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Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing
An award-winning investigative reporter reveals the troubled history of the LAPD in a gripping story filled with hard-boiled, real-life characters that bring to life the ravages of the criminal justice system.
Vividly drawn and character-driven, Blue is simultaneously a drama of cops, crime and politics, and a primer on American police policy and reform. Using the LAPD as the book’s spine and through-line, Domanick illuminates urban policing at a crossroads during the tumultuous violence-plagued years of the early 1990s. Years when the beating of Rodney King and the LAPD’s brutality sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, and police departments were caught between an often brutal, corrupt and racist past, and the demands of a rapidly changing urban population and environment.
From LA he then zooms to New York City, and details how the transformation of the NYPD that resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime—even while the LAPD remained in freefall for a decade more before it too begins its road to reformation. Blue ends in the summer of 2014 with crime at record lows, but events in LA, NYC and Ferguson, Mo., raising alarming warnings about aggressive racial profiling and the militarization of American policing.
Filled with political intrigue and cultural and racial conflict, Domanick’s fast-paced account distills this history through the vivid characters that shaped it, from America’s premiere police reformer, William J. Bratton; to Daryl Francis Gates, Chief of the LAPD during fourteen of the most tumultuous years in LA’s history; to Charlie Beck, a street-hardened LAPD cop who later becomes Bratton’s protégé; to Alfred Lomas and Andre Christian, former members of two of LA’s most fearsome gangs, who represent the other side of the LAPD’s war on crime.
Vividly drawn and character-driven, Blue is simultaneously a drama of cops, crime and politics, and a primer on American police policy and reform. Using the LAPD as the book’s spine and through-line, Domanick illuminates urban policing at a crossroads during the tumultuous violence-plagued years of the early 1990s. Years when the beating of Rodney King and the LAPD’s brutality sparked the 1992 Los Angeles Riots, and police departments were caught between an often brutal, corrupt and racist past, and the demands of a rapidly changing urban population and environment.
From LA he then zooms to New York City, and details how the transformation of the NYPD that resulted in a dramatic decrease in crime—even while the LAPD remained in freefall for a decade more before it too begins its road to reformation. Blue ends in the summer of 2014 with crime at record lows, but events in LA, NYC and Ferguson, Mo., raising alarming warnings about aggressive racial profiling and the militarization of American policing.
Filled with political intrigue and cultural and racial conflict, Domanick’s fast-paced account distills this history through the vivid characters that shaped it, from America’s premiere police reformer, William J. Bratton; to Daryl Francis Gates, Chief of the LAPD during fourteen of the most tumultuous years in LA’s history; to Charlie Beck, a street-hardened LAPD cop who later becomes Bratton’s protégé; to Alfred Lomas and Andre Christian, former members of two of LA’s most fearsome gangs, who represent the other side of the LAPD’s war on crime.
464 pages, Hardcover
First published August 11, 2015
18 people are currently reading
632 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
December 20, 2015
I received this book in a giveaway on Goodreads. I was so excited to read this.
I was born and raised in LA County, just outside of Los Angeles, so this book was easy for me to relate to. A lot of what happens in the book took place when I was too young to understand what was happening in the world, so I learned a lot about the LAPD.
The beginning of this book discusses the LA riots, which I knew very little about. All I knew prior to reading this book was WHY the riots happened. (Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to hear about what I remember from the LA riots, it's nothing crazy). During the LA riots, I understood that there were riots. At the time I lived in a neighborhood that was taking a turn for the worse. I was only 4 at the time, but I understood that we had to leave our home for our safety. We stayed at my Aunt's house in a more affluent neighborhood (with a police force that blocked off entrances and exits to city) until the riots were over. All I remember was worrying about my dog, which we left to protect our home and my dad and uncle went back to feed (my dog was fine and my home was untouched, the stores nearby were looted). Everything else I know about the riots is based on what my family told me. My dad and uncle had to go check on my stubborn, great aunt who lived blocks away from my home but refused to leave (she was fine too) and they brought what protection they could because they were white and worried they would be targeted. People in other cars didn't want to make eye contact because everyone was so scared. Stories like that. But those were stories about seeing the looting first hand and seeing shop owners on their roofs with guns to protect their stores. I never heard anything about why the riots lasted as long as they did, only why they started. And it was all terrifying to me.
I learned so much. This book was so well written and throughly researched. I had no idea the police force was so corrupt. I've had little contact with police officers who are on duty, and the few times I have, they have all been pleasant. Maybe it's a race thing (because I'm white, we all know about racial profiling), or maybe it's because I've always been good, but I've never had a problem with the police. But there was so much corruption I didn't know about! I can see why some people do have a problem with the LAPD after reading this, especially the old LAPD. It's fascinating to read about the cops who were abusing their power and committing crimes. I also liked seeing how Chief Beck rose to power and actually made positive changes with Chief Bratton.
