cover image Police Brutality: An Anthology

Police Brutality: An Anthology

. W. W. Norton & Company, $24.95 (265pp) ISBN 978-0-393-04883-4

In tones ranging from soulful to provocative to didactic, these 12 fiery essays by a variety of distinguished contributors argue that there is currently a plague of police brutality, foisted upon minority communities as a result of drug war ""innovations"" in policing. Editor Nelson (Volunteer Slavery), who teaches journalism at CCNY, addresses in a terse introduction the ""outrage,"" ""disgust"" and ""sadness"" she felt after the police shooting of unarmed Amadou Diallo in New York City, which drove her to assemble this volume. Most of the contributions are excellent and even startling. Most thought-provoking is journalist and critic Stanley Crouch's fusion of harsh personal recollection (of his teenage brother being pummeled after heckling a police officer) balanced by the more modulated idea that the real danger to minority communities is their alienation from the police. Columbia law professor Patricia Williams contrasts the presumption of guilt that appears to hover over black youths with the presumption of innocence that allowed Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris to amass guns, ammunition and grenades in Littleton, Colo. Gripping ""secret histories"" of black experience come from Claude Clegg III's fascinating reconstruction of Elijah Muhammad's nascent Nation of Islam and its alternate hostility toward and pragmatic cooperation with the FBI and with Mayor Daley's Chicago machine. Other pieces (by NYU historian Robin D.G. Kelley and novelist and poet Ishmael Reed, among others) take an overly rhetorical, separatist tone. In light of the egregious violations represented by the tragic figures of Abner Louima, Rodney King and other victims of actual and alleged police brutality, one forgives this volume its forcefulness. This is a memorable and useful contribution to an increasingly volatile national dialogue. (May)