What do you think?
Rate this book
Lines and Shadows
The true story only Joseph Wambaugh could tell. A band of California cops set loose in no-man's-land to come home heroes. Or come home dead.
Not since Joseph Wambaugh's bestselling The Onion Field has there been a true police story as fascinating, as totally gripping as Lines and Shadows. The media hailed them as heroes. Others denounced them as lawless renegades. A squad of tough cops called the Border Crime Task Force. A commando team sent to patrol the snake-infested no-man's-land south of San Diego. Not to apprehend the thousands of illegal aliens slipping into the U.S., but to stop the ruthless bandits who preyed on them nightly--relentlessly robbing, raping, and murdering defenseless men, women, and children.
The task force plan was simple. They would disguise themselves as illegal aliens. They would confront the murderous shadows of the night. Yet each time they walked into the violent blackness along the border, they came closer to another boundary line--a fragile line within each man. And crossing it meant destroying their sanity and their lives.
Praise for Lines and Shadows
"With each book, it seems, Mr. Wambaugh's skill as a writer increases. . . . In Lines and Shadows he gives an off-trail, action-packed true account of police work and the intimate lives of policemen that, for my money, is his best book yet."--The New York Times Book Review
"A saga of courage, craziness, brutality and humor. . . . One of his best books, comparable to The Onion Field for storytelling and revelatory power."-- Chicago Sun-Times
Not since Joseph Wambaugh's bestselling The Onion Field has there been a true police story as fascinating, as totally gripping as Lines and Shadows. The media hailed them as heroes. Others denounced them as lawless renegades. A squad of tough cops called the Border Crime Task Force. A commando team sent to patrol the snake-infested no-man's-land south of San Diego. Not to apprehend the thousands of illegal aliens slipping into the U.S., but to stop the ruthless bandits who preyed on them nightly--relentlessly robbing, raping, and murdering defenseless men, women, and children.
The task force plan was simple. They would disguise themselves as illegal aliens. They would confront the murderous shadows of the night. Yet each time they walked into the violent blackness along the border, they came closer to another boundary line--a fragile line within each man. And crossing it meant destroying their sanity and their lives.
Praise for Lines and Shadows
"With each book, it seems, Mr. Wambaugh's skill as a writer increases. . . . In Lines and Shadows he gives an off-trail, action-packed true account of police work and the intimate lives of policemen that, for my money, is his best book yet."--The New York Times Book Review
"A saga of courage, craziness, brutality and humor. . . . One of his best books, comparable to The Onion Field for storytelling and revelatory power."-- Chicago Sun-Times
417 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1984
About the author
Joseph Wambaugh
57 books788 followersJoseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. was an American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Many of his novels are set in Los Angeles and its surroundings and feature Los Angeles police officers as protagonists. He won three Edgar Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Before his writing career Wambaugh received an associate of arts degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1960. He served for 14 years, rising from patrolman to detective sergeant.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
November 3, 2020
Lines and Shadows was my first Wambaugh book and has piqued my desire to read all of his other true crime books.
The book is about a special unit of the San Diego Police Department who dressed as "pollos" (border-speak for illegal immigrants cum "undocumented residents" crossing the invisible line between the Republic of Mexico and the United States of America. This unit was the brainchild of a former Border Patrol Officer named Dick Snider who had worked from a hotel in San Ysidro (an unincorporated town just south of the city of San Diego) and who had observed many "pollos" being beaten, raped and robbed by bandits, most of whom came up from Mexico to prey on these weary souls who were crossing the border to find higher-paying work so they could feed their families back in Mexico. Some were from strife-ridden Central American lands and were coming to America for a safer and presumably better life.
Dick Snider was a former Marine and large Okie who was an unusual man in that he cared deeply about these poor migrants and hated to see them being robbed and raped with impunity in the dark and amorphous stretch of US land between banditos and a possibility of a better life. Snider's empathy perhaps stemmed from his own impoverished upbringing and the pain of feeling inferior because your family is considered "white trash." Snider watched "illegals" crossing the US border and thought, "There is not a significant line between two countries. It's between two economies.” Octavio Paz might view this as a bit simplistic, but to Snider it made good sense.
Kudos to Wambaugh for writing this book. At the time of its publication, he was already an acclaimed author of true crime books and his credentials for writing them included fourteen years with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he rose to the rank of Detective Sergeant. Wambaugh could have chosen to write about any number of gruesome crimes but, instead, chose to write about this experimental unit of cops patrolling a dangerous stretch of wasteland full of cactus mesquite, tarantulas, rattlesnakes and scorpions, and dozens of hardened Mexican criminal gangs who victimized the newcomers. To quote from the book:
"The illegal aliens saved and borrowed and sold and carried the net worth of their lives in their socks and underwear, and sometimes in bags and bundles. Bandit gangs formed near that imaginary line and enjoyed a nightly bonanza in the canyons. Aliens were ambushed, robbed, raped, murdered, occasionally within screaming distance of United States officers at the land port of entry."
Dick Snider eventually became a San Diego police officer and rose to the rank of Lieutenant and decided to propose his unit to protect the illegal immigrants after they had crossed to America. I should note here that using the term America to represent the United States is considered an insult to all Mexicans, Central and South Americans, who are also Americans, after all.
Large police departments are vast and cumbersome bureaucracies, as are most US governmental agencies, and Snider's proposal for the new unit was bandied about by the bureaucrats at the upper reaches of the San Diego department. It was finally given a three-month probationary approval beginning in October of 1976. San Diego Police Chief William Kolender was an early supporter of the unit. Kolender was an unusual police chief, a bureaucrat with a soul who was liked by various warring factions--upper brass, middle management, street cops, local politicians and the press. And he was not liked for being a sycophant, telling each faction what they wanted to hear. Kolender was a cop who had risen from the ranks, thus had an understanding of street cops and all levels of management. He was also politically savvy and skilled at networking with disparate groups.
One reason this strange and innovative program was approved was because police departments crave good publicity. Police upper management felt the program had potential for good press and free publicity.
Readers may wonder why so many undocumented residents are coming to the United States, and just how many are coming and how many make a permanent home here living in the lines and shadows of illegal "citizenship?" Quite naturally, these numbers are hard to pinpoint. Not many illegal aliens-cum undocumented visitors/residents are coming forward to declare they are in this country without appropriate documentation--typically some type of work or education visa.
The punctilious web site FactCheck.org states:
How many immigrants are living in the U.S. illegally?
There were 12 million immigrants living in the country illegally as of January 2015, according to the most recent estimate from the Department of Homeland Security. The estimates from two independent groups are similar: The Pew Research Center estimates the number at 10.7 million in 2016, and the Center for Migration Studies says there were 10.8 million people in 2016 living in the U.S. illegally.
https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/ill...
The official site of the US Border Patrol--https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw... that during fiscal year 2020--from September 2019 to October 2020--there were
400,651 apprehensions of illegal border crossings--with some apprehensions no doubt multiple infractions committed by various individuals.
