Beaten Black and Blue
Beaten Black and Blue by Brandon Tatum is one of those books I purchased BECAUSE cancel culture was going after the author, Officer Brandon Tatum. And because I am a contrarian and I despise cancel culture, I went ahead and bought his book.
This book is sort of an autobiography, although it’s not strictly an autobiography. He covers key moments in his life and shares some of his heartfelt beliefs, starting with the importance of having a father in the home. Now, his parents were not together when he was growing up, but his father was always there for him, and as has been addressed in books by Walter E Williams and Thomas Sowell, having a father present in a kid’s life is massively important for the development of healthy children.
Tatum addresses the importance of a father in the home from a criminal justice perspective, pointing out the statistics on rise in crime and kids who grew up without a father. Incidentally, this makes the third source of a completely different sort to identify fatherlessness and crime. We had the economists, we had the psychologist, when I read Dr. Peterson’s work, and now Tatum with the criminal justice perspective.
Note, none of these sources say you should stay in an abusive household, only that, when possible, two parent households are better for the children. Children do not benefit from seeing abuse on a daily basis; if, however, your relationship does not work out, do not be the mother or father who tries to weaponize their kids love against the other parent.
This book is really a series of vignettes about pivotal moments in Tatum’s own life that led to his current career path. He does start with his first arrest, when he was like 8 years old, for marijuana, and how his father’s handling of this set him on a better path than one of drug addiction and gang violence. And that conversation with his father let him know he did not want that to be his path in life. That’s the importance of having a father in the kid’s life.
So this conversation kept him on track, he got his life together, went through high school and college, was planning on playing professional ball, but was not drafted, resulting in that dream being dead in the water. Now he’s in a position where he has to find employment, his plan to play professionally is over, his fiancée is pregnant, and he needs to find a way to support her and their coming child. He has no job offers, and he starts applying EVERYWHERE…including Tucson Police Department.
He got the call to come in for an interview the day after he’d had a fight with his fiancée and actually thought she had called the cops on him, not that he was being called in for an interview. He went on a ride along with Officer Sean Payne, and ultimately became an officer with Tucson PD.
Tatum covers his career, going over the various positions he held in the department and goes over the things he has done in his career. And it was an important read because the bad cops get all the press, and it’s important to remember that the vast majority want to do good in the world, and that there are good men and women willing to stand between evil and the rest of civilized society.
He has an entire chapter covering some of the major new stories involving those bad cops and what went wrong, and how media feeds us all bullshit and we eat it up. This chapter was particularly eye opening because it brings to light key information the media deliberately withheld in order to sell their story. Not that I always agree with Officer Tatum, but it provided an alternate view point as a contrast to media bullshit.
Ane he’s not disingenuous with it, he tells straight up when the law enforcement is dead wrong and when there was more going on that was withheld form the public.
He talks about George Floyd and how no matter who it happened to, Derek Chauvin’s career was virtually guaranteed to end this way…Floyd just happened to be the unfortunate person on that fateful day. Chauvin had no business being an officer, based on his employment file.
Tatum points out that the people who hate bad cops the most are the good cops, because the bad cops make their jobs all so much more dangerous. Bad cops erode trust and faith in the system.
He did make me think about no-knock warrants and why they can be a necessary part of legitimate police arrests. Still not sure I agree with them, but it did give me food for thought, which is what a good book will do.
But I think the number one lesson he tries to impart, and it’s repeated throughout the book, is that cops are not racist. Which I’ve always believed. You truly can’t do the job and be a racist piece of shit. Bad cops, sure, but the vast majority are not. But the bad cops get the press…if it bleeds it leads, especially if the shooter is a cop. Unless the victim is white.
He recounts several encounters with white antifa members who call him…a black cop….racist…BECAUSE he is a cop. And he’s not the only one! Truly remarkable feats of mental instability go into that logic. He talks about the danger of stereotyping, which certainly goes both ways. Dehumanizing language is bad for everyone. He talks about who really gets hurt by defunding the police…it’s the community, the single mother, the battered women, are the ones who get hurt by defunding police.
It is a sad fact that the amazing job that 99% of all officers do is never reported by the media. The biggest complaint I had with the book, or rather the biggest difference of opinion, was his story of how good cops build their careers to get the assignments they want. Which is typically off of drug arrests. And since I feel it should all be legalized, that one difference does put me at odds with him on a pretty big point of contention.
But overall this was a well written view point that I did not always agree with, but certainly made me think. Which is what all books should do.
Book was originally reviewed on YouTube on February 13, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.
