Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, by Jill Leovy
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Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, by Jill Leovy
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, USA TODAY, AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE • A masterly work of literary journalism about a senseless murder, a relentless detective, and the great plague of homicide in AmericaNATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • The Economist • The Globe and Mail • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews On a warm spring evening in South Los Angeles, a young man is shot and killed on a sidewalk minutes away from his home, one of the thousands of black Americans murdered that year. His assailant runs down the street, jumps into an SUV, and vanishes, hoping to join the scores of killers in American cities who are never arrested for their crimes. But as soon as the case is assigned to Detective John Skaggs, the odds shift. Here is the kaleidoscopic story of the quintessential, but mostly ignored, American murder—a “ghettoside” killing, one young black man slaying another—and a brilliant and driven cadre of detectives whose creed is to pursue justice for forgotten victims at all costs. Ghettoside is a fast-paced narrative of a devastating crime, an intimate portrait of detectives and a community bonded in tragedy, and a surprising new lens into the great subject of why murder happens in our cities—and how the epidemic of killings might yet be stopped. Praise for Ghettoside“A serious and kaleidoscopic achievement . . . [Jill Leovy is] a crisp writer with a crisp mind and the ability to boil entire skies of information into hard journalistic rain.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times“Masterful . . . gritty reporting that matches the police work behind it.”—Los Angeles Times“Moving and engrossing.”—San Francisco Chronicle“Penetrating and heartbreaking . . . Ghettoside points out how relatively little America has cared even as recently as the last decade about the value of young black men’s lives.”—USA Today“Functions both as a snappy police procedural and—more significantly—as a searing indictment of legal neglect . . . Leovy’s powerful testimony demands respectful attention.”—The Boston Globe“Gritty, heart-wrenching . . . Everyone needs to read this book.”—Michael Connelly “Ghettoside is remarkable: a deep anatomy of lawlessness.”—Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal“[Leovy writes] with grace and artistry, and controlled—but bone-deep—outrage in her new book. . . . The most important book about urban violence in a generation.”—The Washington Post “Riveting . . . This timely book could not be more important.”—Associated Press“Leovy’s relentless reporting has produced a book packed with valuable, hard-won insights—and it serves as a crucial, 366-page reminder that ‘black lives matter.’ ”—The New York Times Book Review“A compelling analysis of the factors behind the epidemic of black-on-black homicide . . . an important book, which deserves a wide audience.”—Hari Kunzru, The GuardianFrom the Hardcover edition.
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, by Jill Leovy - Amazon Sales Rank: #3211 in Books
- Published on: 2015-10-27
- Released on: 2015-10-27
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .70" w x 5.10" l, .64 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 384 pages
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America, by Jill Leovy Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of the Month for February 2015: There’s a statistic that surfaces early in Jill Leovy’s fundamentally important book Ghettoside that should catch your attention: black men compose about 6% of the country’s population, yet they are the victim in nearly 40% of homicides. And who’s killing those black men? The answer is most often other black men. Leovy, a writer for the Los Angeles Times, explores the culture of black violence, specifically in South Central LA, describing a world that seems to exist hermetically sealed off from the rest of the city. With nearly zero mobility and little policing, the people of South Central are left to fend for themselves—further amplifying the devastating drumbeat of gangs and violence. Leovy builds her book around one family’s story: Wally Tennelle, an LA cop, has refused to move his wife and kids out of his Watts neighborhood. Then his youngest son is murdered (unlike most murders in the area, this one was covered by the local media). Through the gathering of evidence, the roundup of suspects, and the trial that ultimately comes to be—all spearheaded by John Skaggs, a very dedicated and capable LA homicide detective—Leovy makes the argument that what places like South Central need is more policing, not less. They need more attention—not debate, finger pointing, and inaction. – Chris Schluep
Review “A serious and kaleidoscopic achievement . . . [Jill Leovy is] a crisp writer with a crisp mind and the ability to boil entire skies of information into hard journalistic rain.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times “Masterful . . . gritty reporting that matches the police work behind it.”—Los Angeles Times “Moving and engrossing.”—San Francisco Chronicle “Penetrating and heartbreaking . . . Ghettoside points out how relatively little America has cared even as recently as the last decade about the value of young black men’s lives.”—USA Today “Functions both as a snappy police procedural and—more significantly—as a searing indictment of legal neglect . . . Leovy’s powerful testimony demands respectful attention.”—The Boston Globe “Ghettoside is fantastic. It does what the best narrative nonfiction does: It transcends its subject by taking one person’s journey and making it all our journeys. That’s what makes this not just a gritty, heart-wrenching, and telling book, but an important one. From the patrol cop to the president, everyone needs to read this book.”—Michael Connelly “Ghettoside is remarkable: a deep anatomy of lawlessness.”—Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal “[Leovy writes] with grace and artistry, and controlled—but bone-deep—outrage in her new book. . . . Ghettoside, if there’s any justice, will be the most important book about urban violence in a generation.”—David M. Kennedy, The Washington Post “Riveting . . . This timely book could not be more important.”—Associated Press “Told with the chilling detail and gripping pace of a prime-time drama.”—The Economist “Leovy’s relentless reporting has produced a book packed with valuable, hard-won insights—and it serves as a crucial, 366-page reminder that ‘black lives matter.’ ”—The New York Times Book Review “A compelling analysis of the factors behind the epidemic of black-on-black homicide, and the beginnings of a policy prescription for tackling it . . . an important book, which deserves a wide audience.”—Hari Kunzru, The Guardian “Ghettoside has many successes: its complicated portrait of the LAPD, the humanity it lends to the families of murder victims, and its ability to engage readers from a historical and current-day context (the sundry facts Leovy provides throughout the book never overwhelm).”—Jason Parham, Gawker “A brave book . . . It is not often that I pick up a work of non-fiction and picture the movie unfolding before my eyes. . . . [Ghettoside] offers a calm dissection of America’s oldest epidemic. . . . [Leovy’s] knowledge makes for lapidary prose that crackles with insight. It is also deeply humane.”—Financial Times “First-rate stuff.”—Newsweek“Jill Leovy writes with exceptional sharpness and tautness, and her pages glow and glitter with the found poetry of the street. This book will take an honored place on the shelf that includes David Simon’s classic Homicide and Michelle Alexander’s explosive study of mass incarceration, The New Jim Crow.”—Martin Amis “A gripping and powerful account of urban homicide investigation in the United States.”—Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Devil in the Grove “Unmissable . . . I’m astonished by Jill Leovy’s forthcoming Ghettoside. Police and race in America are examined with forensic skill and furious, exceptional prose. Lucid, revelatory, superbly written, incredibly timely. A book of the year.”—Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee“Ghettoside is a brilliant taxonomic investigation into the American violence epidemic disguised as a highly entertaining true crime book.”—Matt Taibbi, author of The Divide “A thoroughly engrossing true-life policier full of vivid and sympathetic characters, but also the bravest book about race and crime I’ve ever read.”—Dan Baum, author of Nine Lives “What an amazing book—a totally gripping piece of reporting.”—Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking “Absorbing . . . Readers may come for Leovy’s detective story; they will stay for her lucid social critique.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)From the Hardcover edition.
About the Author Jill Leovy is an award-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.From the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
88 of 94 people found the following review helpful. An Important and Essential Book That Will Broaden Your Understanding By Lita Perna Gettoside was a word used to by a Watts gang member to describe his South Central Los Angeles neighborhood. The author writes that Gettoside is both a place and a predicament. It is a place where black boys and men are safer in jail than on the streets. Ghettoside is also a frame of mind. It is a place with a culture of violence where the heroes are seen as the villains; the villains are seen as the heroes and all the victims are seen by one detective as some father's child.By the time you finish this book you will know the heroes (detectives, including those whom the author calls ghettoside craftsmen whose involvement, dedication and self sacrifice is the stuff of which legends are made) and the victims (the focus here is on a good boy, the murdered 18 year old sheltered son of a homicide detective) and the addicts, the whores and the gangster-villains. You will better understand the police culture, and neighborhood culture and what they are all up against. You will understand why there are so many murders.This is more than a story about heroic and tenacious homicide detectives' almost impossible task of identifying, tracking down, arresting and aiding in the prosecution of the drive by shooter of an 18 year old boy; it is an illuminating history and an exploration of a culture of lawlessness and violence and the multigenerational tragedies of its victims.Author Jill Leovy, award winning reporter and editor for the Los Angeles gives startling and sickening statistics. She states that lawlessness is its own kind of order and where the criminal justice system fails to respond vigorously to violent injury and death, homicide becomes epidemic. "Wherever law is absent or undeveloped---wherever it is shabby, ineffective, or disputed---some form of self-policing or communal justice usually emerges." She says reformers focus on the rights of defendants while being blind to the under enforcement of violent crime. The author writes that police are preoccupied with nuisance crime and lax when it comes to answering for black lives. In poor urban centers those who live in minority enclaves settle their scores outside the law.*During the 1960s the number of people sent to prison for criminal homicide was less than half the number of homicides. From 1994-2006 suspects were arrested in just 41% of the 3,300 killings involving black male victims in Los Angeles.*The author does not preach. She shows. She explains. She tells true stories that will break your heart. Crime witnesses are terrified to testify because they and their families are threatened, beaten and often killed. Mothers weep over children who join gangs for protection or for the teenage allure of girls, guns and excitement.According to the author, blacks who make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, account for nearly half of all homicide victims.The Southeast's per capita murder rate is eight to ten times the national average. The majority of the victims are black on black. So why was the budget for police overtime cut 57 percent? For detectives, working odd hours is essential. The author writes of budget cutbacks that eliminate necessary overtime and equipment. How can one do a job if the office phone don't work? Why would a detective have to live out of his sedan for two days when his unit lost the salvage cars they hoarded? When Detectives aren't issued departmental cell phones, they purchase their own. Detectives buy their own pads, pencils staplers, keyboards, calendars and binders. One detective purchases his own fax machine and printer for the office. Local appliance dealers provide video machines for interrogations.This book is an eye opener and a heart breaker that will change the way you see black on black crime in America and the detectives who devote their lives to seeking justice for its victims.Maybe the book should be titled, "Ghettocide" because it is about the physical, emotional and spiritual death that happens in pockets of cities all over America.
