Glad I did Horace! Thank you for educating me and giving me another lens through which to see good and decent police officers.If you're looking for resources on how to talk about race or to brush up on history and important Black figures, experts say these books are a good place to start. He wrote back encouraging me to push forward and after a couple of weeks, I did just that. I found the author, Matthew Horace on LinkedIn and wrote Him telling how I felt. I stopped reading around chapter 11 because it’s so painful and I needed a break. If he does nothing else, this is his legacy.

This book definitely is making a difference. I imagine that he is well respected in his field, but clearly is pained by the truth and reality of what was and is historical institutional racism today. He has regrets, and has learned from his mistakes. This book gives a well researched documentation of what is happening in America today by a Cop! A black cop! A man who has dedicated his life to protecting us all black and white. Powerful! Painfully honest! I was intrigued to read this book when I saw it recommended in the Sheriff Departments quarterly newsletter in Boston. ' The Black and the Blue is an affirmation of the critical need for criminal justice reform, all the more urgent because itcomes from an insider who respects his profession yet is willing to reveal its flaws.' ( USA Today ) 'Horace's authority as an experienced officer, as well as his obvious integrity and courage, provides the book with a gravitas.' ( The Washington Post ) He dissects some of the nation's most highly publicized police shootings and communities to explain how these systems and tactics have hurt the people they serve, revealing the mistakes that have stoked racist policing, sky-high incarceration rates, and an epidemic of violence. Through gut-wrenching reportage, on-the-ground research, and personal accounts from interviews with police and government officials around the country, Horace presents an insider's examination of archaic police tactics. Yet it was not until seven years into his service - when Horace found himself face down on the ground with a gun pointed at his head by a white fellow officer - that he fully understood the racism seething within America's police departments. During his 28-year career, Matthew Horace rose through the ranks from a police officer working the beat to a federal agent working criminal cases in some of the toughest communities in America to a highly decorated federal law enforcement executive managing high-profile investigations nationwide.

The black and the blue matthew horace