I loved how the four parts of the book were titled: Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Somethong New. The book also touches on different cities across the US and problems they had (I'm looking at you, Philadelphia!). I think it is a fair representation of the LAPD. I did more digging on some things, and the author doesn't seem to be playing favorites (maybe a little). It was a really interesting book.
I was born and raised in LA County, just outside of Los Angeles, so this book was easy for me to relate to. A lot of what happens in the book took place when I was too young to understand what was happening in the world, so I learned a lot about the LAPD.
The beginning of this book discusses the LA riots, which I knew very little about. All I knew prior to reading this book was WHY the riots happened. (Skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to hear about what I remember from the LA riots, it's nothing crazy). During the LA riots, I understood that there were riots. At the time I lived in a neighborhood that was taking a turn for the worse. I was only 4 at the time, but I understood that we had to leave our home for our safety. We stayed at my Aunt's house in a more affluent neighborhood (with a police force that blocked off entrances and exits to city) until the riots were over. All I remember was worrying about my dog, which we left to protect our home and my dad and uncle went back to feed (my dog was fine and my home was untouched, the stores nearby were looted). Everything else I know about the riots is based on what my family told me. My dad and uncle had to go check on my stubborn, great aunt who lived blocks away from my home but refused to leave (she was fine too) and they brought what protection they could because they were white and worried they would be targeted. People in other cars didn't want to make eye contact because everyone was so scared. Stories like that. But those were stories about seeing the looting first hand and seeing shop owners on their roofs with guns to protect their stores. I never heard anything about why the riots lasted as long as they did, only why they started. And it was all terrifying to me.
I learned so much. This book was so well written and throughly researched. I had no idea the police force was so corrupt. I've had little contact with police officers who are on duty, and the few times I have, they have all been pleasant. Maybe it's a race thing (because I'm white, we all know about racial profiling), or maybe it's because I've always been good, but I've never had a problem with the police. But there was so much corruption I didn't know about! I can see why some people do have a problem with the LAPD after reading this, especially the old LAPD. It's fascinating to read about the cops who were abusing their power and committing crimes. I also liked seeing how Chief Beck rose to power and actually made positive changes with Chief Bratton.
I loved how the four parts of the book were titled: Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Somethong New. The book also touches on different cities across the US and problems they had (I'm looking at you, Philadelphia!). I think it is a fair representation of the LAPD. I did more digging on some things, and the author doesn't seem to be playing favorites (maybe a little). It was a really interesting book.
November 2, 2015
I received this book from the publisher and NetGalley for my honest review.
Mr. Domanick really knows his topic, this was a very well written and researched. I enjoyed reading about the history of the LAPD. A lot of this book is so true regarding the politics involved in policing. I'm retired from Law Enforcement and it's not an easy job. It's a thankless job, we are told to do things that we don't agree with. Those order are coming from the city council and trickle down. It's not the officer's fault, he's doing what he's told.
There is are a lot of good officers out there, there are some bad ones as well. I wish some municipalities would install stricter guidelines on recruits plus more field training on patrol officer.
Mr. Domanick really knows his topic, this was a very well written and researched. I enjoyed reading about the history of the LAPD. A lot of this book is so true regarding the politics involved in policing. I'm retired from Law Enforcement and it's not an easy job. It's a thankless job, we are told to do things that we don't agree with. Those order are coming from the city council and trickle down. It's not the officer's fault, he's doing what he's told.
There is are a lot of good officers out there, there are some bad ones as well. I wish some municipalities would install stricter guidelines on recruits plus more field training on patrol officer.
September 2, 2015
A comprehensive, deeply disturbing account of law enforcement apathy, brutality, and inhumanity in a large American metropolis. The term "corrupt" does not even begin to describe the Los Angeles city department, one chartered with public protection and service, that Joe Domanick has researched and illustrated in this work. Examples of abuse of power illustrated include hook 'em and book 'em, and the broken windows practice of "stop and frisk," while there are many others, such as "Prohibit911" described as a swing of the pendulum in other works. A sense of futility is palpable as one reads the history of experiments, misdeeds, and mismanagement. While this work deals with specific incidents and personnel in LA, more dimensions of such pervasive and corrosive culture have been depicted by Hollywood in
Training Day
and
L. A. Confidential.
A distracting read at times, with (minor) editing and proofreading errors, and without a clear sense of timeline or point of view. Nevertheless, an informative and enlightening work, albeit not one that offers hope in a nation with a consciousness wracked with disclosures of such culture and conduct by law enforcement all over.
A distracting read at times, with (minor) editing and proofreading errors, and without a clear sense of timeline or point of view. Nevertheless, an informative and enlightening work, albeit not one that offers hope in a nation with a consciousness wracked with disclosures of such culture and conduct by law enforcement all over.
