Ghetto Cops: On the Streets of the Most Dangerous City in America

by Bruce Henderson

The #1 New York Times bestselling author recounts riding along with street cops in California’s most dangerous Compton (Los Angeles Times).

In 1974, Compton, California, had the highest per capita crime rate in the nation. And Bruce Henderson, then a young, idealistic newspaper reporter, was determined to spend the summer riding with the Compton police. His journalistic accounts of the day-to-day activities he witnessed is a vivid narrative dramatic, violent, and at times humorous incidents.

Featuring illuminating pictures from award-winning photographer Phil Nelson, Ghetto Cops unmasks the city and its cops to reveal a side of street crime most of us never see.

“They bust a lot of ass in Compton. It’s a tough city that is a virtual powder keg…For the police, the streets are a battlefield and working on any shift is like going to war.” —Los Angeles Free Press

“You don’t put down Ghetto Copsonce you pick it up.” —Livermore (CA) Independent

Genres: Nonfiction, History

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 18, 2014

About the author

Bruce Henderson is the author of more than twenty nonfiction books, including a #1 New York Times that was made into a highly-rated network miniseries. His books have been published in more than two dozen countries. His latest book is Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II. He is also the author of Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Escaped the Nazis and Returned with the U.S. Army to Fight Hitler, the NYT bestseller about "The Ritchie Boys" being developed for a feature film. He won the coveted 2023 Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize in recognition of the best English language book published in the field of American military history for Bridge to the Sun: The Secret Role of the Japanese Americans Who Fought in the Pacific in World War II. Henderson has taught reporting at USC School of Journalism and nonfiction writing at Stanford University. He lives in Menlo Park, California.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Henderson...

Reviews

[MM Suarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author recounts a summer in 1974 when he rode along with multiple police officers in the very dangerous city of Compton, California. I normally like books like this, however I did not like this one and struggled to finish it, fortunately it was short. I struggled with the writing style 😴, and could not connect with anything or anyone in the book, including the author.