Very quick read, clocking in at less than 200 pages. The first ¾ of the book is a drive by of what it’s like to be a patrol officer in an urban environment. Nothing big or shocking for anyone that’s currently or has ever been on the job. For those unfamiliar it might be a bit of an eye opener. Moskos gives pretty fair treatment to officer’s attitudes and discretion. The last ¼ of the book is dedicated to the War on Drugs and legalization. Overall not bad, but the last quarter should be expanded into a stand alone publication.

An innovative analysis by Eric Cadora highlights "million-dollar blocks"-individual city blocks where more than one million dollars per block per year are spent to incarcerate individuals from that block. Some blocks cost over five million dollars per year. Cadora does not question the justness of these incarcerations. But he does suspect there may be better ways to spend these criminal-justice dollars. A million dollars, coincidentally, is roughly what it would cost to pay for one patrol officer, twenty-four hours a day, every day for one year. pg. 188
Has anyone ever laid out the mechanics of how legalization would function? (Prescription only? Dispensation at public health clinics? Who manufactures?) Also, has anyone considered the pushback from current suppliers if they’re suddenly cut out of the market? Does anyone think a multi-billion dollar tax-free industry is going to go quietly into the night?