6 startling revelations about urban crime and policing in 'Ghettoside'
'Ghettoside' by Jill Leovy is the best book about the inside workings of law enforcement since 1991鈥檚 'Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets.' Here's some of the knowledge that the book imparts.
'Ghettoside' is by Jill Leovy.
Almost a decade ago, Los Angles Times reporter Jill Leovy set out to chronicle every homicide in her city. Every single one, not just the small聽number of high-profile killings that normally made it into the newspaper.聽
For her, the obscure victims of violence became a top priority. But they were not a priority for the cops. As she discovered, society allows聽lawlessness to run wild in black communities: Crimes are unpunished, culprits go free, citizens seek their own justice to fill the gap. And it鈥檚聽hardly a problem just in L.A.
Levoy's bestselling new book Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America tells the story. It鈥檚 both an intimate tale of a single killing and a聽stunning expose of a nationwide failure to protect our poorest and weakest.聽
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But 鈥淕hettoside,鈥� the best book about the inside workings of law enforcement since 1991鈥檚 鈥淗omicide: A Year on the Killing Streets,鈥� isn鈥檛聽another left-leaning critique of racist and oppressive cops. Leovy challenges both conservative and聽liberal assumptions about聽urban crime.聽
On one hand, she doesn鈥檛 attack the black community itself as do some conservatives who call on residents to pull up their pants and start acting聽right. But neither she share the liberal position that the problem lies in oppressive policing. In fact, she contends, law enforcement鈥檚 failure to聽take urban violence seriously is the problem: It鈥檚 not that cops just do too much. It鈥檚 that they also do too little, creating a system that鈥檚 both聽too oppressive and too weak.听听
This isn鈥檛 anything new: 鈥渉istory shows us that lawlessness is its own kind of order.鈥� It pops up in places where traditional authority聽has broken down: on the edges of society, in places where minorities are isolated and form their own enclaves like South Central Los聽Angeles, the bleak focus of 鈥淕hettoside.鈥澛�
But history isn鈥檛 destiny. Leovy makes a strong case as she calls society to account and she supports it with a number of surprising facts about聽violence, law enforcement, and the lack of respect for black lives. Here are six of the most startling revelations in 鈥淕hettoside."聽
1. Poverty deserves less blame:聽Despite what people may assume, 鈥減overty does not necessarily engender homicide,鈥� Leovy writes. In L.A., a neighborhood of poor Latino聽illegal immigrants had a much lower homicide rate than poor black neighborhoods. This divide is common throughout the US.聽
鈥淭his is because homicide flares among people who are trapped and economically interdependent, not among people who are economically聽mobile,鈥� she writes. In Southern California, blacks became 鈥渕arooned鈥� in neighborhoods thanks to segregation, while Latinos faced less聽racism and more opportunities for work. Segregation leads to isolation and limited chances to move away. 聽 聽
2. The US has long failed to punish blacks who kill blacks:聽The US has a long history of failing to take black-on-black violence seriously, a phenomenon euphemized into the dry academic term 鈥渧ictim聽discounting.鈥澛�
In Los Angeles, severe assaults 鈥� 鈥渁lmost homicides鈥� 鈥� left many black men severely injured and disabled, but arrests were fairly uncommon.聽This contributed to the sense of lawlessness and the need for the community to step in with law of its own.聽
Homicides often went unpunished, too. 鈥淔rom 1994-2006, a suspect was arrested in 38 percent of the 2,677 killings involving black male聽victims in the city of Los Angeles,鈥� Leovy writes. Over another period, from the late 1980s to early 2000s, the massive number of unsolved聽cases equaled more than 40 per square mile in South Central L.A. 聽
3. Detectives get little respect, few resources:聽TV can make detectives seem like the most glamorous cops around. They dress well and rely on state-of-the art forensics labs. This isn鈥檛 too聽far from real life in downtown L.A., where elite units 鈥渆njoyed clout and prestige.鈥澛�
But it wasn鈥檛 so out in the city鈥檚 crime-ridden neighborhoods, far from the cameras and high-profile celebrity cases. Leovy found signs that the聽police department gave short shrift to ordinary homicide and assault investigations: 鈥淲orkaday detectives鈥� in divisions were聽overweight and 鈥渃onsigned to backwater status ... competing for resources with curfew task forces and vice squads.鈥� Detectives could face聽obstacles when they simply tried to organize files. Making matters worse, their colleagues often didn鈥檛 respect them, reflecting the聽department鈥檚 lack of interest in their work. 听听
4. 鈥淪olve鈥� rates don鈥檛 tell the full story:聽If you hear that a police department has a high homicide 鈥渟olve鈥� rate, you might be impressed by the number. But it might not tell the full聽picture since many cases can be solved with virtually no effort.聽
In fact, Leovy writes that police departments can reach a solve rate of 30 to 40 percent by just solving a few challenging cases on top of a bunch聽of 鈥渟elf-solvers鈥�: those in which the identity of the murderer is obvious. These include murder-suicides, killings witnessed by cops, and cases聽in which murderers were caught while fleeing. Other cases, especially those involving black victims, would go unsolved but their high聽numbers could hide amid the statistics about solved cases. 聽
5. Gangs use slang to distance themselves from "murder":聽In South Central L.A., locals often distanced themselves from the traditional language of language. 鈥淪ometimes it seemed that the closer聽people were to the problem, the more potent their distancing mechanisms,鈥� Leovy wrote. People didn鈥檛 say 鈥渕urder鈥� but would instead use what Leovy聽calls euphemisms: One man would 鈥渟moke鈥� another, 鈥渓ight him up,鈥� 鈥渓ay him out,鈥� 鈥渟erve鈥� him. 聽 聽
Police aren鈥檛 immune from using language to distance themselves from the toll of killings. While Leovy profiles several detectives who are聽deeply devoted to finding justice in South Central L.A., she notes that cops have dismissed some murder cases as 鈥渘o humans involved鈥� 鈥� with victims seen as worthless.聽
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6. "Men act touchy" amid lawlessness:聽The history of mankind suggests that 鈥渕en act touchy鈥� when authority isn鈥檛 reliable, Leovy writes. 鈥淭hey fixate on honor and respect 鈥� a聽result of lawlessness, not a cause.鈥� In South Central L.A., this plays out through the countless murders that result from 鈥渕en fighting鈥�: 鈥淓very聽grudge seemed to harbor explosive potential.鈥� Then comes vengeance: 鈥淚n some circles, retaliation for murder was considered all but聽mandatory,鈥� its merit even debated 鈥渇rom the pulpit at funerals.鈥澛�
If someone succeeded in seeking revenge, there鈥檚 be a good chance that he would get away with it. And, perhaps, that someone would seek聽even more vengeance.聽
Randy Dotinga, a Monitor contributor, is president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.