Introduction
Edward Conlon is the author of this award winning book. “Blue Blood” covers his years in NYPD, the law enforcement background in his family, his work of conducting the street level narcotics enforcement in Housing Bureau, and a number of anecdotes concerning policing history. He is in fact a stereotype who has doggedly endured in the popular culture. Portly, flush-faced and very possibly crooked, Conlon continues cropping up everywhere from The Simpsons to The Departed. Even while real life in New York streets is policed by the boys in blue of all the colors, their fictitious counterparts inflexibly retain their ruddy cheeks and lilting brogues.
Therefore, in some ways Conlon was actually up against it with the “blue blood,” his ambitious and lengthy memoir of a 4th generation Irish American life of a police officer on the beat. This author could have actually been an industry captain, but his upbringing in South Bronx made his career choice inevitable. Conlon recognized these mean streets, the public spaces littered with crack vials, excrement, and shell casings and where children could tell the gunshots from the backfiring of a car. However, Catholic schools actually stood no nonsense. This book is sprinkled with the quotations from St Augustine and Dante, and we observe a stubborn morality shining through.
Consequently, in this book Conlon brings out clearly various issues in policing and also how he dealt with them throughout his career. One of the issues that he undoubtedly brings out in this book is the issue of police stress. Conlon gets transferred to the narcotics where he studies background of the war on drugs. We note that there’s nothing academic concerning the situations that Conlon finds himself in. He goes further and tells us that he spends many hours sweating and in addition shivering on the rooftops wiping the binocular lenses he possesses in rain in search of the drug busts.
In certain cases he is squatting next to ornate Victorian Brigade where he is still chained to rotting leash with skeleton of pit bull terrier. The stashes could essentially be found under the bottle tops or stuck under iron bolt of park bench. Regularly they were hidden in the bodily orifices that made sniffing them for the drugs especially disgusting. Life in precinct is actually tough, sometimes always precarious and violent. He goes further and narrates to us that he has had various objects that were heavy dropped at him. Thus, this demonstrates the stress that Conlon goes through them by illuminating every aspect of his life with wry humor and wisdom.
The other issue in policing that we get from this book is police use of force. The author relates the controversies that surround somewhat familiar abuse and shooting of Amadou Diallou at the hands of the New York cops. However, the author being a cop himself lends nuance and insight to these issues, which could not perhaps be found in newspapers. Therefore, this demonstrates the issue of use of force by the police towards the normal citizens. Conlon thus deals with this challenge by abiding to the rules and regulations as required by the land laws.
The third issue that the author demonstrates is poor relationship between the police and citizens. There are certain problems between the citizens and police particularly in the poor areas. The outpouring of sadness and support for 2 detectives’ death is actually a statement to that. The act of police using excessive force creates a bad image where the public develops this awful relationship with the police. However, Conlon tries to overcome this issue by creating good relationship with the citizens as being a police is his career.
However, despite Conlon’s unique writing skills, this book ultimately lacks the cohesion and narrative momentum. He crowds in many overly detailed characters, incidents, and even the acronyms for us as readers to absorb easily. The repetition of various analogous episodes essentially tends to lessen the effectiveness expected in them instead of enhancing it. Subsequently, a slight judicious editing could have turned this interesting but flawed piece of work into powerful memoir.
References
Conlon, E. (2004). Blue Blood. New York: Riverhead Books.
