BLACK, WHITE, AND GRAY ALL OVER

In this debut memoir, a retired Black police detective recounts his decades in law enforcement in America facing crime, corruption, and racism.

Born in 1961, at the height of the civil rights movement, Reynolds spent much of his childhood in Detroit. He turned to crime in his youth (mostly burglaries), inevitably leading to run-ins with the law. He knew that racist cops often treated Black residents unjustly. The author experienced racism firsthand, including as a Marine stationed on the West Coast. But Reynolds realized that, as a police officer, he could help people. He finally earned a badge in Compton, California, “one of the most dangerous cities in America.” By that time, it was the ’80s, with crack cocaine running rampant and nearly every murder courtesy of the city’s numerous street gangs. As the author strived to become a detective, he suffered the losses of fellow cops and narrowly survived an attempt on his life. Some criminals, unfortunately, were colleagues, as the author investigated corruption deep within the Compton Police Department. In a shocking turn, city officials, to mitigate Compton’s “out-of-control violence,” voted to disband the police department and hand the reins to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Reynolds writes openly about his personal life, from his mother, who meted out discipline with a belt or an extension cord, to his kind but alcoholic father. The author skillfully describes the countless people he knew in 32 years of law enforcement. As such, stories of cops’ deaths and an officer possibly being crooked are genuinely affecting. This revealing memoir spotlights the ongoing troubles among police like discrimination and brutality. Yet Reynolds subscribes to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s belief of judging others not by their race but by their character. The author’s unfiltered yet eloquent prose bursts with unforgettable metaphors, such as people fitting what they take to the grave in either “small change purses” or “duffle bags.”

An intimate, sharply written account of one cop’s perseverance in a broken system.