Cop in the Hood

by Moskos, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780691126555
• ISBN10: 0691126550
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-03-24
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Cop in the Hoodis an explosive insider's story of what it is really like to be a police officer on the front lines of the war on drugs. Harvard-trained sociologist Peter Moskos became a cop in Baltimore's roughest neighborhood--the Eastern District, also the location for the critically acclaimed HBO dramaThe Wire--where he experienced real-life poverty and violent crime firsthand. He provides an unforgettable window into this world that outsiders never see--the thriving drug corners, the nerve-rattling patrols, and the heartbreaking failure of 911. Moskos reveals the truth about the drug war and why it is engineered to fail--a truth he learned on the midnight shift in Baltimore. He describes police-academy graduates fully unprepared for the realities of the street. He tells of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates poor black men on a mass scale--a self-defeating system that measures success by arrest quotas and fosters a street code at odds with the rest of society--and argues for drug legalization as the only realistic way to end drug violence and let cops once again protect and serve. Moskos shows how officers in the ghetto are less concerned with those policed than with self-preservation and maximizing overtime pay--yet how any one of them would give their life for a fellow officer.Cop in the Hoodventures deep behind the Thin Blue Line to disclose the inner workings of law enforcement in America's inner cities. Those who read it will never view the badge the same way again.

Author Biography

Peter Moskos is assistant professor of law, police science, and criminal justice administration at the City University of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Departed	p. 1
Back to School: The Police Academy	p. 19
New Jack: Learning To Do Drugs	p. 38
The Corner: Life on the Street	p. 64
911 Is a Joke	p. 89
Under Arrest: Discretion in the Ghetto	p. 111
Prohibition: Al Capone's Revenge	p. 158
Epilogue: School Daze	p. 184
Notes	p. 197
Bibliography	p. 215
Index	p. 239
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.