Wambaugh provides a partial explanation for all these undocumented border crossings several times in his book. On page 16 he notes:
"The nearby city of Oceanside (California), for example, had a population of some seventy thousand and grew by fifty thousand during fruit-picking season, from undocumented stoop laborers. The law said that a farmer was not violating the law by hiring the illegals, but was by housing them. Therefore they slept in the brush, under trees, in cardboard boxes. . . .And it came to pass that labor organizers and farmers did much shouting into the wind. The farmers said that if they must pay and house American workers (assuming they would do stoop labor) a strawberry would cost what you now pay for an avocado. An avocado would cost what you now pay for a Mercedes, and so forth."
Why are most coming here? I am reminded of a quip a friend of mine from Missouri made to a local snob when my friend was living in Boston. Their exchange went as such:
Snob--"What do you people DO back in Missouri."
Friend--"We grow your food!"
On another occasion when the unit has been organized and is apprehending bandits, they interview a Mexican man who has been robbed by Mexican outlaws after crossing the US border:
"Lino Ariza told the cops that he would give one leg and one arm if he could just make enough money to survive in Durango (Mexico). He didn't see how a person could ever be happy in such a violent country as America." (p.69)
Lines and Shadows basically contains three parts:
1. Forming the Unit
2. Adventures and misadventures around the border
3. Demise of the unit
FORMING THE UNIT:
It is a complicated task to form any special police unit, and this unit was exceptionally tough to put together. First, all the front line cops had to be Mexican-American, in a police department that had few Mexican-Americans in it, and all of them had to speak Spanish using the slang and idioms common to poor Mexicans.
A group was chosen after much vetting and it was less than perfect because several of the Mexican-Americans spoke poor Spanish. Second, the group had to learn the psychological behavior and postures of typical undocumented border jumpers. Mexicans place a lot of emphasis on being macho and a man's need to be was deeply embedded in their culture. Pollos, on the other hand, were scared sojourners in a strange land, usually aware they were at risk of robbery and/or violent attacks. Lone women or women with young children were acutely aware of the dangers of being raped, or having a female child raped. Because of these fears, the movements of Pollos were usually furtive, both for fear of being caught by US Immigration and fear of border bandits. They also adopted submissive postures, so as not to provoke violence in potentially dangerous people who might approach them. Most were dirty from long and dusty trips on foot and most were wearing two to three sets of clothes so that they would have a clean set of clothes when presenting for jobs in the United States. Dick Snider's unit had to learn how to corral their police instinct to take control or be macho and had to "look the part." Much of this learning took place on-the-job and in-the-field. The last parts of this special unit--who ended up calling themselves B.A.R.F. BARF was an acronym created by an anonymous lieutenant, standing for "Border Alien Robbery Force. It originated organically, in the field, as the unit's utterance to commence attacks after the group leader had uttered the Spanish phrase, "Sabes que?" (You know what?).
ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES AROUND THE BORDER:
This section comprises the meat of the book and is the most interesting and engaging. Dick Snider, being a middle-aged guy in his mid-40's, considered himself too old to go traipsing around dark canyons late in the night. Snider would initially place himself in the unit's back-up command, who were viewing the scenes, in so far as they could be seen in total darkness, from a distance and who would come in after the action had gone down. In a few months, Snider will be back at the Southern Command Post of the San Diego Police but keeping in close contact with the unit.
A tough, perhaps insane sergeant named Manny Lopez is chosen to lead the unit in the field. Lopez speaks the best Spanish and is feared by his fellow officers because of his regular willingness to imperil his life, and lives of others, by confronting so many bandits with guns. He is also a natural leader and very skilled at arousing the unit to perform acts of bravery. While reading the book, the thought of just walking around the canyons in the no-man's-land above the border, especially late at night, sent chills down my spine. This was incredibly dangerous work.
The Unit initially has a tough time but adapts remarkably well. They quickly learn how to dress and act like pollos and gradually their border Spanish improves. In their first three months on probationary status they begin to intercept bandits and have a number of violent encounters. The unit gets a LOT of good press, which makes the police department happy and bodes well for the extension of the group. At near the three-month end, the group Dick Snider envisioned looks like it will be disbanded. It is saved by what Wambaugh calls a "milagro." (miracle). An alien named Rosa Lugo and her 13-year-old daughter have crossed and are accosted by bandits who take their money and the group's leader decides to rape the young daughter. He is at the point of having her clothes off and about to rape her when Manny Lopez and his entourage hear the girl's screams. The mother is guarded by the other bandits inside a viaduct and is beseeching her God to save the girl--really, demanding God to save her daughter. Lopez and crew show up and save the girl and her mother. It is December 27th and the press has a field day with this rescue, dubbing it a "Christmas miracle." It is also a miracle Dick Snider has needed, as it has, for now, saved the unit.
San Diego is a short drive from the Mexican border city of Tijuana, which is an impoverished city of 1.6 million souls in the Mexican state of Baja California. A great many of the bandits plundering on the US side of the border were from Tijuana, and some were police officers, both regular and auxiliary. Several of the BARF unit's major skirmishes will be with Tijuana police. One will end up with a two Mexican police officers being shot, one seriously, when the officers mistake the unit for illegal pollos who have crossed into America.
The BARF unit does not escape damage along the way. Several are shot in violent encounters, one by accident from a BARF team officer. A great many bandits are shot or suffer from violent beat downs as they are subdued.
Wambaugh is also to be lauded for noting the psychological effects of officers regularly engaged in this violent sort of undercover police work. After hours most in the unit are in the bars of San Ysidro drinking heavily and taking advantage of their newfound celebrity that has given them a godlike status to many local women. Officers begin to have extramarital affairs and increasingly come home late, if at all. Officer attitudes also begin to change, with some trying to become more macho and reveling in the glory and others feeling guilt and confusion over their roles. Most of them are becoming fed up with Manny Lopez, who is a feared and respected leader but also disliked for questioning some team members' masculinity when they fail to perform to his standards.
THE DEMISE OF THE UNIT:
The unit's demise is due to a mixture of factors. Perhaps the overriding one is the fractiousness that Manny Lopez creates. Key team members begin leaving for less stressful assignments, not owing to fear but owing to fear and dislike of Manny Lopez. Wambaugh offers a nuanced view of Lopez, who is perceived by his men as having a superhero-like bravery and an absolute love of danger. Two of the team members were combat soldiers in Vietnam, so this dangerous outlook is something they've seen before. Another factor is the break-up of several marriages due to infidelity and alcoholism. Finally, bureaucracies are constantly changing, and this is particularly true in police departments. Administrators come and go and changes are made accordingly. Some of the major players on the unit end up leaving police work. Dick Snider is retired due to hypertension. Manny Lopez quits after he fails to adjust to more sedate police work. A controversial shooting by the team that results in a bandit's death and his accomplice wounded does not help matters, either. Wambaugh does not try to provide any overarching lessons to be learned by the forming of this special unit. I suppose if there is a lesson to be learned it is that the dream of one man for pure reasons does not always lead to a happy ending--and this is a lesson that humanity learned eons ago--though its knowledge has not impeded human efforts. Sometimes dreams do come to something resembling fruition, and this was true, for a year or so, when the BARF unit patrolled the parlous canyons filled with bandits and other poisonous creatures and thousands of aliens seeking a pay increase or a better-paying life of toil.
