The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe

December 4, 2020

This December, we have selected Heather Mac Donald’s book, The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe, as our book of the month.  Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing editor of City Journal, and a New York Times bestselling author.  She is a recipient of the 2005 Bradley Prize.  Her work at City Journal has covered a range of topics, including higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness and homeless advocacy, criminal-justice reform, and race relations.  Mac Donald’s award-winning writing has appeared in major newspapers throughout the country.  A nonpracticing lawyer, Heather Mac Donald clerked for the Honorable Stephen Reinhardt, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and was an attorney-advisor in the Office of the General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a volunteer with the Natural Resources Defense Council.  She has frequently testified before U.S. House and Senate Committees.  In 1998, she was appointed to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s task force on the City University of New York. Heather is a frequent guest on radio and TV programs.

About the book…

Her book, The War on Cops, is particularly relevant in 2020.  This year has been full of divisive debates, protests, riots, and violent attacks, and at the heart of the matter are the issues Mac Donald covers in this book.  Attorney General Jeff Sessions called her, “the greatest thinker on criminal justice in America today.”  Indeed, this book reflects that statement.  Mac Donald presents detailed research on this hard and difficult subject.  She outlines the problems with race-based attacks on the criminal justice system and specifically police officers.  The ideas presented by the mainstream media, Leftist activists, and rioters erode the authority of law and put lives at risk.  If you have found the circumstances of 2020 difficult to discuss or understand, we recommend reading this book.  

In this book, you will find:

  1. Facts that are overlooked by Leftist media
  2. The problems that riots and protests cause
  3. How attacks on police officers harm law enforcement
  4. The truth about crime
  5. The real answer to incarceration numbers

In order to engage on conservative principles this year, we have found this book to be a key source!  This topic has been the most divisive and destructive to our nation, as the policies pushed by the Left encourage radical changes to law and order.  This affects each of us, locally and nationally.  We hosted Heather Mac Donald for a webinar on this topic as well.  However, a full reading of this text will provide you with the data and understanding to make a clear case for a strong American law enforcement community.  We are so pleased to have you all join us as we read this key book.  Heather Mac Donald is a prolific author and we respect her great research on this issue.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Were you surprised to learn the true facts about Ferguson?
  2. Were you aware of the true cause of crime?
  3. Are you surprised to learn the inaccuracies in the models used by the protesting, rioting, Left?
  4. How can you share this relevant information to protect law and order?