Chokehold, Paul Butler
Chokehold, Paul Butler
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Chokehold
Policing Black Men

Author: Paul Butler

Narrator: JD Jackson

Unabridged: 8 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2017


Synopsis

Nominated for the 49th NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work (Nonfiction)A 2017 Washington Post Notable Book A Kirkus Best Book of 2017“Butler has hit his stride. This is a meditation, a sonnet, a legal brief, a poetry slam and a dissertation that represents the full bloom of his early thesis: The justice system does not work for blacks, particularly black men.”
—The Washington Post “The most readable and provocative account of the consequences of the war on drugs since Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow . . . .”
—The New York Times Book Review“Powerful . . . deeply informed from a legal standpoint and yet in some ways still highly personal”
—The Times Literary Supplement (London)With the eloquence of Ta-Nehisi Coates and the persuasive research of Michelle Alexander, a former federal prosecutor explains how the system really works, and how to disrupt itCops, politicians, and ordinary people are afraid of black men. The result is the Chokehold: laws and practices that treat every African American man like a thug. In this explosive book, an African American former federal prosecutor shows that the system is working exactly the way it’s supposed to. Black men are always under watch, and police violence is widespread—all with the support of judges and politicians.In his no-holds-barred style, Butler, whose scholarship has been featured on 60 Minutes, uses new data to demonstrate that white men commit the majority of violent crime in the United States. For example, a white woman is ten times more likely to be raped by a white male acquaintance than be the victim of a violent crime perpetrated by a black man. Butler also frankly discusses the problem of black on black violence and how to keep communities safer—without relying as much on police.Chokehold powerfully demonstrates why current efforts to reform law enforcement will not create lasting change. Butler’s controversial recommendations about how to crash the system, and when it’s better for a black man to plead guilty—even if he’s innocent—are sure to be game-changers in the national debate about policing, criminal justice, and race relations.

About Paul Butler

A former federal prosecutor, Paul Butler provides legal commentary for CNN, NPR, and MSNBC and writes for the New York Times and Politico. A law professor at Georgetown University, he is the author of Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice (The New Press) and lives in Washington, D.C.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Vannessa on October 19, 2017

The problem is the criminal process itself. Cops routinely hurt and humiliate black people because that is what they are paid to do. Virtually every objective investigation of a U.S. law enforcement agency finds that the police, as policy, treat African Americans with contempt…. The police kill,......more

Goodreads review by Karen on August 28, 2017

"The police kill, wound, pepper spray, beat up, frisk, handcuff, and use dogs against blacks in circumstances in which they do not do the same to white people. It is the moral responsibility of every American, when armed agents of the state are harming people in our names, to ask why." This is in the......more

Goodreads review by Annie on September 28, 2017

Chokehold was pitched this year as a book exposing police violence and targeting of black men in the same way that The New Jim Crow exposed prison violence and targeting of black men in America. “A chokehold is a process of coercing submission that is self reinforcing… The Chokehold is a way of under......more

Goodreads review by Jeb on December 23, 2021

Paul Butler writes an extraordinary book on the policing of black men. He is detailed, thorough and offers practical solutions to shift our society to the values Americans espouse. This is a must read book for all. Thank you Paul Butler.......more

Goodreads review by Andre on August 30, 2018

Another excellent contribution to the growing canon of books that ask the tough questions and as is the case with this one, propose some answers. A formidable salvo to add to that canon of books that stress Black Lives Matter and discusses ways that those lives are interrupted. In Chokehold, former......more