The book is about a special unit of the San Diego Police Department who dressed as "pollos" (border-speak for illegal immigrants cum "undocumented residents" crossing the invisible line between the Republic of Mexico and the United States of America. This unit was the brainchild of a former Border Patrol Officer named Dick Snider who had worked from a hotel in San Ysidro (an unincorporated town just south of the city of San Diego) and who had observed many "pollos" being beaten, raped and robbed by bandits, most of whom came up from Mexico to prey on these weary souls who were crossing the border to find higher-paying work so they could feed their families back in Mexico. Some were from strife-ridden Central American lands and were coming to America for a safer and presumably better life.
Dick Snider was a former Marine and large Okie who was an unusual man in that he cared deeply about these poor migrants and hated to see them being robbed and raped with impunity in the dark and amorphous stretch of US land between banditos and a possibility of a better life. Snider's empathy perhaps stemmed from his own impoverished upbringing and the pain of feeling inferior because your family is considered "white trash." Snider watched "illegals" crossing the US border and thought, "There is not a significant line between two countries. It's between two economies.” Octavio Paz might view this as a bit simplistic, but to Snider it made good sense.
Kudos to Wambaugh for writing this book. At the time of its publication, he was already an acclaimed author of true crime books and his credentials for writing them included fourteen years with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he rose to the rank of Detective Sergeant. Wambaugh could have chosen to write about any number of gruesome crimes but, instead, chose to write about this experimental unit of cops patrolling a dangerous stretch of wasteland full of cactus mesquite, tarantulas, rattlesnakes and scorpions, and dozens of hardened Mexican criminal gangs who victimized the newcomers. To quote from the book:
"The illegal aliens saved and borrowed and sold and carried the net worth of their lives in their socks and underwear, and sometimes in bags and bundles. Bandit gangs formed near that imaginary line and enjoyed a nightly bonanza in the canyons. Aliens were ambushed, robbed, raped, murdered, occasionally within screaming distance of United States officers at the land port of entry."
Dick Snider eventually became a San Diego police officer and rose to the rank of Lieutenant and decided to propose his unit to protect the illegal immigrants after they had crossed to America. I should note here that using the term America to represent the United States is considered an insult to all Mexicans, Central and South Americans, who are also Americans, after all.
Large police departments are vast and cumbersome bureaucracies, as are most US governmental agencies, and Snider's proposal for the new unit was bandied about by the bureaucrats at the upper reaches of the San Diego department. It was finally given a three-month probationary approval beginning in October of 1976. San Diego Police Chief William Kolender was an early supporter of the unit. Kolender was an unusual police chief, a bureaucrat with a soul who was liked by various warring factions--upper brass, middle management, street cops, local politicians and the press. And he was not liked for being a sycophant, telling each faction what they wanted to hear. Kolender was a cop who had risen from the ranks, thus had an understanding of street cops and all levels of management. He was also politically savvy and skilled at networking with disparate groups.
One reason this strange and innovative program was approved was because police departments crave good publicity. Police upper management felt the program had potential for good press and free publicity.
Readers may wonder why so many undocumented residents are coming to the United States, and just how many are coming and how many make a permanent home here living in the lines and shadows of illegal "citizenship?" Quite naturally, these numbers are hard to pinpoint. Not many illegal aliens-cum undocumented visitors/residents are coming forward to declare they are in this country without appropriate documentation--typically some type of work or education visa.
The punctilious web site FactCheck.org states:
How many immigrants are living in the U.S. illegally?
There were 12 million immigrants living in the country illegally as of January 2015, according to the most recent estimate from the Department of Homeland Security. The estimates from two independent groups are similar: The Pew Research Center estimates the number at 10.7 million in 2016, and the Center for Migration Studies says there were 10.8 million people in 2016 living in the U.S. illegally.
https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/ill...
The official site of the US Border Patrol--https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/sw... that during fiscal year 2020--from September 2019 to October 2020--there were
400,651 apprehensions of illegal border crossings--with some apprehensions no doubt multiple infractions committed by various individuals.
Wambaugh provides a partial explanation for all these undocumented border crossings several times in his book. On page 16 he notes:
"The nearby city of Oceanside (California), for example, had a population of some seventy thousand and grew by fifty thousand during fruit-picking season, from undocumented stoop laborers. The law said that a farmer was not violating the law by hiring the illegals, but was by housing them. Therefore they slept in the brush, under trees, in cardboard boxes. . . .And it came to pass that labor organizers and farmers did much shouting into the wind. The farmers said that if they must pay and house American workers (assuming they would do stoop labor) a strawberry would cost what you now pay for an avocado. An avocado would cost what you now pay for a Mercedes, and so forth."
Why are most coming here? I am reminded of a quip a friend of mine from Missouri made to a local snob when my friend was living in Boston. Their exchange went as such:
Snob--"What do you people DO back in Missouri."
Friend--"We grow your food!"
On another occasion when the unit has been organized and is apprehending bandits, they interview a Mexican man who has been robbed by Mexican outlaws after crossing the US border:
"Lino Ariza told the cops that he would give one leg and one arm if he could just make enough money to survive in Durango (Mexico). He didn't see how a person could ever be happy in such a violent country as America." (p.69)
Lines and Shadows basically contains three parts:
1. Forming the Unit
2. Adventures and misadventures around the border
3. Demise of the unit
FORMING THE UNIT:
It is a complicated task to form any special police unit, and this unit was exceptionally tough to put together. First, all the front line cops had to be Mexican-American, in a police department that had few Mexican-Americans in it, and all of them had to speak Spanish using the slang and idioms common to poor Mexicans.
A group was chosen after much vetting and it was less than perfect because several of the Mexican-Americans spoke poor Spanish. Second, the group had to learn the psychological behavior and postures of typical undocumented border jumpers. Mexicans place a lot of emphasis on being macho and a man's need to be was deeply embedded in their culture. Pollos, on the other hand, were scared sojourners in a strange land, usually aware they were at risk of robbery and/or violent attacks. Lone women or women with young children were acutely aware of the dangers of being raped, or having a female child raped. Because of these fears, the movements of Pollos were usually furtive, both for fear of being caught by US Immigration and fear of border bandits. They also adopted submissive postures, so as not to provoke violence in potentially dangerous people who might approach them. Most were dirty from long and dusty trips on foot and most were wearing two to three sets of clothes so that they would have a clean set of clothes when presenting for jobs in the United States. Dick Snider's unit had to learn how to corral their police instinct to take control or be macho and had to "look the part." Much of this learning took place on-the-job and in-the-field. The last parts of this special unit--who ended up calling themselves B.A.R.F. BARF was an acronym created by an anonymous lieutenant, standing for "Border Alien Robbery Force. It originated organically, in the field, as the unit's utterance to commence attacks after the group leader had uttered the Spanish phrase, "Sabes que?" (You know what?).