March 22, 2018
Important necessary book about the culture of American policing seen specifically through the development of the LAPD from Rodney King to 2015, from thuggish paramilitary untouchables to a modern, accountable unit of city government. Expertly researched, vividly rendered. This is not the writers fault but I wish this book had come out in 2018, in light of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner and Sandra Bland and Black Lives Matter. Still 100% worth it.
April 6, 2017
Despite the Serpico scandal that roiled the New York Police Department in the 1970s, despite all the tales about corruption in the Chicago Police and the low esteem in which all police have been held in the public mind for much of U.S. history, it’s likely that no police department in any large American city so richly deserved its reputation as brutal and corrupt as did the Los Angeles Police Department from the 1940s until the early years of the twenty-first century. This, after all, was the agency that provoked the horrific 1992 riots following the acquittal of four white police officers in the sadistic beating of Rodney King.
In Blue, investigative reporter Joe Domanick focuses on the years following the 1992 riots as the city struggled to reform its police. As he so ably demonstrates, the police — from the rank and file all the way up through the command structure to the office of the chief — successfully resisted those efforts for a decade. Efforts by politicians and other outsiders were ineffectual, because in reality the police were left to police themselves. And that appears to have been the nub of the problem.
Only with the advent of the consent decree imposed on the city by a liberal federal judge, and the hiring of former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton as the new chief, did the advocates of reform finally gain traction. Now, more than a decade later, the most egregious abuses perpetrated by the department on the people of Los Angeles — most prominently, its black and brown people — are far less common. Domanick implies that police corruption is no longer endemic, there are far fewer murders and far less violent crime overall, and in most of the city the police are no longer viewed as a predatory occupying army. However, as he makes clear, the poverty, racism, and institutional inertia that were the ultimate causes of most of the abuse have by no means been eliminated.
In Domanick’s view, the heroes of the story are Bratton and his hand-picked successor as chief, Charlie Beck; the Los Angeles Times reporters and editors who published more than 150 stories to highlight the notorious practices of the LAPD’s Rampart Division, which finally forced the department’s criminal misbehavior into the public’s awareness; the resourceful police captains and deputy chiefs nurtured and promoted by Bratton and Beck who engaged the community and reoriented the officers under their watch; Gary Alan Feess, the federal district judge who handed down and later renewed the consent decree; a reformer named Connie Rice, who spearheaded efforts to combat gang violence in a comprehensive way instead of answering violence with violence; and the grassroots gang interventionists, mostly former gang-bangers, trained by Rice and supported by the chief. Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, played a key role as a supporting actor in the drama, along with a handful of brilliant outsiders brought to L.A. by Bratton and slotted into strategic positions to revitalize the department.
Undoubtedly, the decades-long effort to reform the LAPD was successful, but only up to a point. In an epilogue, Domanick reflects on Bratton’s legacy and concludes that it is mixed: brilliant, but badly marred by the stop-and-frisk tactic that was central to the “broken windows” strategy he had first championed in New York . Tellingly, now that Bratton has returned as Commissioner of the NYPD under Mayor Bill de Blasio, he has cut back dramatically because it had come to be so badly overused.
Blue helps throw light on the current debates about police conduct throughout the country. The book makes an important contribution. However, the publisher, Simon & Schuster, and the book’s editors, Karyn Marcus and Emily Graff, did a disservice to the author — and to all his readers — by failing to missing words and other editorial flaws scattered throughout the book. It’s a sad day when such a prestigious publisher should bring out a book filled with bonehead editorial mistakes. Where were the copyeditor and the proofreader when we needed them?
Joe Domanick is an award-winning investigative reporter, Associate Director of the Center of Media, Crime, and Justice of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and West Coast Bureau Chief of The Crime Report. He has been reporting on the LAPD for several decades.
In Blue, investigative reporter Joe Domanick focuses on the years following the 1992 riots as the city struggled to reform its police. As he so ably demonstrates, the police — from the rank and file all the way up through the command structure to the office of the chief — successfully resisted those efforts for a decade. Efforts by politicians and other outsiders were ineffectual, because in reality the police were left to police themselves. And that appears to have been the nub of the problem.
Only with the advent of the consent decree imposed on the city by a liberal federal judge, and the hiring of former New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton as the new chief, did the advocates of reform finally gain traction. Now, more than a decade later, the most egregious abuses perpetrated by the department on the people of Los Angeles — most prominently, its black and brown people — are far less common. Domanick implies that police corruption is no longer endemic, there are far fewer murders and far less violent crime overall, and in most of the city the police are no longer viewed as a predatory occupying army. However, as he makes clear, the poverty, racism, and institutional inertia that were the ultimate causes of most of the abuse have by no means been eliminated.
