Ron Owens – författare

How did police officers do their jobs four decades ago during some of the nation''s most turbulent and violent times?

These aren''t one-dimensional Hollywood characters. They''re society''s soldiers, real people cut from whole cloth. They try to help when they can, bristle when they''re insulted, retaliate when they''re attacked, bleed when they''re injured, laugh when they''re amused (sometimes inappropriately) and get ready for the next shift.

Without bulletproof vests, portable radios and other equipment considered essential today, often riding alone, they developed a "One riot-one ranger" mentality by necessity. This book will put you beside some of them, sometimes inside their heads-om radio calls, both mundane and life-threatening, in interrogations, in hostage situations, undercover arrests, investigating burglaries, robberies, rapes and murders.

These are the type of stories cops share with each other-stories of comedy, tragedy, chaos and the endless uniqueness of human behavior. These are some of the experiences that make them what they are, for better and worse. The experiences that forever change them, that set them apart from the rest of us, that make them a brotherhood closer than most brothers.

This book leads you down the not-so-hallowed halls of law enforcement of four decades ago. It gives you an extra set of eyes and ears in the roll call lineups, in the patrol cars and detective cruisers, on the radio calls, in the streets and in the interview rooms, in the chases, arrests, gunfights, fist fights, hostage situations, and investigationsnot on a movie set but the real thing.

You experience the sights, the sounds, the smells of a cops days and nights. You hear their words and those of the victims, witnesses and suspects when theyre not reading from a screenwriters script or posturing for the cameras of a reality show. It is populated not with fictional creations but real characters, by every definition of those words.

The events, emotions and language are all served rawno dressing, no garnish. The rookies enthusiasm and optimism, the experienced veterans cynicism, the boredom of routine, the thrill of the pursuit, the satisfaction of a job well done, the frustration when events go bad, the anger, the hilarity, the dark and irreverent sense of humor, all pathways to the Ph. D. in Human Nature every street cop receives in a big city.