ADVENTURES AND MISADVENTURES AROUND THE BORDER:
This section comprises the meat of the book and is the most interesting and engaging. Dick Snider, being a middle-aged guy in his mid-40's, considered himself too old to go traipsing around dark canyons late in the night. Snider would initially place himself in the unit's back-up command, who were viewing the scenes, in so far as they could be seen in total darkness, from a distance and who would come in after the action had gone down. In a few months, Snider will be back at the Southern Command Post of the San Diego Police but keeping in close contact with the unit.
A tough, perhaps insane sergeant named Manny Lopez is chosen to lead the unit in the field. Lopez speaks the best Spanish and is feared by his fellow officers because of his regular willingness to imperil his life, and lives of others, by confronting so many bandits with guns. He is also a natural leader and very skilled at arousing the unit to perform acts of bravery. While reading the book, the thought of just walking around the canyons in the no-man's-land above the border, especially late at night, sent chills down my spine. This was incredibly dangerous work.
The Unit initially has a tough time but adapts remarkably well. They quickly learn how to dress and act like pollos and gradually their border Spanish improves. In their first three months on probationary status they begin to intercept bandits and have a number of violent encounters. The unit gets a LOT of good press, which makes the police department happy and bodes well for the extension of the group. At near the three-month end, the group Dick Snider envisioned looks like it will be disbanded. It is saved by what Wambaugh calls a "milagro." (miracle). An alien named Rosa Lugo and her 13-year-old daughter have crossed and are accosted by bandits who take their money and the group's leader decides to rape the young daughter. He is at the point of having her clothes off and about to rape her when Manny Lopez and his entourage hear the girl's screams. The mother is guarded by the other bandits inside a viaduct and is beseeching her God to save the girl--really, demanding God to save her daughter. Lopez and crew show up and save the girl and her mother. It is December 27th and the press has a field day with this rescue, dubbing it a "Christmas miracle." It is also a miracle Dick Snider has needed, as it has, for now, saved the unit.
San Diego is a short drive from the Mexican border city of Tijuana, which is an impoverished city of 1.6 million souls in the Mexican state of Baja California. A great many of the bandits plundering on the US side of the border were from Tijuana, and some were police officers, both regular and auxiliary. Several of the BARF unit's major skirmishes will be with Tijuana police. One will end up with a two Mexican police officers being shot, one seriously, when the officers mistake the unit for illegal pollos who have crossed into America.
The BARF unit does not escape damage along the way. Several are shot in violent encounters, one by accident from a BARF team officer. A great many bandits are shot or suffer from violent beat downs as they are subdued.
Wambaugh is also to be lauded for noting the psychological effects of officers regularly engaged in this violent sort of undercover police work. After hours most in the unit are in the bars of San Ysidro drinking heavily and taking advantage of their newfound celebrity that has given them a godlike status to many local women. Officers begin to have extramarital affairs and increasingly come home late, if at all. Officer attitudes also begin to change, with some trying to become more macho and reveling in the glory and others feeling guilt and confusion over their roles. Most of them are becoming fed up with Manny Lopez, who is a feared and respected leader but also disliked for questioning some team members' masculinity when they fail to perform to his standards.
THE DEMISE OF THE UNIT:
The unit's demise is due to a mixture of factors. Perhaps the overriding one is the fractiousness that Manny Lopez creates. Key team members begin leaving for less stressful assignments, not owing to fear but owing to fear and dislike of Manny Lopez. Wambaugh offers a nuanced view of Lopez, who is perceived by his men as having a superhero-like bravery and an absolute love of danger. Two of the team members were combat soldiers in Vietnam, so this dangerous outlook is something they've seen before. Another factor is the break-up of several marriages due to infidelity and alcoholism. Finally, bureaucracies are constantly changing, and this is particularly true in police departments. Administrators come and go and changes are made accordingly. Some of the major players on the unit end up leaving police work. Dick Snider is retired due to hypertension. Manny Lopez quits after he fails to adjust to more sedate police work. A controversial shooting by the team that results in a bandit's death and his accomplice wounded does not help matters, either. Wambaugh does not try to provide any overarching lessons to be learned by the forming of this special unit. I suppose if there is a lesson to be learned it is that the dream of one man for pure reasons does not always lead to a happy ending--and this is a lesson that humanity learned eons ago--though its knowledge has not impeded human efforts. Sometimes dreams do come to something resembling fruition, and this was true, for a year or so, when the BARF unit patrolled the parlous canyons filled with bandits and other poisonous creatures and thousands of aliens seeking a pay increase or a better-paying life of toil.
February 4, 2016
The line is visible in some places, invisible in others. Sometimes, there is a wall, or a fence; elsewhere, nothing presents itself to the observer’s gaze but long stretches of desert. Yet that line is a very real one – the international border that separates San Diego, California, U.S.A., from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Every day, people from Mexico and Central America who want to break out of the cycle of Third World deprivation seek to cross the border into the United States of America; and in the late 1970's, a compassionate San Diego police officer saw how these unfortunate 20th-century campesinos were being preyed upon by border bandits, and decided to try to do something about it, as Joseph Wambaugh chronicles in his 1984 book Lines and Shadows.
Wambaugh served as a Los Angeles police officer for more than a decade before he turned to writing, achieving success as an author of both novels (The New Centurions, 1971) and true-crime stories (The Onion Field, 1973). Lines and Shadows falls into the latter category, telling as it does the story of the San Diego Police Department’s formation of a Border Crime Task Force whose members disguised themselves as pollos ("chickens," a slang term for vulnerable undocumented immigrants) and walked out into a desert landscape of rattlesnakes and scorpions and tarantulas and cacti, with the goal of decoying robbery-minded border bandits into attacking them.
Wambaugh focuses well on the psychological impact of this particular brand of undercover work on the Mexican-American officers who constituted this unit. One officer, an eight-year S.D.P.D. veteran who had done plenty of difficult and unpleasant law-enforcement jobs in his time, reflected that
that was another odd thing about those hills: dressing, talking, smelling like an alien was very very strange. Really, trying to think like someone else for the first time in his life. It made you understand that you are not a real Mexican, not even close. And yet the white majority thought of you as one. It was very hard out in those hills for some of them. It produced a culture clash in their heads. (p. 104)
The success of the Border Crime Task Force in protecting pollos and arresting the criminals who prey on them drew media attention – something that changed the dynamic among the officers. Those officers who were less enthusiastic for violent confrontation with border criminals might be criticized as “cowards” by their more gung-ho peers – officers who became media darlings for their “mediatic”, Dirty Harry-style qualities.
As Wambaugh grimly puts it, “Perhaps it was best unsaid that network news teams are not interested in ball-clanging mythic heroes who go around arresting bandits like ordinary cops” (p. 200). And the media publicity seemed to accelerate the pace of action and conflict in the borderland: “It was as if someone were playing a record at the wrong R.P.M. Things were speeding up. It was happening in the canyons faster than they could arrange for the media to cover it” (p. 201).