In Domanick’s view, the heroes of the story are Bratton and his hand-picked successor as chief, Charlie Beck; the Los Angeles Times reporters and editors who published more than 150 stories to highlight the notorious practices of the LAPD’s Rampart Division, which finally forced the department’s criminal misbehavior into the public’s awareness; the resourceful police captains and deputy chiefs nurtured and promoted by Bratton and Beck who engaged the community and reoriented the officers under their watch; Gary Alan Feess, the federal district judge who handed down and later renewed the consent decree; a reformer named Connie Rice, who spearheaded efforts to combat gang violence in a comprehensive way instead of answering violence with violence; and the grassroots gang interventionists, mostly former gang-bangers, trained by Rice and supported by the chief. Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013, played a key role as a supporting actor in the drama, along with a handful of brilliant outsiders brought to L.A. by Bratton and slotted into strategic positions to revitalize the department.
Undoubtedly, the decades-long effort to reform the LAPD was successful, but only up to a point. In an epilogue, Domanick reflects on Bratton’s legacy and concludes that it is mixed: brilliant, but badly marred by the stop-and-frisk tactic that was central to the “broken windows” strategy he had first championed in New York . Tellingly, now that Bratton has returned as Commissioner of the NYPD under Mayor Bill de Blasio, he has cut back dramatically because it had come to be so badly overused.
Blue helps throw light on the current debates about police conduct throughout the country. The book makes an important contribution. However, the publisher, Simon & Schuster, and the book’s editors, Karyn Marcus and Emily Graff, did a disservice to the author — and to all his readers — by failing to missing words and other editorial flaws scattered throughout the book. It’s a sad day when such a prestigious publisher should bring out a book filled with bonehead editorial mistakes. Where were the copyeditor and the proofreader when we needed them?
Joe Domanick is an award-winning investigative reporter, Associate Director of the Center of Media, Crime, and Justice of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and West Coast Bureau Chief of The Crime Report. He has been reporting on the LAPD for several decades.
June 12, 2020
Por pura coincidencia, estaba leyendo este libro cuando estallaron las manifestaciones y disturbios por la muerte de George Floyd a manos de la policía de Minneapolis. "Blue" es un libro perfecto para entender el problema policial en los EE.UU. El libro comienza con los disturbios de Los Ángeles en 1992, cuando cuatro policías del departamento de policía de Los Ángeles (LAPD) son absueltos de la paliza que dieron a Rodney King. Los disturbios fueron tan graves (los daños fueron de 1.000MnUSD de la época), que no sólo fue necesaria la ayuda de la Guardia Nacional, sino del ejército de los EE.UU.
"Blue" comienza con la necesidad de reformar la LAPD, y hace un rápido resumen histórico de cómo se había llegado a esa situación, y de la agresividad de la que se enorgullecía el departamento. La prensa y Hollywood llevaban décadas haciendo favorable propaganda del mismo ("Dragnet", "SWAT", "Arma Letal"), por lo que una parte de la población no percibía los problemas que estaban teniendo lugar, y culturalmente la policía se resistía con uñas y dientes al cambio. Aunque el centro de la historia es Los Ángeles, Joe Domanick también hace paralelismo con los problemas y retos que tiene que afrontar el departamento de policía de Nueva York (NYPD), un "monstruo" con 35.000 efectivos (el LAPD tiene 9.000, aunque comparte labor policial con el departamento del Sheriff, que tiene más de 15.000 efectivos).
Después de los disturbios de 1992 aún hubo otros serios problemas en Los Ángeles, como el caso Rampart, un ejemplo claro de corrupción policial con manipulación de pruebas y conducta criminal por parte de los policías. De hecho, más de veinte años después, el esfuerzo por reformar la policía continua. "Blue" es un libro largo y bien documentado, y salvo algunas páginas, no se hace pesada su lectura, y cuando se termina el libro se tiene una idea clara de los problemas y de las dificultades para solucionarlos, porque no solo depende de la LAPD sino de otros servicios públicos como ayuda sanitaria, fomento de empleo, o acceso a la vivienda.
"Blue" comienza con la necesidad de reformar la LAPD, y hace un rápido resumen histórico de cómo se había llegado a esa situación, y de la agresividad de la que se enorgullecía el departamento. La prensa y Hollywood llevaban décadas haciendo favorable propaganda del mismo ("Dragnet", "SWAT", "Arma Letal"), por lo que una parte de la población no percibía los problemas que estaban teniendo lugar, y culturalmente la policía se resistía con uñas y dientes al cambio. Aunque el centro de la historia es Los Ángeles, Joe Domanick también hace paralelismo con los problemas y retos que tiene que afrontar el departamento de policía de Nueva York (NYPD), un "monstruo" con 35.000 efectivos (el LAPD tiene 9.000, aunque comparte labor policial con el departamento del Sheriff, que tiene más de 15.000 efectivos).
