Reviews tagging 'Death'

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale

9 reviews

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Death, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Hate crime, Classism, Deportation, Drug use, and Mass/school shootings

alyssa_s10's review

informative medium-paced

4.25

This book was not really about police abolition, it was mostly about police reform. It has a number of good ideas, like the decriminalization of drugs and sex work. 
There are a couple of quotes I like from the book such as "Police are the thin blue line between the have and the have not." as well as "The only law deserving of our respect is an unprejudiced law. One that protects everyone everywhere."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, and Gun violence

Moderate: Drug use, Violence, and Death

Minor: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Addiction

mandkips's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Gun violence, and Racism

Moderate: Death, Drug use, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Addiction

orireading's review against another edition

challenging informative slow-paced

3.75

Would recommend to leftists and aspiring leftists :) interested in learning more about histories of policing. The audiobook format is great if you’re used to non-fiction podcasts but have a hard time reading non-fiction, since Vitale dives into one topic per chapter. 

However, I had two qualms with this book: the conclusion, and a language choice. First, Vitale pedals back on his abolitionist statements in the conclusion, which weakens the text as a whole. This was a little weird, considering the premise of the book is “the end of policing.” 

Second, Vitale refers throughout the book to various marginalized groups using “these people” (instead of repeating “sex workers” or whatever) which I picked up on because it’s been edited out of my own long-form academic writing! Phrases that writers use to refer to a group can continue the marginalization of, or discrimination against, the group, despite the author’s neutral use of the phrases. 

Overall, I really did enjoy this as an audiobook and learned a LOT. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Police brutality, and Violence

kshertz's review

informative sad medium-paced

3.75

It’s a certain kind of book! I have been focusing my learning on abolition and a lot of what was in here I’ve learned but there was a lot of facts and statistics I was unaware of as well as some powerful stories I will take with me. I thought it was well thought out and well done

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

skudiklier's review

challenging informative slow-paced

4.75

I've been reading this book for almost an entire year at this point; this is for several reasons, and shouldn't just be taken as "wow this book is slow/dense." It is a very comprehensive look at the areas in which policing fails, the reasons for these failures, the way these failures are systemic, and ways we can help replace policing with other solutions. It is also very dense in the sense that it's a lot of facts, statistics, and figures, with very little to break it up. For me that's harder to get through, so I read it very slowly over the course of a year. But I would highly recommend this book, especially to those who think the police should not be abolished. I have a hard time imagining how someone could read this book and come away still thinking the police are a force for good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Trafficking, Violence, Xenophobia, and Transphobia

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

readalongwithnat's review

challenging informative slow-paced

4.0

This is a really eye-opening book that discusses a ton of different topics related to policing, including some I didn’t anticipate, but appreciated learning more about. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Police brutality, Racism, and Slavery

book_enjoyer's review

challenging informative medium-paced

4.25

A thorough breakdown of the failures of American police. I don't know that this book would sway a hardcore cop supporter, but it's a great introduction to the problems in our current system and some potential solutions to push for. Each chapter covers a different aspect of policing--the war on drugs, the school-to-prison pipeline, etc--and provides an overview of how the law enforcement works, empirical evidence of how that enforcement doesn't benefit society, and some possible alternatives. It's a heavy read but a very necessary one, and I appreciated how detailed and specific Vitale is.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, and Police brutality

talonsontypewriters's review

informative inspiring medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Racism, Ableism, Drug use, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Misogyny, Homophobia, Transphobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Addiction, Islamophobia, Child death, Trafficking, and Mental illness

Minor: Pedophilia, Animal death, and Torture

Police violence (especially against people of color, mentally ill people, homeless people, sex workers, and children) and abuse of power, on both a systemic and individual level, is covered in fairly explicit detail, with many specific cases described. Dated terminology ("transgendered") is used in passing.