Captain Snow, a veteran police officer and acclaimed author of
Protecting Your Life, Home, and Property, gives us a startling look, as
only a police officer can, at the violence, tears, and terror that
shatter homes and lives across America, and tells us what we can do
about it. Walking us through the course of a regular night shift, we
witness, first-hand, tragic and vividly real scenes of abuse that are
becoming all too commonplace. We learn the heart-wrenching story of a
woman who has suffered burns, broken limbs, and even a fractured skull
at the hands of her brutal husband, but is too terrified to report his
crimes. We see the chilling evidence of neglect in a bare, airless,
padlocked room where a son has imprisoned his elderly mother without
sufficient food, medicine, or human contact, awaiting her death. And we
hear the stuttered excuses of a father lying about the scald marks on
his baby's legs as the child screams in agony. Abusers, we discover,
come from every walk of life, and no one is untouched by the powerful
consequences of violence, neglect, and emotional and sexual abuse in
this country. Snow goes on to reveal the tactics of violence and terror
these abusers all wield - whether against a parent, wife, or child. More
importantly, he shows that this hateful legacy of abuse need not
continue. At the heart of this book is an urgent, persistent question:
How can we stop these horrible crimes? With an insider's knowledge
forged from years of experience on the police force, combined with
in-depth research, Snow provides a refreshingly practical perspective:
tough solutions to conquer this growing crime. Taking on the ranks of
the police, the courts, and public education, hesounds a clarion call
for reform and reeducation. Captain Snow also gives invaluable advice -
in this less-than-perfect world - to victims and their loved ones on how
they can now use the police and legal system to their best advantage in
fighting against abuse. Pointing out the ho