Después de los disturbios de 1992 aún hubo otros serios problemas en Los Ángeles, como el caso Rampart, un ejemplo claro de corrupción policial con manipulación de pruebas y conducta criminal por parte de los policías. De hecho, más de veinte años después, el esfuerzo por reformar la policía continua. "Blue" es un libro largo y bien documentado, y salvo algunas páginas, no se hace pesada su lectura, y cuando se termina el libro se tiene una idea clara de los problemas y de las dificultades para solucionarlos, porque no solo depende de la LAPD sino de otros servicios públicos como ayuda sanitaria, fomento de empleo, o acceso a la vivienda.
May 31, 2021
This was a very thorough and interesting book that enlightened me to the history of how we got to where we are today. What I am mostly disturbed about is that this book ended in 2015 with a turning point happening for our country on what needs to change. Between then and now, I feel like not enough people read this book and now we find ourselves in an even worse situation, with facts exposed but ignored. I whole heartedly agree that there are several systems broken that have some type of working relation between them so just addressing one (like the police system) is not the end all, but a good start.
May 19, 2019
This book needed an editor both for spelling errors as well as for painfully obvious factual ones (Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were not killed "while they were strolling the streets of Brentwood" and everybody knows it). Heads should also roll for this single sentence: "It cannot be denied because it is undeniable."
The above notwithstanding, it's a thorough and artfully told recent LAPD history. I enjoyed it and learned a ton.
The above notwithstanding, it's a thorough and artfully told recent LAPD history. I enjoyed it and learned a ton.
July 19, 2021
A good accounting of the policing of Los Angeles. The Rampart scandal deserves a book on its own.
This book covers all the angles. Corruption, Gangs, Racist stop and frisk procedures are examined.
The performance of successive chiefs and commissioners are rated.
An interesting look into the complicated task of enforcing the law in a racially divided city.
This book covers all the angles. Corruption, Gangs, Racist stop and frisk procedures are examined.
The performance of successive chiefs and commissioners are rated.
An interesting look into the complicated task of enforcing the law in a racially divided city.
September 7, 2018
I remember working briefly for a Los Angeles City Councilmember back in 1993 and working on LAPD issues. This book is a fantastic read of the impressive changes in the LAPD and what it took to get there. Very well written because I often literally could not put it down.
October 16, 2018
the good: real police stories of corruption, city politics, police policy, l.a. politics, good background on people like Tom Bradley, Daryl Gates, Bill Bratton.
the bad: the author periodically devolves into criminology/police science speak, making some sections hard to read.
the bad: the author periodically devolves into criminology/police science speak, making some sections hard to read.
May 4, 2017
Fair book.
December 27, 2015
A special thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 4.5 Stars
Award-winning investigative reporter, Joe Domanick describes the transformation in BLUE, The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing --a riveting page-turning account of the LA police Department from the LA riots, the OJ Simpson trial, to the events of 2014, which began in Missouri and New York City; with effects reverberated throughout our country.
Domanick tells of a much larger bigger picture of American policing over the past quarter-century, and the challenges we still face today.The story is told through the lives of people who actually LIVED it—police officers, police chiefs, mayors, city politicians, gang members, and ex-gang members, community leaders, and citizens.
Thought-provoking questions: What constitutes good and bad policing? How best to prevent crime, control police abuse, ease tensions between the police and the powerless, and partner with communities of color to enhance public safety.
Joe mentions how he wanted to understand the source of the department’s extraordinary power, when he wrote his first LAPD book, a character-based historic narrative of the department called to protect and to serve, as a way to find that understanding.
Then there were changes in the 1950’s up to 1991 when the tension once again began mounting when four white LAPD officers were caught on videotape beating a black motorist- Rodney King. A year later the officers were acquitted, sparking the bloody LA riots. Thereafter little changed.
Why was the reform taking so long to implement? This is when he decided to revisit the LAPDs history starting with the 1992 riots and the writing of Blue.
Told through lives of the people who lived through the crack-filled violence-laden nineties, and then through the reforms that finally began taking hold in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Joe highlights two cops: One a police reformer and stranger to LA, the other a chief-in-training with LAPD roots stretching back half a century. The others were LA gangsters who embodied the fraught relations between the LAPD and the communities.
I enjoyed the way the Key Players are highlighted at the front of the book with a description of each, as well as sections devoted to the topics and time.
• Charlie Beck
• Tom Bradley
• William Bratton
• Andre Christian
• Daryl Gates
• Alfred Lomas
• William H Parker
• Bernard Parks
• Rafael “Ray” Perez
• Connie Rice
• Willie Williams
Meticulously researched, well-written, with impressive historical notes, references, interviews, and news reporting, as well as-- laid out in a very organized format.
Much of Blue is about cops and the police leadership, officers past and present. From crime, politics, and cops—policies and reform. Filled with political intrigue, cultural and racial conflict, income and opportunity. The politics and the business of crime and guns, our reckless sentencing laws, and the disastrous state of our public schools. All of this disparate forces together send generations of young Americans into the world’s largest prison system with no end in sight.
