3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
I'll admit - I typically think of police officers as a nuisance. When I see one, I suddenly get paranoid if I'm driving even a mile over the speed limit, if my side mirror isn't up to par or if my driving isn't absolutely straight. This is despite the only ticket I've ever received could technically have been nearly 40 miles over the limit, and the officer was extremely lenient with me! When it comes to "black lives matter" or cops looking to give tickets and arrest people in general, I partially bought into the media. It's easy to forget there are people who owe their lives to the police every day, and without them we'd face absolute chaos.
Jerry Wuchte's The Lines that Divide America quickly made me think otherwise. It's quick to point out that police officers are human beings too, and like most anyone they just want a safe, easy day of work. Unfortunately, those days are made less easy when they inevitably come across people breaking laws, sometimes in ways that are dangerous to the police officer as well!
Overall, the book discusses the numerous things pulling us apart - The Lines that Divide America as the book is so aptly-titled. After discussing how people have been made to believe police are evil, it goes on to discuss other major issues - the way racism is taught in schools, the way our various forms of entertainment perpetuate violence and how even our politics divide us as a nation. It makes solid points, scattering statistics and information pulled from outside sources throughout the text, and it did a great job opening my eyes to some issues I never would have considered. As a gamer, I sometimes forget how mature-rated games may influence a kid's mind, or how even the language used in songs or movies can cause people to assume saying certain things is acceptable. These are issues that have been pervasive as long as I can remember, I simply never considered how exactly they came to be.
Aside from a few grammatical errors (less than five in the whole book), the only real flaw I found with it was that it felt a little scattered because of its length. At just over 110 pages, the book attempts to tackle several different issues. While it does a good job with each, and I'd suggest the book to every American, it falls just short of excellent.
While I fell in love with the book at first - Jerry's 20 years of experience as a police officer really shine here - some topics didn't get quite as much love. I'd really enjoy reading a series of books that focused on each of these areas individually, and I hope that's something we can see in the future. As I said, this was still a great book and deserves the 3 out of 4 stars I'm giving it. While it's more impassioned than any textbook in any school, this book is something I wish was included for all Americans to read as early as they could understand it, and it's something I'd suggest to every adult as well.
******
The Lines that Divide America
View: on Bookshelves
Like CataclysmicKnight's review? Post a comment saying so!
