Policing and Race in America: Reforms Needed

• Author: Charles E. Menifield
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12749
• Published date: 01 March 2017
• Date: 01 March 2017

Book Reviews 251

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 2, pp. 251–253. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12749.

Charles E. Menifield is professor of

public affairs at the University of Missouri-

Columbia where he serves as associate

dean for academic programs. He is author/

editor of five books and numerous articles

and book chapters. His most recent research

appeared in

State and Local Government

Review

and

Journal of Public Budgeting

Accounting and Financial Management

.

E-mail: menifieldc@missouri.edu

Book Reviews

Jeff Pegues, Black and Blue: Inside the Divide

between the Police and Black America (New York:

Prometheus Books, 2017). 280 pp. $24 (hardcover),

ISBN: 9781633882577.

P egues, a seasoned CBS correspondent, set

the tone for Black and Blue: Inside the Divide

Between the Police and Black America in the

first chapter by describing a press meeting with

FBI Director, James Comey. During the meeting,

Comey provides an assessment of race and police

relationships as well as the status of crime in the

United States. He uses the phrase “Ferguson Effect”

to describe the current relationship between the

police and citizens (16). That is, since Michael Brown

was shot by police in Ferguson, the relationship

between the police and the public has changed for

the worse. He further adds that there is a lack of

active interaction between police officers and citizens

and this has led to increased distrust in the system.

Concurrent with this change in behavior was a change

in criminal justice reform which allows thousands

of state and federal prisoners to be released earlier

than the sentence required. Comey argues that it was

a good idea to make reforms during a period when

crime was increasing. This opening chapter set the

tone for the remainder of the book, which examines

various written and unwritten policies, conversations,

and other events that have led to the current state

of policing and race in the United States. In sum,

Pegues’s overall intent is to assess the current status

of policing and race in America from the perspective

of officers, leaders of police associations, community

leaders, and elected officials.

He continues his analysis in the next chapter by

highlighting the results of numerous Department of

Justice investigations that show that discrimination

against African Americans has occurred in many

police departments across the country. In one DOJ

report, his points out that the rights of African

Americans are routinely violated by the city of

Baltimore ’ s police department. Many were stopped,

frisked, arrested and thrown into jail despite evidence

of a crime. He cites similar behavior in a chapter

titled, “Broken Windows” (25). In short, this crime

fighting policy, aptly titled broken windows, argues

that minor infractions should be dealt with in order to

prevent major infractions. One practice that emerges

from this policy is “stop and frisk” (28). The city of

New York encourages its officers to stop and question

citizens and frisk them for weapons. As communities

pass and enforce more laws, such as “three strikes,”

more and more black citizens are arrested and the

practices have a deleterious effect on the black family.

In chapter three he highlights the effects of the Dallas

and Baton Rouge shootings, right in the wake of

the country celebrating 240 years of existence and

the end of a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest.

During this period he visits a poor neighborhood

in Chicago where he interviews local citizens about

their relationship with the police. In one interview,

he speaks with a local matriarch whose husband was

arrested several times by the police for a variety of

reasons. On one occasion, she states that her husband

was examining a property that they had recently

won from the city and was arrested because he fit the

description of a wanted suspect. She later highlights

the lack of distrust that the black community has

in Mayor Emanuel due to his cover-up of the

McDonald execution. All of his interviews have

the same underlying theme with respect to African

Americans; we are tired of the police harassing us and

“we are ready to fight back” (35). The presentation

that the Mayor (Emmanuel) gave to the city council

on December 9, 2015, received a standing ovation,

but outside, his words fell on deaf ears as the African

American community does not perceive that the

city is interested in changing the police culture or

rejuvenating black communities.

In the next chapter, Pegues interviews Dean Angelo

Jr., the president of the Fraternal Order of Police in

Chicago. Angelo states that there is a “thin blue line”

that separates the good from the bad. He defines the

Danny L. Balfour , Editor

Charles E. Menifield

University of Missouri-Columbia

Policing and Race in America: Reforms Needed