As the author notes, in 2014 both the American people and the American press began asking hard questions about the current state of American policing. We live in a violent, racist, gun-loving society. American society is in a deep crisis centered around our corrupt politics and institutions.
We have to start somewhere, and have to work for change within and within and outside American policing. Depending on your age or your geographical location, some stories may ring all too familiar, if you lived through those eras.
Highly recommend. Informative, Compelling, Timely.
JDCMustReadBooks
Award-winning investigative reporter, Joe Domanick describes the transformation in BLUE, The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing --a riveting page-turning account of the LA police Department from the LA riots, the OJ Simpson trial, to the events of 2014, which began in Missouri and New York City; with effects reverberated throughout our country.
Domanick tells of a much larger bigger picture of American policing over the past quarter-century, and the challenges we still face today.The story is told through the lives of people who actually LIVED it—police officers, police chiefs, mayors, city politicians, gang members, and ex-gang members, community leaders, and citizens.
Thought-provoking questions: What constitutes good and bad policing? How best to prevent crime, control police abuse, ease tensions between the police and the powerless, and partner with communities of color to enhance public safety.
Joe mentions how he wanted to understand the source of the department’s extraordinary power, when he wrote his first LAPD book, a character-based historic narrative of the department called to protect and to serve, as a way to find that understanding.
Then there were changes in the 1950’s up to 1991 when the tension once again began mounting when four white LAPD officers were caught on videotape beating a black motorist- Rodney King. A year later the officers were acquitted, sparking the bloody LA riots. Thereafter little changed.
Why was the reform taking so long to implement? This is when he decided to revisit the LAPDs history starting with the 1992 riots and the writing of Blue.
Told through lives of the people who lived through the crack-filled violence-laden nineties, and then through the reforms that finally began taking hold in the first decade of the twenty-first century.
Joe highlights two cops: One a police reformer and stranger to LA, the other a chief-in-training with LAPD roots stretching back half a century. The others were LA gangsters who embodied the fraught relations between the LAPD and the communities.
I enjoyed the way the Key Players are highlighted at the front of the book with a description of each, as well as sections devoted to the topics and time.
• Charlie Beck
• Tom Bradley
• William Bratton
• Andre Christian
• Daryl Gates
• Alfred Lomas
• William H Parker
• Bernard Parks
• Rafael “Ray” Perez
• Connie Rice
• Willie Williams
Meticulously researched, well-written, with impressive historical notes, references, interviews, and news reporting, as well as-- laid out in a very organized format.
Much of Blue is about cops and the police leadership, officers past and present. From crime, politics, and cops—policies and reform. Filled with political intrigue, cultural and racial conflict, income and opportunity. The politics and the business of crime and guns, our reckless sentencing laws, and the disastrous state of our public schools. All of this disparate forces together send generations of young Americans into the world’s largest prison system with no end in sight.
As the author notes, in 2014 both the American people and the American press began asking hard questions about the current state of American policing. We live in a violent, racist, gun-loving society. American society is in a deep crisis centered around our corrupt politics and institutions.
We have to start somewhere, and have to work for change within and within and outside American policing. Depending on your age or your geographical location, some stories may ring all too familiar, if you lived through those eras.
Highly recommend. Informative, Compelling, Timely.
JDCMustReadBooks
March 19, 2024
A good and honest review of the police department. It doesn’t turn into a bashing of the police which I thought it might. It’s an honest depiction with a lot of insight I haven’t heard before about the good and the bad the police can do for the public.
May 4, 2019
This extremely readable book tells a strong tale of how the LAPD transformed over the course of several decades. I came away from it with a greater sense of how hard institutional change can be and how painstaking a process, with many setbacks, it is. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in criminal justice reform.
February 26, 2017
This book is well written and tells a very interesting story. There is a very clear beginning, middle, and end here. There's plenty of foreshadowing and by the end of the book you get the idea the author knew exactly where he was going from page one. Since this is a nonfiction book, it can be argued whether or not books like this sacrifice historical accuracy in the name of telling a good story. I can't say how accurate this book is on the history of the LAPD. I can, however, say I liked it quite a bit. The only major issue I had was that it's not an easy book to read over the course of a few weeks. I kept finding myself lost in all the names and places if a took more than a day off from reading it. This book is meant to be taken in all at once. Whether or not that's the fault of the book or my fault for not dedicating my full attention to the book is debatable.
