A young deputy sheriff goes to law school to become the people¿s lawyer. Then teams up with some sharp cops to tackle crime, first in his community and later nationally. Each step brings controversy as he progresses from county prosecutor to U.S. Attorney¿to Director of the U.S. Marshals Service¿ ultimately to Federal District Judge. You¿ll be shocked to learn how one prominent person tried to tube his career! Greta Van Susteren of Fox News says ¿crime news junkies will love Quest for Justice, . . . a thrilling tale of crime fighting adventure.¿ And Ollie North says, ¿Henry Hudson weaves a suspenseful tale that reads like a novel, but it¿s all true.¿ An insider¿s view of the world of criminal prosecution¿the good and the bad. He really strips the varnish off. Very entertaining!
From beginning to end, the 28-year tenure of Sheriff Willis V. McCall was studded with controversial cases including his own murder trial on a charge of kicking a black prisoner to death in his jail cell. McCall's very name still conjures up visions of riots, killings and racism in rural America. He reigned supreme over an area that now adjoins the Florida home of Mickey Mouse. His exploits in the enforcement of his own brand of lawandorder brought him under frequent investigation from governors, local, state and federal grand juries and up through the U.S. Supreme Court. The book is a nonfiction account about an era that has virtually been forgotten or pushed aside in our memories. It is in narrativealmost fictionalform. It is unique in its field because it deals generally with a period of time, rather than with one or two sensational aspects of it. The work is thoroughly researched including interviews, public records, private correspondence, trial testimony, official investigative reports and the journalism of the time. It revolves around one person but, more importantly, it is about a culture in our society that still remains with us to a limited extent.
Law enforcement officers have the toughest job in America-keeping the public safe in a crime-ridden society. For nineteen years, Dan Hintz was one of those officers. Hintz always wanted to work in law enforcement. Police cars with their sirens and flashing lights caught his attention as a young boy each time they drove down the streets of his hometown, Shantytown, Wisconsin. Seeing local billboards of police officers leaning over to extend their hands to the children of his community made an indelible impression on him. The fact that officers could carry guns didn't hurt either. Gathering with his friends to play cops and robbers, he envisioned himself as a real police officer chasing down the bad guys, making sure they paid the price for their crimes. Law enforcement officers were his heroes and he wanted to be one of them. "In Pursuit of Justice" is a recollection of Hintz's childhood and adolescence, as well as experiences associated with a nineteen-year law enforcement career in central Wisconsin from the late 1960s until the first day of 1987. It depicts not only youthful discomfiture, but also family tragedies, accidents, and characters that are criminal in nature: miscreants, druggies, drunks, or just plain thugs. It also features individuals that are loveable and misguided, including those that just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hintz is Wisconsin's Andy Taylor-his book of short stories is chock full of small-town eccentrics. What he presented in those stories is emotional, humorous, frightening, tragic, and, above all, revealing. It confirmed the harsh reality that crime and misfortune exist everywhere regardless of whether you live in a big city or a small county with charming towns, rustic farms, and little white churches. Growing up poor on a small farm in central Wisconsin, Hintz depicts not only his often-tragic life from a previous generation but his time in the U.S. Army including a stint in South Korea as a communications specialist. Hintz's law enforcement career ran the gamut of tragic, dangerous, and bizarre circumstances: farm and auto accidents, murder, suicide, bar brawls, medical emergencies, dismembered bodies, creative drug trafficking, illicit liaisons, smart-mouthed citizens, a small-town bully, racial tensions, masturbation gone wrong, and a drug-fueled rock festival from a bygone era just to name a few. But the pinnacle of Dan Hintz's law enforcement career was his involvement in the removal of one of America's most investigated domestic terrorist groups-the Posse Comitatus. Described by the FBI as "one of the first organized manifestations" of a strain of extremism "espousing racial supremacy, but primarily focused on opposition to the federal government," Hintz helped direct the removal of the racist, militia-style group from its Tigerton Dells compound in central Wisconsin.
The deputy sheriff or sheriff of a county often is perceived as the lone officer protecting the citizens of a small town. Country Cop is the riveting story of one such deputy sheriff, Barry Goodson, and his experiences with the Parker County Sheriff’s office in the 1990s and early 2000s in North Texas. Goodson was required to answer any call for service within an area roughly the size of Rhode Island (just under 1000 square miles), where a backup officer could be many miles away, and so he often patrolled and handled calls alone in a county renowned for being a haven for drug manufacturers and dealers. Goodson puts the reader in his patrol car to vicariously share what it is like to be in county law enforcement. He reveals his officer’s skills, which include the ability to identify an offender immediately, to assess that offender’s immediate intent (apparent or not), and to decide on proper action before the offender can unleash his or her attack on that deputy or against the originally intended victim. More often than not, he employed “verbal judo” to de-escalate a situation instead of drawing his gun. Calls from dispatch ranged from a simple need to clear livestock from the highways to shots fired or a 150 mph high-speed auto chase of drug dealers. More often, drug dealer attacks erupted during a perceived normal traffic stop with the offender suddenly producing a weapon, forcing Goodson to use force to subdue the individual. During one domestic violence call Goodson and another officer forced entry to stop a violent father from extreme violence against his wife and two teenage sons, but then Goodson had to intercept the wife as she lunged forward with a pair of long scissors in an attempt to stab the other officer in the back. Country Cop gives the inside story of county law enforcement and will prove a valuable resource for those in criminal justice, those who aspire to a career in law enforcement, and to all who enjoy a good police story.
This book evaluates how structural reform litigation initiated by federal intervention has transformed police departments and reduced law enforcement misconduct.
"Exposes the sinister complexity of American racism... King tells this... story with grace and sensitivity, and his narrative never flags." --Jeffrey Toobin, New York Times Book Review From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Devil in the Grove comes the story of a small town with a big secret. In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a "husky Negro" did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects. But within days, McCall turns his sights on Jesse Daniels, a gentle, mentally impaired white nineteen-year-old. Soon Jesse is railroaded up to the state hospital for the insane, and locked away without trial. But crusading journalist Mabel Norris Reese cannot stop fretting over the case and its baffling outcome. Who was protecting whom, or what? She pursues the story for years, chasing down leads, hitting dead ends, winning unlikely allies. Bit by bit, the unspeakable truths behind a conspiracy that shocked a community into silence begin to surface. Beneath a Ruthless Sun tells a powerful, page-turning story rooted in the fears that rippled through the South as integration began to take hold, sparking a surge of virulent racism that savaged the vulnerable, debased the powerful, and roils our own times still.
After solving the mayor’s murder and exposing corruption among the top brass in Las Playas, Carly Edwards is happy to be back on patrol with her partner, Joe, putting bad guys behind bars. For once, everything in life seems to be going right. But then everything starts going wrong. Slow to recover from an injury, her ex-husband, Nick, begins pulling away just as they were starting to get close again. Meanwhile, when Joe’s wife lands in the hospital with a mysterious illness, their baby is kidnapped. As Carly chases down every lead in a desperate search to find the baby, her newfound faith is pushed to its limits.