The pressures that these police officers faced only accelerated. A number of Border Crime Task Force members started drinking heavily, in response to constant stress. Marriages were strained as the celebrity status of these modern "gunslingers" drew groupies. And there was always the fear that the border bandits would accelerate their own violence in response to the police pressure against the bandits’ illegal and lucrative work. Wambaugh describes well the way the fear grew and took its toll, as officers
started fearing impossible things: that the bandits might lie in wait for them, to rid the canyons of these San Diego cops who had so hurt business. They started in terror every time a jackrabbit rustled the underbrush. A slinking coyote became a man waiting to murder them. Shapes of stunted oak flew at them in the shadows. Their guns were never out of their hands now. Their guns were getting rust-pitted from sweaty palms and aching clenched fingers. (p. 301)
The task force’s work, as mentioned above, resulted in many arrests and much positive publicity for the San Diego Police Department, but also in a number of shootings in which both cops and robbers were wounded, and ultimately two people died. It is interesting to consider the process by which the Border Crime Task Force was formed and was ultimately closed down.
All in all, Wambaugh provides a striking picture of an unusual police experiment that brought into relief the existence of an ongoing problem that no one has yet managed to solve. This book was written almost four decades ago – many years before the Trump candidacy and the crowds chanting “Build The Wall!” (How much wall did the Trump administration actually build? 458 miles, along the 1,954-mile border between Mexico and the U.S.A.)
And the poverty, desperation, and political instability of Mexico and Central America still send desperate would-be U.S. residents northward, wall or no wall. How many undocumented immigrants will try to cross that invisible line in the sand tonight? How many of them will be preyed upon by bandits who are capable of untold cruelty? What officials, either in Mexico or in the United States, are looking out for these poor, vulnerable, stateless people? The answers still seem as difficult to grasp as an invisible line in the sand, or a shadow cast by the moon.
Wambaugh served as a Los Angeles police officer for more than a decade before he turned to writing, achieving success as an author of both novels (The New Centurions, 1971) and true-crime stories (The Onion Field, 1973). Lines and Shadows falls into the latter category, telling as it does the story of the San Diego Police Department’s formation of a Border Crime Task Force whose members disguised themselves as pollos ("chickens," a slang term for vulnerable undocumented immigrants) and walked out into a desert landscape of rattlesnakes and scorpions and tarantulas and cacti, with the goal of decoying robbery-minded border bandits into attacking them.
Wambaugh focuses well on the psychological impact of this particular brand of undercover work on the Mexican-American officers who constituted this unit. One officer, an eight-year S.D.P.D. veteran who had done plenty of difficult and unpleasant law-enforcement jobs in his time, reflected that
that was another odd thing about those hills: dressing, talking, smelling like an alien was very very strange. Really, trying to think like someone else for the first time in his life. It made you understand that you are not a real Mexican, not even close. And yet the white majority thought of you as one. It was very hard out in those hills for some of them. It produced a culture clash in their heads. (p. 104)
The success of the Border Crime Task Force in protecting pollos and arresting the criminals who prey on them drew media attention – something that changed the dynamic among the officers. Those officers who were less enthusiastic for violent confrontation with border criminals might be criticized as “cowards” by their more gung-ho peers – officers who became media darlings for their “mediatic”, Dirty Harry-style qualities.
As Wambaugh grimly puts it, “Perhaps it was best unsaid that network news teams are not interested in ball-clanging mythic heroes who go around arresting bandits like ordinary cops” (p. 200). And the media publicity seemed to accelerate the pace of action and conflict in the borderland: “It was as if someone were playing a record at the wrong R.P.M. Things were speeding up. It was happening in the canyons faster than they could arrange for the media to cover it” (p. 201).
The pressures that these police officers faced only accelerated. A number of Border Crime Task Force members started drinking heavily, in response to constant stress. Marriages were strained as the celebrity status of these modern "gunslingers" drew groupies. And there was always the fear that the border bandits would accelerate their own violence in response to the police pressure against the bandits’ illegal and lucrative work. Wambaugh describes well the way the fear grew and took its toll, as officers
started fearing impossible things: that the bandits might lie in wait for them, to rid the canyons of these San Diego cops who had so hurt business. They started in terror every time a jackrabbit rustled the underbrush. A slinking coyote became a man waiting to murder them. Shapes of stunted oak flew at them in the shadows. Their guns were never out of their hands now. Their guns were getting rust-pitted from sweaty palms and aching clenched fingers. (p. 301)
The task force’s work, as mentioned above, resulted in many arrests and much positive publicity for the San Diego Police Department, but also in a number of shootings in which both cops and robbers were wounded, and ultimately two people died. It is interesting to consider the process by which the Border Crime Task Force was formed and was ultimately closed down.
All in all, Wambaugh provides a striking picture of an unusual police experiment that brought into relief the existence of an ongoing problem that no one has yet managed to solve. This book was written almost four decades ago – many years before the Trump candidacy and the crowds chanting “Build The Wall!” (How much wall did the Trump administration actually build? 458 miles, along the 1,954-mile border between Mexico and the U.S.A.)
And the poverty, desperation, and political instability of Mexico and Central America still send desperate would-be U.S. residents northward, wall or no wall. How many undocumented immigrants will try to cross that invisible line in the sand tonight? How many of them will be preyed upon by bandits who are capable of untold cruelty? What officials, either in Mexico or in the United States, are looking out for these poor, vulnerable, stateless people? The answers still seem as difficult to grasp as an invisible line in the sand, or a shadow cast by the moon.
July 16, 2011
I like Wambaugh's true crime because he's so good at teasing out the individual nuances of personality and dysfunction that crop up any time a group is allowed to develop an Us vs. Them mentality without getting too folksy OR too detached. It's a fine line. Basically, in the late 1970s of Southern California, a group of cops set out to curb incidences of bandits preying upon illegal immigrants in the no-man's land just across the US border and essentially replicated the Zimbardo experiment in the wild. Touches upon themes of race, culture, masculine identities, and the cop code. While the personalities involved began to unravel fairly quickly, they set out to firstly put an end to the rape, murder, and assault of illegal immigrants, to secondly catch the smugglers and coyotes themselves, and only as a distant third to put any kind of dent into the flow of illegal immigrants itself. Read this book, and then marvel at how the hell we've managed to move so far backwards over a course of thirty years.
June 20, 2014
My first exposure to the world of Joseph Wambaugh, was as a five year old kid watching Police Story. Police Woman, The Blue Knight and Joe Forrester got their own sometimes short-lived series thanks to Joe Wambaugh and other writers like him.
Lines and Shadows is an important book with the increased concern over illegal immigration. The story is about a Task Force started around 1976 involving USBP, INS, and the San Diego Police Department. This was an attempt to deal with the criminal elements preying on illegal immigrants. The Coyotes, Mexican Federales, Hispanic-American youth gangs and other unsavory types that would murder, rape and rob immigrants attempting to enter the United States.