September 3, 2015
In Blue, Mr. Domanick has written a character driven account of change in policing behavior of the Los Angeles Police Department in the latter half of the twentieth and first decades of the twenty-first centuries. Mr. Domanick's tale focuses on the LAPD's five most recent chiefs and their successes and failures at resisting or promoting reform in the department. The book of reportage at its most compelling. The author knows how to tell the story and keep the reader's interest. His effort is aided by large personalities. I have Blue after reading La Noir which tells the history of the LAPD and organized crime and corruption in Los Angeles in the 1930s through the 1950s and Ghettoside, Jill Leovy's arresting tale of the murder of a youth in South Central and the arrest of the murderer by a rigid homicide detective. Both Ms leoby's and Mr. Domanick are reporters and offer compelling narratives of the LAPD through scruting of selected actors. Mr. Domanick's effort is more seeks to place the LAPD in the context of social events such as the Rodney King riots, crime rates in the nation's large cities, etc. Ms. Leovy tells the reader what the crime statistics mean in a single murder case. Neither book summarizes the findings of students of urban crime about the rates of decline and increase of crime in the cities so the reader is left puzzling just what it means when across the country crime rates drop significantly over a decade. Answers to this question, within the covers of a single book, has not been written, or if it has has not come to my attention. In the end, Mr. Domanick describes the herculean task of changing the culture in a large public bureaucracy,how "broken windows and stop and search tactics can reduce crime, but he does not demonstrate whether these tactics and strategies are necessary and sufficient to lower crime rates, operating within the rules of law.
October 25, 2015
Joe Domanick has written an intriguing character driven four part book which is broken into philosophical and analytical narratives around key figures such as Los Angeles PD Chiefs William H. Parker (1950-65), Daryl Gates(1978-92), Willie Williams (1992-97), Bernard Parks (1997-02), and William Bratton (2002-14).
The book brings the reader through historically significant lessons and analyzes the devolution of the stop-and-frisk war on drugs fought in under-served communities. The ugliness of law enforcement plagued with racist and corrupt components is examined to the pivotal moment around the Rodney King beating followed by the explosive Los Angeles riots.
Domanick expertly examines how law enforcement under William Bratton, who once had reorganized ex-NY City Transit Police and eventually the NYPD, had managed to change cultures and attitudes. Finally, the book reminds the reader with a warning an ironic ending with a glance at recent events in Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, and Ferguson.
The book brings the reader through historically significant lessons and analyzes the devolution of the stop-and-frisk war on drugs fought in under-served communities. The ugliness of law enforcement plagued with racist and corrupt components is examined to the pivotal moment around the Rodney King beating followed by the explosive Los Angeles riots.
Domanick expertly examines how law enforcement under William Bratton, who once had reorganized ex-NY City Transit Police and eventually the NYPD, had managed to change cultures and attitudes. Finally, the book reminds the reader with a warning an ironic ending with a glance at recent events in Los Angeles, New York, Baltimore, and Ferguson.
June 23, 2016
Blue is an enjoyable history of the LAPD in recent times. The author managed to take complicated subject – the way the LAPD's Chiefs have led (or failed to lead) it over the last couple of decades – and break it down into an understandable timeline for readers. The author was also able to incorporate points of view other than the reporters, including gang members, which lends context for the cultural and racial/gang tensions in Los Angeles during this time, as well as the city politics which dominate everything in LA. Gates, Bratton, Williams, and Beck come off as interesting, flawed, smart, and ultimately very human leaders.
The one criticism I have of the book is that it is a very superficial examination of their leadership, and is more about LAPD culture and how they tackled specific facets as individual leaders in order to help the organization transform. But it is a very interesting read, and I'll look for the author's other book about the LAPD, because this one was so readable.
The one criticism I have of the book is that it is a very superficial examination of their leadership, and is more about LAPD culture and how they tackled specific facets as individual leaders in order to help the organization transform. But it is a very interesting read, and I'll look for the author's other book about the LAPD, because this one was so readable.
August 5, 2016
Its certainly a good intro to the people at play in the LAPD. But the book falls short in giving a complete picture, it focuses mostly on the 90's and early 00's. It's arranged into snapshots of personal history from people in the area, from about the Rodney King era until now. I didn't really care for the character descriptions, which are forefront. The anecdotes prove vital in understanding the gang mentality of the LAPD. I still felt like the anecdotes would have been better realized with more statistics and figures. But overall the style makes the topic easy to read.
Blue gives a grim look into the culture of the police, and shows how the leaders, cheifs, and politicians are inept, stubborn, and sometimes just awful. I was amazed at the severe and consistent police misconduct described in this book. The LA cops are genuienly corrupt and mismanaged.
There is a lot we must understand in order to fully "redeem" policing, books like this can certainly help. Worth aread.
Blue gives a grim look into the culture of the police, and shows how the leaders, cheifs, and politicians are inept, stubborn, and sometimes just awful. I was amazed at the severe and consistent police misconduct described in this book. The LA cops are genuienly corrupt and mismanaged.
There is a lot we must understand in order to fully "redeem" policing, books like this can certainly help. Worth aread.
August 23, 2016
I heard Joe Domanick being interviewed about Blue on National Public Radio. I ordered the book as soon as I got home. As a retired law enforcement officer (the last half of my career spent as a detective) I will say that Domanick's analysis of the LAPD's problems is spot-on. The book should be required reading for EVERY person toting a badge, no matter if the department is large or small, or whether if they work for a city, county or state law enforcement agency.
