Fight the Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City

Historian Taylor (Reds at the Blackboard) schools readers on what came before the names of Eric Garner and Michael Brown were in American headlines. He maps the progress of New York residents’ attempts to combat the New York Police Department’s use of excessive force, from coverage of police brutality in early- to-mid-20th-century black weeklies like the People’s Voice and Crisis to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s recent successes and failures at increasing police oversight and curbing racial profiling. Chapters on the efforts of the Communist Party (which acknowledged the problem early, but were boxed out of mainstream civil rights activism by the NAACP and others) and the Nation of Islam (which adopted de-escalation tactics before police departments did) are particularly interesting, as is an account of the 1964 Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant riots brimming with primary sources. But Taylor’s narrative voice shines brightest in a detailed look at New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, a police accountability group that should be, but isn’t really, staffed by civilians. Taylor could perhaps have done more to highlight the activism of New York City’s Latin-American residents (aside from a brief section on the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, they are simply included alongside black residents in crime statistics and analysis). This well-researched, well-told book provides thoughtful context for the current American reckoning with police brutality. [em](Dec.) [/em]