Vice
One Cop's Story of Patrolling America's Most Dangerous City
- 433 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
9 square miles. 10,000 criminals. 130 cops. A riveting memoir by Baker, California's most-decorated police officer
Compton: the most violent and crime-ridden city in America. What had been a semi-rural suburb of Los Angeles in the 1950s became a battleground for the Black Panthers and Malcolm X Foundation, the home of the Crips and Bloods and the first Hispanic gangs, and the cradle of gangster rap. At the center of it, trying to maintain order was the Compton Police Department, never more than 130-strong, and facing an army of criminals that numbered over 10,000. At any given time, fully one-tenth of Compton's population was in prison, yet this tidal wave of crime was held back by the thinnest line of the lawâthe Compton Police.
John R. Baker was raised in Compton, eventually becoming the city's most decorated officer involved in some of its most notorious, horrifying and scandalous criminal cases. Baker's account of Compton from 1950 to 2001 is one of the most powerful and compelling cop memoirs ever writtenâan intensely human account of sacrifice and public service, and the price the men and women of the Compton Police Department paid to preserve their city.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword
- Preface
- Authorâs Note
- Epigraph
- 1. A Model Community
- 2. White Flight, Black Rage
- 3. Part of the Uniform; The Golden Garter
- 4. Apartheid, DĂ©tente, and the Great Penile Duel
- 5. Rut, Crosby, and the Rise of the Gangs
- 6. Panthers, Water Way, and the Standoff in Victory Park
- 7. Bullets in the Laundromat, Shondra, and the Bomb
- 8. Rape, Politics, and Other Crimes
- 9. The Service Center and the Devilâs Disciples
- 10. Rapunzel, the Election, and the Pastry Chef
- 11. Miami and the Siege of City Hall
- 12. Douglas Dollarhideâs Chief, Doris Davisâs Balls, and Politics, Compton Style
- 13. Tarzan, a Severed Head, and the Shack
- 14. Lueders Park, the Olympics, and Mexico
- 15. The Councilmanâs Dilemma, the Back Door, and the Giant
- 16. A Gun to My Head, Casinos, and Mulberry Street
- 17. Rut Returns, the Sentinel, and the Stinkers
- 18. The Ballet, the Hypnotist, and the Task Force
- 19. Boot Hill, the Chiefâs Mother, and Jack in the Box
- 20. Richard III, the Stardust, and Orchard Street
- 21. Gangstas, the Carnival, and the Ritual
- 22. Aftermath
- 23. Compton Coda
- Copyright