One solution might be to move Camp Pendleton down to the southern edge of San Diego and Chula Vista instead of the northern part of Oceanside. Many an illegal immigrant would think twice before attempting to trespass on a USMC installation.
Lines and Shadows is an important book with the increased concern over illegal immigration. The story is about a Task Force started around 1976 involving USBP, INS, and the San Diego Police Department. This was an attempt to deal with the criminal elements preying on illegal immigrants. The Coyotes, Mexican Federales, Hispanic-American youth gangs and other unsavory types that would murder, rape and rob immigrants attempting to enter the United States.
One solution might be to move Camp Pendleton down to the southern edge of San Diego and Chula Vista instead of the northern part of Oceanside. Many an illegal immigrant would think twice before attempting to trespass on a USMC installation.
January 9, 2011
I read and re read this book it was so good. Living in San Diego County it was close to home for me I thoroughly enjoyed it. Exciting and real I felt like I was right there in the trenches with these brave men, knowing one of them was also exciting for me to read about how he was involved.
After meeting the author Joseph Wambaugh at the retirement party for Sheriff Bill Kolender (here in La Mesa, County of San Diego California) I asked him what he was currently writing. He said Hollywood Moon, the third book in a series. So I bought all three and started reading them. I love them all!
At this retirement dinner the men that were featured in Wambaugh's book Lines and Shadows were all there to honor Sheriff Kolender. They all posed for pictures and autographed our books. It was quite an exciting night for all.
After meeting the author Joseph Wambaugh at the retirement party for Sheriff Bill Kolender (here in La Mesa, County of San Diego California) I asked him what he was currently writing. He said Hollywood Moon, the third book in a series. So I bought all three and started reading them. I love them all!
At this retirement dinner the men that were featured in Wambaugh's book Lines and Shadows were all there to honor Sheriff Kolender. They all posed for pictures and autographed our books. It was quite an exciting night for all.
April 25, 2016
I have enjoyed much of Joseph Wambaugh's writing, but this one was only okay for me. Lines and Shadows tells the story of a special unit of San Diego police officers, dedicated to breaking up the criminals preying on Mexicans trying to sneak across the border. Started by one lieutenant who was tired of seeing these helpless people become victims in the southernmost part of his jurisdiction, the unit began with good intentions but was fraught with problems, almost from the start.
The story itself is interesting, but I felt like this story was more suited to a long magazine article than a book. The characters had some interesting moments but weren't compelling enough to hold me. Not a bad story, but nothing I'd give more than three stars.
The story itself is interesting, but I felt like this story was more suited to a long magazine article than a book. The characters had some interesting moments but weren't compelling enough to hold me. Not a bad story, but nothing I'd give more than three stars.
January 23, 2016
Great story of a special detachment of police officers from the USA side of the Mexican border, deployed to protect illegal aliens from being victimized on their way to find a better life. Well written by Joe Wambaugh.
July 5, 2012
Very well written. Stopped reading on page 102 because it got so graphic that I had to put it down for a while.
December 16, 2022
Γραμμένο από πρώην αστυνομικό συνδυάζει πολλά στοιχεία: χιούμορ δράση ψυχολογική απεικόνιση κοινωνικό σχόλιο δεν είναι για όλους
September 18, 2020
Read in 1985. A non fiction book chronicling the activities of the Border Crime Task Force in San Diego from 1976 to 1978. One of my favorites that year.
February 3, 2015
This book details the formation of a special unit created in 1978 in San Diego. The unit's main goal was to help "pollos" (immigrants crossing into the US) stay clear of bandits (men that would rob, rape and harm the pollos they came across).
The police officer in charge, Manny Lopez, becomes drunk with the media attention and soon the lines between good and bad blur. The men under his command are afraid to counter Lopez's orders in fear that they may be considered sissies (not the word used, but you get the picture). There are nights of debauchery and relationships become strained between man and wife and commander and officer.
An interesting look at border relations in a different time period. As I read, I realized not much has changed in the way of how the US regards immigration and how to deal with the issue. Also, an interesting look at culture and identity and the distinction between Mexicans from the South and those that live just across the imaginary line (and there is a difference).
I wouldn't mind reading more by this author. He is a retired police officer and he doesn't hold any punches holding up the mirror to his fellow brothers.
The police officer in charge, Manny Lopez, becomes drunk with the media attention and soon the lines between good and bad blur. The men under his command are afraid to counter Lopez's orders in fear that they may be considered sissies (not the word used, but you get the picture). There are nights of debauchery and relationships become strained between man and wife and commander and officer.
An interesting look at border relations in a different time period. As I read, I realized not much has changed in the way of how the US regards immigration and how to deal with the issue. Also, an interesting look at culture and identity and the distinction between Mexicans from the South and those that live just across the imaginary line (and there is a difference).
I wouldn't mind reading more by this author. He is a retired police officer and he doesn't hold any punches holding up the mirror to his fellow brothers.
July 29, 2019
A non-fiction account of a SDPD taskforce that tried to stop bandit predation on undocumented aliens crossing the Mexican border. Wambaugh, who is an excellent writer, adopts a style here that is an odd and off-putting mix of journalism and overly-dramatic-kids'-story-time. Obviously well researched, this is the story of the cops (Wambaugh was a cop for many years) who put a dent in the murder, rape, and robbery at the border and gradually burned out from the stress. Some lives were saved, some bad guys were punished, but in the end the endeavor was a tiny drop in an ocean of misery and crime. A timely story for the hoards arriving at our southern border today.
January 2, 2011
Another corker of a true life account, following the Border Patrol trying to keep on top of illegal immigrants crossing the Mexican American border. Wambaugh does an excellent job of filling out the characters, the setting and the sheer stress and tension of the job, as well as seeing the desperation from the ordinary Mexicans trying to gain access to the States. Excellent stuff.
June 30, 2024
Lines and Shadows – by Joseph Wanbaugh - Completed 09/19/2023
To my wife, J.E.M.; children, B.J.M.; A.N.C.; T.L.L. and their spouses.
In 1976, the San Diego Police Department placed undercover officers in positions acting as vulnerable illegal aliens or “pollos” (meaning chicken in Spanish). The goal of the Border Alien Robbery Force (BARF) was to curb the number of violent crimes occurring in the no man’s land of the canyons separating San Diego and Tijuana. To fight the bandits in the canyons, the cops would have to go in after them. The team began walking the canyons at night to act as decoys. They turned themselves into human bait. The criminals taking advantage of the illegals knew that the illegal victims wouldn’t talk to police on the United States side for fear of being deported, thus easy targets. They committed rape, robbery, or murder on the US side and then flee back to Mexico. Occasionally the criminals were Judiciales (Mexican law enforcement) trying to supplement their poor income.
