BROKEN TRUST

Audio-book Review
By Chet Yarbrough

(Blog:awalkingdelight)
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America

Written by: Jill Leovy

Narration by:  Rebecca Lowman

Broken families, broken hearts, but most of all, broken trust are described in Jill Leovy’s book, “Ghettoside”.

Leovy’s “true story”, somewhat surprisingly, deals mostly with the relationship between Black communities and local law enforcement in an area known as South Central Los Angeles. The surprise in the story is that the 2000 census shows 87.2% of the population of South Central Los Angeles is Latino–only 10.1% is Black; the remainder white, Asian, or other.

The 2000 census shows of 49,728 people live on 2.55 square miles of land, made up of nine communities.  One presumes Leovy chooses the relationship between Blacks and the police because it fits the particular facts of her story.

It seems fair to suggest broken families, hearts, and trust are equally true for Latin South Central Los Angeles families because poverty and gang violence are common denominators of its residents.

Decent education is a cost without immediate benefit; i.e. robbery, extortion, prostitution, and other illegal activities provide gainful employment, put food on the table, and pay the rent.  On-job-training is provided by street gang activities.

Violence provides “street-cred” and gang affiliation provides power.  Money, power, and prestige, the hallmarks of capitalism, are as coveted by the poor as the middle class and rich.

This story about South Central is primarily told from the perspective of the police department.  Leovy tells the “true story” of a black South Central Los Angeles’ cop who works and lives in a South Central L.A.’ community.  He is an exception to the rule of most South Central policemen because he lives in the neighborhood he polices.  He is an excellent homicide detective, who works hard to solve crimes in a city he loves.  He raises a family that exemplifies the American dream.  He comes from a lower middle class family, marries a Costa Rican wife while in the marines, and returns to South Central to become a cop.  They raise three children; two younger children went to college while the oldest struggled in school.  With extra effort, the oldest finishes high school.  He is not interested in college but is a conscientious, hardworking young man; much like his father.  The oldest son rejects the gang culture but, like all teenagers, craves his own identity.  He ignores gang-culture rules of living in South Central.  Standing on a corner, with a hat that is the wrong color, he is shot in the head by another teenager that presumes gang affiliation.

Leovy explores police department reaction to inner-city homicide to reveal how good cops are overwhelmed by a culture that victimizes itself.  As the story unfolds, the police officers’ oldest son dies.  The investigation is turned over to a different department that initially fails to solve the crime; not because of lack of effort but because of a bureaucratic way of conducting the investigation.  The officer in charge is a meticulous detective but the record of his investigation shows he repeatedly knocks on doors of possible witnesses without actually making contact.  The effort is duly noted in the “murder book” but no new evidence is found.  A new officer is assigned to the case that is equally organized but pursues witnesses until he finds them.  A record of attempted contacts is not acceptable to this detective.

The interrogation description is a pleasure to listen to and a high commendation by Leovy for the investigating detective.  The case is solved but one is left with the feeling that justice is not done.  A young man, a teenager, is dead.  The killer is also a teenager.  When asked why he murdered the police officer’s son, he said he shot him with his eyes closed; he only did it because the officer’s son looked like he belonged to a rival gang, and, after all, he is Black, so who cares?

Leovy systematically reveals how difficult it is for a good police officer to keep up with the murder rate in South Central L.A.  Everything from budget cuts, to bureaucratic “cover your ass” investigation, to a culture that feeds on itself, makes a good policeman’s job un-doable.

Police officers are faced with mistrust that makes solving murders less important than bureaucratic record keeping that shows they are working

When trust between citizens and police is broken, witnesses will not cooperate because they fear reprisal from the accused. 

Ineffective police bureaucracy is compounded by officers that are not part of the community for which they are responsible.  The irony of that observation is made obvious in Leovy’s story of a good officer who lives in the community and has a son murdered for being part of the community.

Being a cop in South Central L.A. looks like the hell described in Sartre’s play, “No Exit”.  It is a play where three dead characters are locked in a room with no exit.  In Leovy’s story, there are the police, the citizens, and the perpetrators.  Sartre is saying “hell is other people” because each is perpetually viewed by the other as the worst part of themselves.