It is time for my fellow brothers and sisters in blue to stop the circle-the-wagons mentality they automatically go into whenever another officer is accused of using excessive force or a crime. I truly believe if more of them read Joe Domanick's "Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing" they would be better able to serve the citizens of their respective communities and they would have happier and more successful careers as "peace officers."
It is time for my fellow brothers and sisters in blue to stop the circle-the-wagons mentality they automatically go into whenever another officer is accused of using excessive force or a crime. I truly believe if more of them read Joe Domanick's "Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing" they would be better able to serve the citizens of their respective communities and they would have happier and more successful careers as "peace officers."
January 23, 2016
This book covers the LAPD from a bit before the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots through to about 2015. This is not a history of the LAPD from the very beginnings of the institution. That said, it is a well done history of the period that it covers. It is clear that Domanick has excellent contacts/insider knowledge of the goings on within the LAPD, to include the institutions that work along side it (e.g. the Police Commission and City Council). I wished he had covered the Rampart Scandal a bit more, but that is more of a personal gripe. For the purposes of this book, the scandal is handled well, providing the broader impact of the scandal and the subsequent, purposely limited, investigation. Recommended for those who enjoy books about policing especially the politics of policing, but are not necessarily looking for an academic treatment of the matter.
August 18, 2016
This was a very well written and researched book. I appreciated the extensive bibliographic list and citations at the end of the book. There were many times that I felt utter disgust and anger at my chosen type of profession for their treatment of other fellow humans. I am glad to see the progress that has been made by the LAPD over the years, especially within the last 20 years. I have been amazed at how other departments act with regards to treatment of the public. I can honestly say that for all I know, my department has not acted in such a way and those officers that have been investigated for those accusations have been addressed. Clearly, it is an ongoing issue: the public view versus law enforcement personnel's view on the world. I can only hope we continue going forward in a positive manner in the future.
May 31, 2016
Very interesting account of events leading up to, including, and after the '92 riots of LA. Couldn't put the book down, but then it started leaning way too much to the left for my taste, which is why I gave it 3 stars. It is too bad, because I think the evidence presented - the cold, hard facts of LAPD's behavior- can stand alone to show change is needed - I didn't need Domanick's personal distaste for everything conservative to help me agree. As if conservatism is synonymous with racism. I can understand that after 25 years of covering the LAPD, Domanick is disgusted, but it is still possible to make a good case for change without bringing his own personal politics into it. I think he could reach a lot more people that way.
September 29, 2015
I received this book as part of a Goodreads Firstreads promotion.
So you think you know it all? Have a clue what goes on behind the blue line? Think again. You have no clue that so much corruption could be possible. Joe Domanick, an investigative reporter shows you just how bad things were in the 1990's LAPD. He shows how a string of LAPD chiefs have tried to straighten up the less, and most had failed. He then takes you to the NYPD and shows what they have done to turn there problems around. But he doesn't stop there, he goes on to describe what is going on recently with the police and racial profiling. The book is well written and character driven.
So you think you know it all? Have a clue what goes on behind the blue line? Think again. You have no clue that so much corruption could be possible. Joe Domanick, an investigative reporter shows you just how bad things were in the 1990's LAPD. He shows how a string of LAPD chiefs have tried to straighten up the less, and most had failed. He then takes you to the NYPD and shows what they have done to turn there problems around. But he doesn't stop there, he goes on to describe what is going on recently with the police and racial profiling. The book is well written and character driven.
October 26, 2015
A truly heart-wrenching book, in realizing this occurrences were real. Readers should keep in mind that this book focuses on the 1990's and 2000's. None the less, Blue offers a wealth of information dealing with a world to which most of us are not privy. An excellent read. Thanks to Goodreads for this copy.
February 10, 2016
I thought the book was extremely well written with a wealth of information that was not known. The book gives you a better understanding behind the workings of the LAPD and the NYPD and who was responsible for what. Readers will not be disappointed if you want to know the truth.
October 26, 2015
Fabulous book. History of the LAPD, and it's not a favorable history. Domanick brings together all the background and stories and expresses his sharp perspective. Devastating indictment of LAPD, with hope for reform from Bratten and Beck, but the jury, as we say, is still out.
December 3, 2015
I enjoyed this bookvery much. I formerly lived in California and I'm familiar with the LAPD's history.
Lots of corruption and scandals, Gates and Bradley's feuding were well known. Very informative and very well written.
Lots of corruption and scandals, Gates and Bradley's feuding were well known. Very informative and very well written.
July 10, 2019
Covers 1992-2015 policing in Los Angeles and New York City. Very detailed and informative. I read his first book on LAPD from origins to 1992, so reading this next book came me a very complete overview of the LAPD.
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