Lethal Encounters

Originally published: Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, c2011.

Two men find themselves staring down the dark headlights of a car traveling against the flow of traffic on a major thoroughfare during their ordinarily routine commute home. As a result of the encounter, Sean Smith becomes the wrong-way driver's first victim when he is run off the highway trying to avoid a head-on collision. Minutes later, Charles Washington suffers the same fate just a few miles down the road. When the dust finally settles, one of them is killed and the other is critically injured. While the families of the two men struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, the driver who caused the carnage has simply disappeared into the dead of night. Police discover skid marks from the assailant's car at one accident scene but not the other. Detectives are immediately suspicious that perhaps this was no random accident. They hesitate initially to call it murder. But when it is discovered that one of the victims has had threats made against his life by someone reputed to have ties to organized crime, this affirms for the detectives that they are, in fact, on the right trail. All who are close to the case agree: this method of murder is beyond bizarre.

This in-depth narrative history of the interactions between English settlers and American Indians during the Virginia colony's first century explains why a harmonious coexistence proved impossible. Britain's first successful settlements in America occurred over 400 years ago. Not surprisingly, the historical accounts of these events have often contained inaccuracies. This compelling study of colonial Virginia is based upon the latest research, shedding new light on the tensions between the English and the American Indians and clarifying the facts about storied relationships. In Lethal Encounters: Englishmen and Indians in Colonial Virginia, the author examines why the Anglo settlers were unable to establish a peaceful and productive relationship with the region's native inhabitants. Readers will come to understand how the deep prejudices harbored by both whites and Indians, the incompatibility of their economic and social systems, and the leadership failures of protagonists like John Smith, Powhatan, Opechacanough, and William Berkeley caused this breakdown.

The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, and Police is a fascinating look into the reality of police work. The author integrates noted theories into a “street-wise” understanding of being a police officer. The focus of this book is on the use of deadly force by officers—a topic of considerable importance. The author discusses the psychosocial aspects of deadly force use, stemming from the individual officer, the situation, organizational influences, and the police culture. Expanding further into social issues, the controversial topic of race and use of deadly force is discussed. This depiction looks at both sides—that of racial victimization and that of the police—which helps to provide a rather unique perspective on this important issue. Of interest, the author breaks down the different dimensions of cognition as a factor in decision making among police, including the perception of the situation, the action taken depending on that perception, and the role of present and past memory. This will make for a useful training topic to alert officers to the cognitive processes that go into deadly force use—processes that they have the control to change to make a better decision. Next, the book delves into the biological factors that may be involved in police decision making—again where deadly force is involved. The various negative psychological impacts that a deadly force situation may bring about are identified and explained. This book will be useful as a tool for both law enforcement practitioners and researchers to better understand the intricacies of deadly force by the police. For researchers, the book has a multitude of references available for further exploration. It will prove to be a useful guide and reference volume for police managers and supervisors, mental health clinicians, investigators, attorneys, judges, law enforcement educators and trainers, rank and file police officers, including expert witnesses.

In a cop's world it's kill or be killed, but the truth of the matter is that a shooting's aftermath is often the most dangerous time for the cop. This unique life- and career-saving manual contains every shred of critical information the police officer needs to survive the media, investigations and more.

"Uses the Trayvon Martin case as a springboard to examine race, crime, and justice in our criminal justice system. Contributors explores how race and racism inform how Americans think about criminality; how crimes are investigated and prosecuted; and how highly publicized criminal cases go on to shape public views about offenders and the criminal process"--

In 2015, The Washington Post launched an unprecedented effort to account for every fatal shooting by an officer of the law. Their study has motivated the FBI to action, and changed the way we think of those who serve and protect. After a police officer shot and killed a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, the media began to pay greater attention to deadly interactions between black men and the law. But when reporters tried to get to the bottom of some basic questions—how often do police shoot people? Who are the victims? Are officers ever charged with crimes?—they came up blank. Police departments were not required to report these statistics to the FBI. The Washington Post set out to track every fatal shooting by an on-duty officer in 2015. Its database chronicled the shootings in real time, using news reports and other public sources. It compiled a trove of data, from the race of the person killed, whether the person was armed when killed, to whether the person was purported to have threatened the officer prior to being killed. The results found by the Post are shocking and haunting, from the sheer breadth of shootings by police in the U.S. to the stories of those killed. And its call to reform is being heeded. This groundbreaking book will radically alter how you view confrontation and accountability within the ranks, and offer a new perspective going forward.