41 of 45 people found the following review helpful. "Nothing else matters after working murders." By Bella Rosa Jill Leovy's theory, in a nutshell, is that "men [kill] one another to settle disputes or exact revenge in the absence of a trusted legal authority." Even as she details the awful statistics - in 1993, black men age 20-24 died by homicide at a rate of 368 per 100,000 - she maintains that the lack of police presence in minority neighborhoods drives young men to take matters into their own hands.I get that gangs have stepped in to monitor and control neighborhoods in the absence of other local authorities, but the result is a casualty count that rivals a literal war zone. Leovy uses the story of Bryant Tennelle, shot in the head while walking down Eightieth Street, to humanize the incomprehensible numbers. Bryant's father, Wallace Tennelle, himself a homicide detective, and the detective assigned to the case, John Skaggs, illustrate the changes in the LAPD over the years and the frustrations of working in South Central. Leovy doesn't sugarcoat the problems of bureaucracy, misunderstanding and apathy, but she's also very clear about the bravery and dedication of men like Skaggs, constantly working for justice in a neighborhood where 20 young black men were killed in the 30 days before Bryant Tennelle was shot.It's an extremely timely topic. Leovy tells a compelling story very well and raises a lot of issues that deserve careful thought.
53 of 61 people found the following review helpful. A book right for the times, now, more than ever By Nathan Webster It's easy to be cynical about the inconsistent, over-stressed, under-resourced, misguided and plainly race-oriented American justice system. Whether it's cops on the street or lawyers in a courtroom, the entire system is a poorly-run bureaucracy that moves papers and bodies around but doesn't actually accomplish anything concrete or long-term.So I was surprised that Detective John Skaggs and some of the others featured here managed to prove that even within this crumbling edifice of "justice" plenty of officers do their best - even when the system would be perfectly content if they sat on the sidelines, slurping coffee and marking time.It's fitting to write this review the day after Ferguson riots burn buildings and otherwise make race relations a little worse than they were the day before. If you read this review six months from now, you'll probably think "Ferguson? Huh?" because that's the kind of memory we have. I'm certainly tired of police violence that the state bends over backwards to excuse, but at least this book provides a counterweight. In LA, these cops DO investigate crimes, whether it's a gangster or a civilian, and they TRY to put the pieces together to find justice in the name of those who've died.I most like narrative nonfiction that tries to answer a "why" question. I get that inner cities are full of violence - but why? I get that police and inner city residents have a terrible relationship - but why? I get that cops have a hard time solving inner city crimes - but why? For the most part, Jill Leovy answers those questions in a ways that maybe seem obvious, but I'd never thought of before.In these post-Ferguson days, a lot of awful commentators point to the rioters and say "that's why the police need to be there, because look at these horrible people! Officer Wilson was at risk, because look at these rioters! They're dangerous and out of control!"But as the book explains, the violence in the inner cities is a result of a vicious circle. Leovy explains that the creating element in inner cities is the lack of police presence, other than minor hassles of meaningless crimes. Sure, a cop might jack somebody up for shoplifting, spraypainting or some other minor crime - but the system doesn't provide the resources to solve real crimes. So the relationship between cop-citizen deteriorates because residents never see the police, except to inconvenience their day-to-day lives, not to prevent meaningful problems. And, the resources are never in the right place - a concept like "overtime," Leovy explains, enables police to show up at suspects or witnesses doors at all hours, letting them get ahead of the criminals. Without overtime, and solving a murder is reduced to a 9-5 desk job, and that won't work. The departments with less serious crime, but more affluent citizens get more resources, while the areas with worse crime get fewer resources under the backwards theory that since witnesses are hard to find, there's no point in devoting resources to find them!So instead of law and order, the focus is on rinky-dink laws that don't matter, at the expense of consistent order. Without a central authority, the system disintegrates into a free-for-all. Nobody wants to live in Somalia, but without law enforcement proving they have the capacity to bring order to a residential area, that's pretty much what we have. Cops just can't drive through and say "look at us!" They have to solve the crimes that matter. Not just throw up their hands and say, "Well, we couldn't find a witness." They can't find witnesses because the cops aren't providing the stable society in which people risk getting involved.John Skaggs doesn't care about all that - he just pushes forward. He is exactly the emotionless - except when he needs to be - figure you want solving murders. He doesn't care, it doesn't matter - he solves the crime, that's what he does.Leovy doesn't offer a solution, but just her up-close observations made in 2008. Things haven't improved in the six years since (actually, the murder rate has dropped, but many root problems remain). Still, this book made me a little less cynical just for showing what could work. But there probably aren't enough cops like John Skagg (and several others who deserve credit), while there's always another bureaucrat ready to make their jobs a little more difficult.
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