This week it was The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
. This was fairly interesting in that I didn't know the book was written in 1999 before I picked it up and started reading it. Surprisingly, it was still relevant today and 10 years later, it appears we really haven't learned very much. I think it's human nature to overestimate some risks and underestimate those that are familiar to us. This probably has something to do with the fact that world in which we evolved in no way reflects the modern world in which we live in. I've found through reading books like these, I'm better able to check my emotions when assessing problems and assess them through a more rational state of mind. It's much more productive, especially at accurately assessing problems -- and not just every day dangers -- but I do find that even from an enlightened standpoint, I struggle with it. I suspect that many never stop to figure that out, and I doubt it's possible to change.
. This was fairly interesting in that I didn't know the book was written in 1999 before I picked it up and started reading it. Surprisingly, it was still relevant today and 10 years later, it appears we really haven't learned very much. I think it's human nature to overestimate some risks and underestimate those that are familiar to us. This probably has something to do with the fact that world in which we evolved in no way reflects the modern world in which we live in. I've found through reading books like these, I'm better able to check my emotions when assessing problems and assess them through a more rational state of mind. It's much more productive, especially at accurately assessing problems -- and not just every day dangers -- but I do find that even from an enlightened standpoint, I struggle with it. I suspect that many never stop to figure that out, and I doubt it's possible to change.Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Expose of the Dark Side of American Policing
was my second read, and I've spent a solid week reflecting on it. I often struggle with the problems in today's police force, and I can be highly critical of the way many law enforcement officers do their job. At the same time, I realize they're only human, and I've read both the Milgram Experiment conclusions and the Stanford Prison Experiment conclusions and realize this is a tough problem to solve. Reading this book gave me interesting and valuable insight to the "other side", and it was presented in a way that I was sympathetic towards. It's also hard to talk about how to correct the flaws in a system if no one's willing to step and actually address the flaws, and I applaud Norm Stamper for doing so. I hope that his words will not fall on deaf ears in other police departments.
At the same time, I was a little disappointed with the book. By the end it had gotten a little tiresome to read -- there was very little "meat" to the book, it was mostly just his experiences as an officer, supervisor, and police chief, and the problems he encountered and saw, but very little investigation into why these things are happening, how we got there, and what we can do to fix it. I found I reached some understanding, but not enough to understand the decisions that were made 25, 50, or 100 years ago to get us where we are today and little understanding of how we can change minds and attitudes in today's overly militarized police force.
Overall, a good book, but I did expect more.
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