When I read this book for the first time, I had been in Federal Law Enforcement for a couple of years but could not believe the crime happening along the border of the US. Where was the federal government? The ones responsible for the border? During my years in law enforcement, I saw firsthand the illegals wading across the Rio Grande River at the border in Laredo, TX. Later In Yuma, AZ I was assigned to a border operation where we knew large numbers of illegals were crossing. In the briefing of the joint operation between ICE Agents and The Border Patrol, the BP explained to the F.N.G. (ask a veteran) that in a very dark open field, 75-100 illegals will charge the 20 of us knowing we can only grab one, maybe two. Most likely they won’t resist or fight. As I nervously waited in the dark, they came all at once, very quietly. I grabbed my man who surrendered immediately. I could see the “got-a-ways” making their way towards the Walmart parking lot where the transport cars were waiting for them. I was glad to return to my local field office, away from the Mexican border.
Back to the book, the danger involving this BARF team in the jet-black hills and canyons in such a remote area required great machismo or brass balls of these guys. In a little more than one year of existence, the BARF team was involved in more episodes of violence and shootings than any other police task force in San Diego's history. And while several SDPD officers were shot, incredibly none were killed. The same could not be said for the bandits who had foolishly pulled guns or other weapons on who they saw as poor defenseless migrants. With the danger involved, the experiment was disbanded. Subsequently, the robbery, rape, and murder crime returned to the canyons. The crime still goes on today with the open borders by President Biden. ¿sabes qué? – Read the book.
Love Dad, T.R.M.
To my wife, J.E.M.; children, B.J.M.; A.N.C.; T.L.L. and their spouses.
In 1976, the San Diego Police Department placed undercover officers in positions acting as vulnerable illegal aliens or “pollos” (meaning chicken in Spanish). The goal of the Border Alien Robbery Force (BARF) was to curb the number of violent crimes occurring in the no man’s land of the canyons separating San Diego and Tijuana. To fight the bandits in the canyons, the cops would have to go in after them. The team began walking the canyons at night to act as decoys. They turned themselves into human bait. The criminals taking advantage of the illegals knew that the illegal victims wouldn’t talk to police on the United States side for fear of being deported, thus easy targets. They committed rape, robbery, or murder on the US side and then flee back to Mexico. Occasionally the criminals were Judiciales (Mexican law enforcement) trying to supplement their poor income.
When I read this book for the first time, I had been in Federal Law Enforcement for a couple of years but could not believe the crime happening along the border of the US. Where was the federal government? The ones responsible for the border? During my years in law enforcement, I saw firsthand the illegals wading across the Rio Grande River at the border in Laredo, TX. Later In Yuma, AZ I was assigned to a border operation where we knew large numbers of illegals were crossing. In the briefing of the joint operation between ICE Agents and The Border Patrol, the BP explained to the F.N.G. (ask a veteran) that in a very dark open field, 75-100 illegals will charge the 20 of us knowing we can only grab one, maybe two. Most likely they won’t resist or fight. As I nervously waited in the dark, they came all at once, very quietly. I grabbed my man who surrendered immediately. I could see the “got-a-ways” making their way towards the Walmart parking lot where the transport cars were waiting for them. I was glad to return to my local field office, away from the Mexican border.
Back to the book, the danger involving this BARF team in the jet-black hills and canyons in such a remote area required great machismo or brass balls of these guys. In a little more than one year of existence, the BARF team was involved in more episodes of violence and shootings than any other police task force in San Diego's history. And while several SDPD officers were shot, incredibly none were killed. The same could not be said for the bandits who had foolishly pulled guns or other weapons on who they saw as poor defenseless migrants. With the danger involved, the experiment was disbanded. Subsequently, the robbery, rape, and murder crime returned to the canyons. The crime still goes on today with the open borders by President Biden. ¿sabes qué? – Read the book.
Love Dad, T.R.M.
February 20, 2023
The book was a reflection of San Diego's Border Crime Task Force, a collection of police officers sent to monitor and slow the violence which was occurring between the border of Mexico and San Diego. This unit's formation was the the brainchild of LT. Dick Snider, himself a former Marine who spoke Spanish fluently and a humanitarian who cared deeply for the Mexican people who were being victimized as they attempted to enter the United States via this unmarked dangerous ground which lay between Mexico and California.
I read the book in 1984 when I was assigned to a similar task force in Southern California which dealt with the same crimes in one of the most violent areas in SoCal. The shootings, stabbing, assaults and trafficking of drugs were also present. Those seeking drugs could obtain them as the price of heroin and cocaine had dropped to $20 a hit . Then of course was the prostitution problem. Several locals died from AIDS. Often those seeking drugs would get " burned" and if they were lucky all they would lose would be their money. Many were killed and many overdosed.
I highly recommend the book because my unit experienced the same problems that San Diego's unit experienced. I spent 5 years working this special task force and at the end of my tour of duty many of the task force members had gotten divorced and suffered from such things as PTSD as several had been involved in multiple shootings. All had been involved in car pursuits, foot pursuits and fights while trying to protect the poor victims who lived and frequented the area. The violence seen by San Diego's unit was daily which led them to develop PTSD. Most law enforcement agents or officers see bad and violent situations in their jobs. The difference is this level of violence was an everyday occurrence perhaps happening multiple times in one shift. When one is constantly surviving in such an environment, stress begins to take its toll though those involved do not recognize it at the time because they're too busy doing the job and trying to stay alive.
Wambaugh's book gives the reader a true account of what it's like to work in such a violent environment and is the best book I've seen written on this subject matter. After shift meetings begin to become more frequent to talk and blow off steam from the stress. These meetings are known as " Choir Practice " in law enforcement circles. Wambaugh wrote a book decades ago on these meetings and the book was called " The Choir Boys". It was also made into a fiction movie.
Most of the law enforcement books written with so much action happening are fiction. " Lines and Shadows " has the distinction of being full of action and being factual. These things HAPPENED!
I read the book in 1984 when I was assigned to a similar task force in Southern California which dealt with the same crimes in one of the most violent areas in SoCal. The shootings, stabbing, assaults and trafficking of drugs were also present. Those seeking drugs could obtain them as the price of heroin and cocaine had dropped to $20 a hit . Then of course was the prostitution problem. Several locals died from AIDS. Often those seeking drugs would get " burned" and if they were lucky all they would lose would be their money. Many were killed and many overdosed.
I highly recommend the book because my unit experienced the same problems that San Diego's unit experienced. I spent 5 years working this special task force and at the end of my tour of duty many of the task force members had gotten divorced and suffered from such things as PTSD as several had been involved in multiple shootings. All had been involved in car pursuits, foot pursuits and fights while trying to protect the poor victims who lived and frequented the area. The violence seen by San Diego's unit was daily which led them to develop PTSD. Most law enforcement agents or officers see bad and violent situations in their jobs. The difference is this level of violence was an everyday occurrence perhaps happening multiple times in one shift. When one is constantly surviving in such an environment, stress begins to take its toll though those involved do not recognize it at the time because they're too busy doing the job and trying to stay alive.
