During his 28-year career, Matthew Horace rose through the ranks from a
police officer working the beat to a federal agent working criminal
cases in some of the toughest communities in America to a highly
decorated federal law enforcement executive managing high-profile
investigations nationwide. Yet it was not until seven years into his
service- when Horace found himself face down on the ground with a gun
pointed at his head by a white fellow officer-that he fully understood
the racism seething within America's police departments.
Through gut-wrenching reportage, on-the-ground research, and personal
accounts from interviews with police and government officials around the
country, Horace presents an insider's examination of archaic police
tactics. He dissects some of the nation's most highly publicized police
shootings and communities to explain how these systems and tactics have
hurt the people they serve, revealing the mistakes that have stoked
racist policing, sky-high incarceration rates, and an epidemic of
violence.
"Horace's authority as an experienced officer, as well as his obvious
integrity and courage, provides the book with a gravitas." -- The
Washington Post
"The Black and the Blue is an affirmation of the critical need for
criminal justice reform, all the more urgent because itcomes from an
insider who respects his profession yet is willing to reveal its flaws."
-- USA Today
