Blau writes from his three years reporting for the Chicago Tribune in the Cop Shop, Chicago's police headquarters. Gritty and grim, well- told. Good reading about evil. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The Cops - Not Just a Job is not a book for the faint hearted or sensitive reader. However if you want a taste of the day to day life of a cop attempting to deal with people most of us would not like to encounter, this is the book for you. Dealing with everyday events, such as break enters, suicides, drug overdoses, thefts, home invasions, gang rapes and murders. All are seen through the eyes of a first responder and an investigator. The book is essentially in two parts - reflecting the author's working life. The first deals with time as a general duties officer. Here the events occur rapidly leaving many questions to be asked - who were these people, what were their backgrounds, what happened. However, it reveals that a general duties cop often does not know these answers. He/she just has to deal with the event, on the spot, the best they can. The second part of the book describes the author's life as a detective. Here we begin to be able to understand the background to the crimes and what happened after the initial event. It is where we meet some very undesirable people - a group of teenagers who gang rape a woman. The experience, so horrific, that she hoped that she would quickly die during the ordeal; a man who kidnapped his partner who was attempting to leave him. He shot her and, as she was dying, raped her; an escapee, who was determined not to return to goal, attempts to knife the author. Fortunately, for the reader, humorous incidents intersperse these crimes to give the reader some relief. The Cops - Not Just a Job gives an insight into a side of life most of us do not experience. It raises many issues - ethical, practical and psychological - which would be helpful for both serving and prospective police officers to discuss.
Booklist Top of the List Reference Source The heir and successor to Eric Partridge's brilliant magnum opus, The Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, this two-volume New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is the definitive record of post WWII slang. Containing over 60,000 entries, this new edition of the authoritative work on slang details the slang and unconventional English of the English-speaking world since 1945, and through the first decade of the new millennium, with the same thorough, intense, and lively scholarship that characterized Partridge's own work. Unique, exciting and, at times, hilariously shocking, key features include: unprecedented coverage of World English, with equal prominence given to American and British English slang, and entries included from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa, Ireland, and the Caribbean emphasis on post-World War II slang and unconventional English published sources given for each entry, often including an early or significant example of the term’s use in print. hundreds of thousands of citations from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, and songs illustrating usage of the headwords dating information for each headword in the tradition of Partridge, commentary on the term’s origins and meaning New to this edition: A new preface noting slang trends of the last five years Over 1,000 new entries from the US, UK and Australia New terms from the language of social networking Many entries now revised to include new dating, new citations from written sources and new glosses The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English is a spectacular resource infused with humour and learning – it’s rude, it’s delightful, and it’s a prize for anyone with a love of language.
Before eighteen-year-old Craig Semple joined the New South Wales Police Force in 1988, he was someone who preferred to steer clear of trouble. But like so many young police officers, he gradually built resilience to fear through a process of selflessly, and often recklessly, turning towards danger. By the time he started locking horns with some of Australia's most notorious outlaw motorcycle gangs, Craig believed himself to be bulletproof. After his brother, a rookie police officer, was near-fatally stabbed by a drug dealer in 1998, Craig's life suddenly jumped the track, his fight against drug crime becoming an obsession that took him to the brink of personal, professional and marital destruction. Attempting to give his family and career a new start, he moved to the New South Wales north coast, where he too became the victim of a violent crime, at the hands of outlaw bikies. Trained and shaped in an era of alcohol abuse and maverick culture within the force, Craig saw just about everything in a career spanning a quarter of a century: murder, suicide, armed robbery, organised crime and much more. This unforgiving environment would eventually take its toll. After many years struggling with his deteriorating mental health, Craig retired with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Ahead of him was a challenging journey that would take him to the lowest point of his life and provide him with an opportunity to find a new purpose inspiring others as a mental health educator. Craig Semple's story is one of transformation and profound personal growth through exposure to extreme life events. As compelling as a thriller, it is a story of how human endurance, tenacity, sacrifice and belief in something beyond the self ultimately lead to the triumph of good over evil.
After an unexpected and diabolical farewell breakfast conversation with his father, Spud Milton returns to boarding school for his 1993 Matric year, his last as a schoolboy. Armed with a prefect's tie and a raging libido, Spud soon discovers that being a large(ish) fish in a small pond has its fair share of challenges. He finds himself embroiled in fighting for his own room, directing a house play where both lead actors refuse to learn their lines, and assisting Vern Blackadder's dramatic return from the dead with nothing more than a drip cord and a pair of oven gloves. Amid mounting pressure in the classroom and on the cricket field, Spud prepares to face down the most feared and dreaded challenge of them all - finding a date for the Matric dance. In this hilarious final instalment of the Spud series John van de Ruit brings to a close his savagely funny blow by blow account of the agonies of growing up. The embarrassments, the thrills, the defeats, and the sheer absurdity of daily life are wittily recorded in Spud's unique voice as he prepares to make his own exit, pursued by a bear.
A very ordinary man wakes up in an African police cell. He has no idea how he got there, nor why he's there. He's tortured for information about which he has no idea, and then he's threatened with execution. When British Consular staff ignore his pleas for help because of a trade deal, he realizes that the only person who is going to help him, is himself. It's towards the end of the 1980s and all this is happening in the middle of a very unstable Zaire that is about to descend into civil war. He knows that to survive, he must escape. This he does, but only by killing some of his guards in the process. He on foot, in the middle of nowhere and everyone wants him dead; and now he must find out why he's Zaire's Public Enemy No1, if he wants to clear his name and return to a normal life.
The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang offers the ultimate record of modern, post WW2 American Slang. The 25,000 entries are accompanied by citations that authenticate the words as well as offer examples of usage from popular literature, newspapers, magazines, movies, television shows, musical lyrics, and Internet user groups. Etymology, cultural context, country of origin and the date the word was first used are also provided. In terms of content, the cultural transformations since 1945 are astounding. Television, computers, drugs, music, unpopular wars, youth movements, changing racial sensitivities and attitudes towards sex and sexuality are all substantial factors that have shaped culture and language. This new edition includes over 500 new headwords collected with citations from the last five years, a period of immense change in the English language, as well as revised existing entries with new dating and citations. No term is excluded on the grounds that it might be considered offensive as a racial, ethnic, religious, sexual or any kind of slur. This dictionary contains many entries and citations that will, and should, offend. Rich, scholarly and informative, The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English is an indispensable resource for language researchers, lexicographers and translators.
In this no-holds-barred memoir, a legendary biker recounts his life of sex, drugs, rock & roll and lots of broken laws. Here is the true-life story of Richard “Deadeye” Hayes in all its bad-ass, balls-to-the-wall glory. This is a man who stole a machine gun before he was seven and lost his left eye when a good friend shot him in the face. As a member—and then president—of the infamous Los Valientes Motorcycle Club, he broke more laws and had more fun than any six of the coolest guys you know. One of the last true Outlaw Bikers, Deadeye knows what it means to be a man, take shit from no one, and have tattoos that actually say something. Riding, drug dealing, and sending men to the hospital with his bare hands, Deadeye made himself a legend among bikers—all the while making sure his daughters never got mixed up with guys like him. “This may just be the best book ever written by an author who's been shot twice, stabbed once, and bitten by a rattlesnake!” —Geoffrey Leavenworth, author of Isle of Misfortune