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Don't Shoot

One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America

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Don't Shoot

Written by: David M. Kennedy
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
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Bloomsbury presents Don't Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America by David M. Kennedy, narrated by Patrick Lawlor.

The remarkable story of David Kennedy's crusade to combat America's plague of gang- and drug-related violence - with methods that have been astonishingly effective across the country.

'If you want to read a book on urban gangs and find out why they exist and why they kill each other, read this ... this is a sociology book, but it's like immersing yourself in The Wire ... When Kennedy says something, you believe him' Scotsman

Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every two hundred young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.

Don't Shoot tells the story of Kennedy's long journey. Riding with beat cops, hanging with gang members, and stoop-sitting with grandmothers, Kennedy found that all parties misunderstood each other, caught in a spiral of racialized anger and distrust. He envisioned an approach in which everyone-gang members, cops, and community members-comes together in what is essentially a huge intervention. Offenders are told that the violence must stop, that even the cops want them to stay alive and out of prison, and that even their families support swift law enforcement if the violence continues. In city after city, the same miracle has followed: violence plummets, drug markets dry up, and the relationship between the police and the community is reset.

This is a landmark book, chronicling a paradigm shift in how we address one of America's most shameful social problems. A riveting, page-turning read, it combines the street vérité of The Wire, the social science of Gang Leader for a Day, and the moral urgency and personal journey of Fist Stick Knife Gun. But unlike anybody else, Kennedy shows that there could be an end in sight.©2011 David M. Kennedy (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Criminology Racism & Discrimination Social Sciences Violence in Society
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Critic Reviews

If you want to read a book on urban gangs and find out why they exist and why they kill each other, read this ... this is a sociology book, but it's like immersing yourself in The Wire ... When Kennedy says something, you believe him
'Today, the High Point antiviolence strategy is no longer an untested theory... It has proven itself time and time again with nearly unbelievable reductions in violence, and every time it has worked it has drawn more followers. It has, in fact, become a movement.'
'This profession is in his debt. The number of lives that he has saved are in his debt, whether they know him or not.'
'Don't Shoot will do for the fight against violence what Rachel Carson's Silent Spring did for the environmental movement a generation ago.'
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