Wambaugh's book gives the reader a true account of what it's like to work in such a violent environment and is the best book I've seen written on this subject matter. After shift meetings begin to become more frequent to talk and blow off steam from the stress. These meetings are known as " Choir Practice " in law enforcement circles. Wambaugh wrote a book decades ago on these meetings and the book was called " The Choir Boys". It was also made into a fiction movie.
Most of the law enforcement books written with so much action happening are fiction. " Lines and Shadows " has the distinction of being full of action and being factual. These things HAPPENED!
December 17, 2019
Any of you who know me, also know that Joseph Wambaugh is one of my very favorite authors. His gritty writing-style and unique story-telling ability make every one of his books a worthwhile read. While I have enjoyed some more than others, I have never been disappointed when picking up a Wambaugh book. 'Lines and Shadows' is one of his nonfiction books and details the story of a San Diego police squad who patrols the Mexican-American Border. Their intentions started out on a good note--trying to protect Mexicans who dared to cross the border illegally. They were threatened by much violence including murder, armed robbery and rape by renegades who viciously preyed upon them. No one, legal or otherwise, should have to be subjected to that. The problem was this unusual group of cops known as the Gunslingers became consumed with their job. It was dangerous work and the constant threat they had to deal with spilled over into their private lives--even when Hollywood came calling. With all of the recent news coverage concerning the Mexican border, this book originally published in 1984 remains applicable today and the picture it paints is not pretty.
September 11, 2026
If you are interested in Law Enforcement history, this is a great read. Ever if you are not into "law enforcement" books, this is well worth your time.
Lines & Shadows is a narrative account of a special unit of San Diego police officers that acted as decoys in the no man's land between the Mexican border and the city of San Diego, CA.
(A "decoy" is and undercover cop who TRIES to get attacked by violent bad guys in order to make an arrest.)
This unit was not stopping the illegal aliens attempting to cross into the U.S., they were pretending to be illegals themselves and targeting the crooked Mexican cops, bandits, coyotes, and rapists that preyed on the illegals. The book covers the rise and fall of this special unit and vividly describes the impact of this work on the team members.
Lines & Shadows is a narrative account of a special unit of San Diego police officers that acted as decoys in the no man's land between the Mexican border and the city of San Diego, CA.
(A "decoy" is and undercover cop who TRIES to get attacked by violent bad guys in order to make an arrest.)
This unit was not stopping the illegal aliens attempting to cross into the U.S., they were pretending to be illegals themselves and targeting the crooked Mexican cops, bandits, coyotes, and rapists that preyed on the illegals. The book covers the rise and fall of this special unit and vividly describes the impact of this work on the team members.
November 1, 2025
The substantive true story at the core of Lines and Shadows is interesting, but I found the book to be overwritten and lacking in narrative drive. It's very episodic, repetitive, ambling, and only a couple of the dozen characters were rendered with any sort of distinguishability. The other "Barfers", as characters, felt unrealized and homogenous. Wambaugh has a clear enthusiasm and affection for the people and events detailed here, but in my opinion, a more objective and less sentimental/excitable approach would have served the material better.
September 5, 2020
A true story of a group of cops with a mission to help the thousands of illegal aliens slipping into the U.S., by stopping the ruthless bandits who preyed on them nightly, relentlessly robbing, raping and murdering defenceless men, women and children.
I found it slow moving with way too much detail about the lives of the cops on the team, along with with overwhelming numbers of graphic depictions of horrendous brutality.
I found it slow moving with way too much detail about the lives of the cops on the team, along with with overwhelming numbers of graphic depictions of horrendous brutality.
January 20, 2022
A non-fiction account of a municipal police task force managing border activity in San Diego oh-so-many years ago. Recommended to me after a discussion of American Dirt. I struggle to wrap my head around the whole thing. I was slow to be drawn in, but all at once I was concerned about the well-being and survival of the men in this experiment. This one will leave you thinking about so many issues.
December 18, 2025
finished 18th december 2025 good read three stars i liked it no less no more kindle library loaner have read six or seven from wambaugh joseph all recent all good reads this one a "true story" about a group of mostly hispanic or mexican san diego cops assigned to a border area where "bandits" have been robbing raping and murdering "poolos?" sic sigh semper late 70s early 80s and how those actions affected the men the border and the two countries.
May 12, 2019
Interesting true story of an ongoing problem. They couldn't solve it although they did put a dent in the problem but at a great cost to themselves. Sad to say the problem is still there 40 years later. I don't think anyone knows the answer.
May 20, 2019
Interesting true story about the border. Though, I'm not sure what lessons can be learned from it.
The telling was ok. Too much swearing and crudeness, but it was interesting to know the day to day lives of the police.
The telling was ok. Too much swearing and crudeness, but it was interesting to know the day to day lives of the police.
August 24, 2023
Always a good read and after many years, a good re-read. Cops and robbers and LA as it was. This tale set in the San Diego area stills has a fine cast of officers who have a dangerous mission and must confront not just bad guys but official and public distrust and their own problems.
June 26, 2018
Not a well organized book, and did not have a good flow of words. I enjoyed maybe 25% of the book. Might have been better when written in the 70's, but I cannot recommend it.
August 30, 2019
idiocy
Waste of. Good men who had not a chance of return ing to whatever they left behind. Raw. Nowhere to hide.
Waste of. Good men who had not a chance of return ing to whatever they left behind. Raw. Nowhere to hide.
July 18, 2023
Powerful start and middle of this story. Unfortunately, it fizzles out at the end, much the same as the Border Patrol in this story.
September 1, 2024
People crossing the border need protection.
The protectors themselves become like bandits.
The protectors themselves become like bandits.
January 20, 2026
Extreme book nerd book where I was born. San diego good book
March 12, 2017
Overall, I have to admit that, as a Joseph Wambaugh fan, I was a little bit disappointed in the length and pace of the book.
What I didn't like about the book: Wambaugh's works of fiction consist of more concise, faster paced stories that read more like the folklore of Law Enforcement than like fiction. "Lines and Shadows" was definitely worth reading, but could have been shorter and more focused. Some of his narratives of violent incidents are too long, and a couple of his character descriptions are verbose.
What I did like about the book: The vivid characterizations of cops, illegal aliens, and predatory criminals are unforgettable. His humane, infuriating, yet humorous descriptions of illegal immigration will challenge your perspective regardless of what you think about the issue. This is a complex issue, and Wambaugh covers it fairly. The book also gives accurate descriptions of men dealing with what we call "PTSD" today.
What I didn't like about the book: Wambaugh's works of fiction consist of more concise, faster paced stories that read more like the folklore of Law Enforcement than like fiction. "Lines and Shadows" was definitely worth reading, but could have been shorter and more focused. Some of his narratives of violent incidents are too long, and a couple of his character descriptions are verbose.
What I did like about the book: The vivid characterizations of cops, illegal aliens, and predatory criminals are unforgettable. His humane, infuriating, yet humorous descriptions of illegal immigration will challenge your perspective regardless of what you think about the issue. This is a complex issue, and Wambaugh covers it fairly. The book also gives accurate descriptions of men dealing with what we call "PTSD" today.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews