A useful book. Wisely, Stroud never loses sight of an overriding reality: that technology is never a substitute for...
An exploration of how high-tech advancements in law enforcement are failing.
Journalist Stroud has developed a specialized beat for periodicals about corporations who develop technologies for law enforcement agencies and prisons. In this overview, he shows pointedly that technological devices—including Tasers, body cameras, computerized crime control, facial recognition software, surveillance cameras in public places, and cellphone tracking—may make policing more convenient but do not lead to better outcomes. Much of the narrative is historical, as the author explains how law enforcement evolved in the United States. He takes readers back to 1905, when Berkeley, California—like many cities at the time—lacked a police department. So an ambitious local resident named August Vollmer created a law enforcement unit and sought out whatever firepower technology could provide. Some of Vollmer’s ideas—hiring educated officers, reaching out directly to neighborhoods (although more enthusiastically to white enclaves than those with people of color)—were progressive. However, the brute force Vollmer employed set the tone. A century later, Stroud explains, the massive police departments that can most easily afford technology, especially Los Angeles and New York City, are the leaders, with smaller departments often following examples that may be counterproductive. The author’s primary narrative thread involves the development and marketing of stun guns, which are often referred to by the name of one brand, the Taser. Though Stroud’s lengthy discussions about the financial hurdles faced by stun gun manufacturers become tiresome, on the whole, the author writes clearly and compellingly, and he shows how some companies oversold their technologies to police based on a desperation for profits. Stroud also weaves in concerns about ethics and civil rights and how, often, “the confidence that politicians place in [the technology] reflects an oversimplified understanding of the underlying difficulties.”
A useful book. Wisely, Stroud never loses sight of an overriding reality: that technology is never a substitute for compassionate policing based on trust between cops and the citizens they are paid to serve.Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-10829-6
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Two intriguing 1930s novellas, fine examples of a then-popular genre: literary Pan-Africanism. When Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, racial patriotism ran high in the US, and American blacks rallied behind the ancient African kingdom. These two stories combine propaganda and entertainment; while they read like straightforward murder mysteries, they demonstrate the commitment of essayist, journalist, and satirist Schuyler (18851977) to the outcome of Ethiopia's struggle. An influential writer during the Harlem Renaissance, Schuyler rejected the idea of a black aesthetic and criticized the movement as ``The Negro-Art Hokum,'' yet many of his articles and editorials for the influential Pittsburgh Courier are now considered classics of African-American journalism. As editor Hill (History/UCLA) points out in his evocative foreword, Schuyler had the creativity to convey his ideas to a general audience, both in journalism and—in the case of these novellas and two other stories recently reissued under the title Black Empire (1991)—in pulp fiction. The first work here, ``The Ethiopian Murder Mystery,'' opens with the discovery of a dead Ethiopian prince in a Sugar Hill apartment. The police charge a prominent Harlem socialite, who admits to being with him minutes before the coroner's estimated time of death, but insists he was still breathing when she left. A young newspaper reporter convinced of her innocence does some inspired sleuthing and unravels a conspiracy involving a death ray with which the Ethiopians could annihilate the invading Italians. In the second tale, ``Revolt in Ethiopia,'' a rich American interested only in the good life abroad falls in love with an Ethiopian princess seeking to procure money to support her country's freedom fighters. When the Italians kill her bodyguard, the American comes to her rescue and joins her on a perilous journey to retrieve precious jewels from an ancient mountain sect in the hills of Ethiopia. Proof that art and politics do mix.
Pub Date: Dec. 5, 1994
ISBN: 1-55553-204-7
Page Count: 229
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A think piece about personal choices that unearths more round holes for square pegs.
One of America’s most influential pollsters carves the present into bite-sized pieces in an attempt to reveal future trends.
Penn gained fame as an advisor to Bill Clinton during his 1996 campaign by identifying blocks of constituents like “Soccer Moms” as potential voters. Here, he and co-author Zalesne expand their trend-spotting to identify 75 burgeoning patterns that they argue are both reflecting and changing our modern world. Each chapter examines a discrete subdivision with themes ranging among politics, lifestyle, religion, money, education, etc. These easily digestible nuggets of scrutiny are fairly straightforward and primarily serve as a kind of pie chart of the human race, dividing Earth’s citizens (primarily Americans, although a single chapter is devoted to international issues) into the cliques and tribes to which they subscribe. Among the emerging classes, the authors find “Cougars” (women who pursue younger men), “New Luddites” (technophobes) and “Car-Buying Soccer Moms,” among dozens of other sub-surface dwellers. The book’s generalizations are sound and cleverly written, despite their brevity, and will undoubtedly appeal to marketing analysts and armchair sociologists, as well as fans of Megatrends and Malcolm Gladwell. Yet the book stands on an unbalanced argument. “Microtrends reflects the human drive toward individuality, while conventional wisdom often seeks to drive society towards the lowest common denominator,” Penn writes in a conclusion, explaining why such movements are important. But by dividing and isolating people into popcorn-sized kernels of experience, their innate individuality is lost in many little crowds instead of one big one. Another troubling factor is that few of the book’s observations feel new. How often have superficial features about stay-at-home workers, caffeine addicts or shy millionaires been recycled on the evening news, let alone the Internet and other mediums? Penn tries to spin the gravity of these ripples. “Movements get started by small groups of dedicated, intensely interested people,” he says. But his observation could apply to anything from the Third Reich to MySpace. More cynical readers may feel like a number.
A think piece about personal choices that unearths more round holes for square pegs.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-446-58096-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Twelve
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
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