Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991)

From Novelist: An account of a year inside a city homicide unit focuses on three detectives investigating murders in Baltimore--a city torn by racial tensions and plagued by drugs and crime, in a new edition of the book that became the basis for the acclaimed television series.

A very detailed view into the Baltimore police department's homicide unit. At times it is insightful, at times funny. Despite the subject, it is rarely sad.

I found the story interesting. But it would be twice as good if it were half as long. So much could be edited out without significant loss. Further, the story is amazingly one sided. Simon automatically takes the police side on everything, without even questioning it, as far as I could tell. For a story that clearly aims to be comprehensive, this is a huge blind spot.

I think Jill Leovy's "Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America", about a homicide investigation in Los Angeles, is a much stronger book. Leovy follows a single investigation, largely through the eyes of a heroic police officer, but she also delves into the surrounding community.

> Rule Number Two in the homicide lexicon: The victim is killed once, but a crime scene can be murdered a thousand times.

> On the other hand, the guidelines don’t require departments to include the crime itself in the current year's statistics; clearly, the crime itself actually occurred in a prior year. Theoretically therefore, an American homicide unit can solve 90 of 100 fresh murders, then clear twenty cases from previous years and post a clearance rate of 110 percent.

> both of them certain in the knowledge that Rule Six in the homicide lexicon now applied. To wit: When a suspect is immediately identified in an assault case, the victim is sure to live. When no suspect has been identified, the victim will surely die. … Rule Six had been up ended and Garvey arrived back at the office unable to contain his wonder. "Hey, Donald," shouted Garvey, bounding across the office and then waltzing Kincaid around a metal desk. "He's gonna die! He's gonna die and we know who did it!" "You," said Nolan, shaking his head and laughing, "are one cold motherfucker." Then the sergeant turned crisply on his heel and danced a jig into his own office.

> People who have been shot believe they are supposed to fall immediately to the ground, so they do. Proof of the phenomenon is evident in its opposite: There are countless cases in which people—often people whose mental processes are impaired by drugs or alcohol—are shot repeatedly, sustaining lethal wounds; yet despite the severity of their injuries, they continue to flee or resist for long periods of time.

> For a homicide detective, an arson murder is a special type of torture because the police department is essentially stuck with whatever the fire department’s investigator says is arson

> More often than not, Edgerton ventures into the high-rise projects alone and finds witnesses; more often than not, other detectives march through neighborhoods in twos and threes and find nothing. Edgerton learned long ago that even the best and most cooperative witnesses are more likely to talk to one detective than to a pair. And three detectives working a case are nothing short of a police riot in the eyes of a reluctant or untrusting witness.

> As a consequence, city juries have become a deterrent of sorts to prosecutors, who are willing to accept weaker pleas or tolerate dismissals rather than waste the city's time and money on cases involving defendants who are clearly guilty, but who have been charged on evidence that is anything less than overwhelming.

> Many detectives prefer to take the file onto the stand, but with some judges that can be dangerous. A typical case file contains notes and reports on potential suspects and blind alleys that were eventually discarded, and a few judges will allow a defense attorney, on cross-examination, to take hold of the file and go fishing … One detective, Mark Tomlin, makes a point of copying his trial notes onto the back of the defendant's computerized arrest sheet. Once, when Tomlin was testifying, a defense attorney asked to see his notes and began to suggest that they be admitted into evidence. He then turned the sheet over, looked at his client's priors, and returned it without another word.

> "Captain, I got good news and bad news." "Good news first." "The autopsy went well." "And the bad news?" "We dug up the wrong guy." ( )

Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon is a work of non-fiction about the Homicide Unit of Baltimore's Police Department during one year in the 1980's when he was a journalist for the Baltimore Sun. This book was actually the inspiration for the TV show Homicide: Life on the Streets so if you've seen that show you might recognize some of the characters (albeit with different names and ethnicity in some cases). Simon focuses on a few of the key cases that the unit investigated during the year he observed (although it was more like became entrenched in their cases and lives). He managed to both show the very best of what it means to be a sensitive, thorough homicide detective and the lengths that they were willing to take to close out their cases (it's often about the closeout rate). The dark underbelly of the city, its inhabitants, and the men (and lone woman) tasked with solving those most heinous of crimes is laid bare in stark detail. These men (and one lone woman who was rarely a focus in the novel) are distinctly human with foibles like all the rest. Vulgarity, racism, sexism, and a general callousness permeate the department. (Baltimore was none too pleased with the portrayal of their city by the way.) Simon shows that not all cases have a tidy ending and in fact could remain unsolved well past the detective's tenure with the unit. If you're looking for a neat police procedural then you'll be disappointed with this book but if you're interested in the investigative process itself you've hit the jackpot. 5/10

A/N: Keep in mind when this book was written because there are definitely some problematic issues such as racist slurs, derogatory attitudes towards people of color, sexist asides, and general ickiness that made me shudder. I can't be sure how much of this was a product of the times and/or how much is just a part of Simon's character but it was off-putting in the extreme. ( )

this book begat _Homicide_ the TV show, which begat _The Corner_, which begat _The Wire_, the best television show ever.

this book is one of the best accounts of embedded journalism, ever, and it's of the Baltimore PD!

loved it. ( )

Really good. I just finished the last season of The Wire, and there is a lot of overlap. Homicide is a primer for the series, both highly recommended. David Simon is one helluva writer. I don't even really care for crime non-fiction all that much, but this is well worth the read. ( )