or heard of a major drug arrest involving a white person. Hogan actually does a good job of explaining why this is so, and his logic, for the only time in the book, at least passes the “smell test” and is not just stupefyingly dumb.
However, Officer, that was never the issue. The issue was never that you did not pull over enough drugs; the issue was always how many innocent people were you badgering in an attempt to get your arrest numbers up, to stop “the bad guys” and feed your appetite for adventure? Officer Hogan is quick to point out that up until April 23, 1999 he had never had a complaint against him…
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
Officer Hogan constantly decries the events that happened to him, while never taking responsibility for his own actions. In 200+ pages we never read why he or Kenna thought it reasonable to shoot 11 bullets into a van that had no drugs, guns or other contraband. Never does Hogan say who fired first or why they were firing at all. Never does Hogan ever say “Look, I may have acted too fast, but…” To Hogan, there is a black and white to these issues: good guys and bad. Good guys always do good and bad guys always do bad. He was the good guy that night so everything he did was good. So, if something went “wrong” than it could only be “a tragedy,” and certainly not the result of his poor decision making or desire to arrest somebody.
The book provides no deep insight into law enforcement, racial profiling, racial injustice, the criminal justice system, or drug enforcement. While there are some interesting parts to the book, it is a massive waste of time and space. It is simply the excuse machine of one angry young man who thinks everyone was out to get him and who never, not once, takes responsibility for his completely reckless actions. Avoid at all costs.
April 28, 2019
First and foremost, thank god there are great police officers out there who keep us safe.
There is a lot to say about this book by John Hogan. First, the good stuff. This is the most passionate and unfiltered book I might have ever read. Perhaps because he could not get a real publisher, Hogan’s unedited intensity poured off of the pages here. It’s as if he transcribed a screaming rant into a tape recorder. When he describes a few intense scenes, he tells some great and interesting stories about his personal experiences. Whereas I get to drive up and down the NJ Turnpike with little worry or concern, state troopers have to drive around the “Black Dragon” wondering when they will be involved in life-threatening or -altering situations. Again, Hogan conveyed those realities well.
Now, the bad stuff. This is the most poorly written book I have ever read (again because this was not really published). I think he could have found a few friends to look over the book and catch some mistakes. Also, it’s like reading a bunch of ridiculous Trump tweets all strung together, with lots of irritating all-caps sections. In the first couple of chapters, he made clear to me that he should not have been a NJ Trooper: it was practically a maniacal desire of his. Also, I read enough elsewhere about the main situation, and I have just enough inside knowledge to know Hogan is lying in places, and racial profiling really was a thing. Also, for a guy so frustrated by unfairness, he readily admits to cheating on his entrance exam by paying a few hundred dollars for the answers in advance. Finally, his shock at the games politicians play was remarkably naive and unbelievable. And his reference of Gov. Whitman as a ‘bitch” was despicable. I get he’s angry, but that was just pathetic.
All in all, Hogan - according to him and a few other reasonable resources - was held accountable for a systemic issue. He should not have been the fall guy for all of that. It seems clear he and his partner made a few mistakes in the infamous shooting, as did the people who were shot. The penalties for all of them was too harsh. Hogan and his partner did not set out to kill people of color that day. But poor training seemed to be the norm, along with under-resourcing, and perhaps a bit of a toxic macho culture. I’m guessing a lot of changes have been made to training NJ Troopers since then. Even with the massive problems with the book, I’m glad I read it.
There is a lot to say about this book by John Hogan. First, the good stuff. This is the most passionate and unfiltered book I might have ever read. Perhaps because he could not get a real publisher, Hogan’s unedited intensity poured off of the pages here. It’s as if he transcribed a screaming rant into a tape recorder. When he describes a few intense scenes, he tells some great and interesting stories about his personal experiences. Whereas I get to drive up and down the NJ Turnpike with little worry or concern, state troopers have to drive around the “Black Dragon” wondering when they will be involved in life-threatening or -altering situations. Again, Hogan conveyed those realities well.
Now, the bad stuff. This is the most poorly written book I have ever read (again because this was not really published). I think he could have found a few friends to look over the book and catch some mistakes. Also, it’s like reading a bunch of ridiculous Trump tweets all strung together, with lots of irritating all-caps sections. In the first couple of chapters, he made clear to me that he should not have been a NJ Trooper: it was practically a maniacal desire of his. Also, I read enough elsewhere about the main situation, and I have just enough inside knowledge to know Hogan is lying in places, and racial profiling really was a thing. Also, for a guy so frustrated by unfairness, he readily admits to cheating on his entrance exam by paying a few hundred dollars for the answers in advance. Finally, his shock at the games politicians play was remarkably naive and unbelievable. And his reference of Gov. Whitman as a ‘bitch” was despicable. I get he’s angry, but that was just pathetic.
All in all, Hogan - according to him and a few other reasonable resources - was held accountable for a systemic issue. He should not have been the fall guy for all of that. It seems clear he and his partner made a few mistakes in the infamous shooting, as did the people who were shot. The penalties for all of them was too harsh. Hogan and his partner did not set out to kill people of color that day. But poor training seemed to be the norm, along with under-resourcing, and perhaps a bit of a toxic macho culture. I’m guessing a lot of changes have been made to training NJ Troopers since then. Even with the massive problems with the book, I’m glad I read it.
November 21, 2010
I recently had to do a research paper on racial profiling and I happened to come across this book. I was honestly surprised by all the drama and the emotional distress that one man can endure! One of the best books I've ever read!
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