Negro Policeman: Book Review Essay, Research Paper

A Study of the Negro Policeman: Book Review

by Nicholas Alex

Appleton-Century-Crofts

Copyright 1969 210 pages

Intro. Criminal Justice December 2, 1996

Nicholas Alex, helper professor of sociology at The City University

of New York, holds a Phd from the New School for Social Research and a B.S.

from the Wharton School. He was once a research helper with the Russell

Sage Foundation, an teacher at Adelphi University, and has had working

experience in his academic specialty-the sociology of professions and

occupations-while an industrial applied scientist in the aircraft industry, subsequently as

concern director of the Walden School. This is his first book.

In this book Alex made an attempt to analyze the curious jobs of

Negro police officers who live in an age which has non yet resolved to job of

inequality in an assertedly democratic society. He drawn to a great extent on the

contemplations of 41 Negro police officers who made field to me the troubles

involved in being black in bluish. Alex was concerned with the ways in which the

work forces were recruited into the constabulary, the nature of their dealingss in respect to

their immediate patronages, their opposite numbers, and the remainder of society. In the

broadest footings, the book examines the particular jobs that Negro police officers face

in their attempts to accommodate their race with their work in the present

model of American values and beliefs.

The research for the survey was based on intensive interviews collected

over a period of 11 months, from December 1964 to October 1965. During that

clip the writer talked with Negro constabularies engaged in different types of constabulary

fortes, and work forces of different rank and backgrounds. Alex was interested in

continuing their namelessness, and substituted codification Numberss for names. The

linguistic communication in which their ideas were expressed is unchanged.

Most of the interviews were obtained either at the police officer & # 8217 ; s place or

the writers. Some were held in Parkss, resort areas, and luncheonettes. All of

the interviews were open-ended. All the police officers refused to hold there

conversations taped. & # 8220 ; I know excessively good what tapes can make to you, & # 8221 ; said one. & # 8220 ; I

can rebut what you write down on that tablet, but I can & # 8217 ; t if it & # 8217 ; s taped. We use

tapes excessively, you know. & # 8221 ; The writer was covering with a extremely expressive and

literate group of work forces who thought of the survey as a manner in which they could do

themselves heard.

This book is organized really good. It consist of eight chapters, and each

chapter is broken into subdivisions. The first chapter negotiations about the

police officers in the community. Within this chapter chiefly describes the constabulary as

and business, and states how the police officers & # 8217 ; s occupation is unsure. The 2nd

chapter trades with the enlisting of Negroes for constabulary work. It talks about

the demand for Negro police officers, and the grounds for come ining the constabulary work. The

writer provinces in this chapter that most Negro police officers applied for constabulary work

merely as one possibility among other similar civil service occupations.

The following

chapter describes the constabulary image and the difference between good bulls and bad

bulls. The writer describes a good bull as person who knows his occupation, has a well-

integrated personality, and person who tries to understand the peculiar

jobs in the community that he works. He describes a bad bull as the cat who

puts on a unvarying and becomes 10 pess tall. In my community there is a bull that

relates to that statement. The lone ground he is tough is because he has a

badge on his shirt. I would wish to run into him in a dark back street when no 1 else

is about, and without him have oning his badge. Then we can see who is the tough

cat.

The following chapter is a really interesting 1. It deals with the Negro

police officers and his white antagonistic portion. It talks about how the Negro police officers

feel they are viewed by white police officers. They feel that the white bulls look at

them as an oddness. It besides talks about how the Negro constabularies work forces feel about the

white bulls. The Negro police officers interviewed experience that most Whites are narrow

minded, bigoted and opinionated, in-between category in their thought. The fifth

chapter is about the Negro police officers and the white community. One

police officers interview said, & # 8220 ; From a personal point of position I don & # 8217 ; t experience as

comfy as I would in a Negro neighborhood. & # 8221 ;

The 6th chapter trades with the Negro community. It talks about the

different societal categories within the community. It besides talks about the Negro

police officer and the civil rights motion. The last chapter trades with the

constabularies uniform and how it is a symbol of the authorization, power, and legal position

of the constabulary. It besides talks about how it can be considered a mark for the

section. The most interesting topic targeted in this chapter is how the

Negro policeman out of unvarying faces all the humiliations of being a Negro,

particularly when he leaves the ghetto.

This book consist of a great trade of information. The writer could

hold presented the information in a different mode. He did non present both sides of

the issue. He merely took forty-one Negro constabulary officers and based his

information on that. The writer should at least included a chapter on how

white constabulary officers feel about Negro police officers. Besides in chapter six he merely

discusses how the Negro police officers think the white community feels about them.

He should hold interview occupants in the white community and inquire how they feel

approximately Negroes policing their town. Alex presented findings in and interesting

manor. He includes largely all of the inquiries he asked, and so paraphrased

different replies from different police officers. The audience most likely to read

this book is the black community.

I believe that this book is written in a 1 sided manor As I

antecedently wrote the writer merely interviewed black police officers. He should hold at

least found out how the Whites feel about the Negro police officers. The information

in this book is really out-of-date. I would wish to see the writer or one of his

co-workers write a similar book covering with today & # 8217 ; s society. I believe it

would be really interesting.