Police State: How America's Cops Get Away With Murder

by Gerry Spence

In his 60-plus years as a trial lawyer, Gerry Spence has never represented a person accused of a crime in which the police hadn’t themselves violated the law. Whether by covering up their corrupt dealings, by the falsification or manufacture of evidence, or by the outright murder of civilians, those individuals charged with upholding the law too often break it. The police and prosecutors won’t charge or convict themselves, so the crimes of the criminal justice system are swept under the rug. Nothing changes.

Police State narrates the shocking account of the Madrid train bombings: how the FBI accused an innocent man of treasonous acts they knew he hadn’t committed. It details the rampant racism within Chicago’s police department, which landed a teenager, Dennis Williams, on death row. It unveils the coercive efforts of two cops to extract a false murder confession from frightened, fragile Albert Hancock, along with other appalling evidence from eight of Spence’s most famous cases. And it raises the question: when the people we pay to protect us instead persecute us, how can we be safe?

In Police State , Spence issues a stinging indictment of the American justice system. Demonstrating that the way we select and train our officers guarantees fatal abuses of justice, he prescribes a challenging cure that stands to restore the promise of liberty and justice for all.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Politics, Audiobook, Sociology, Police, The United States Of America

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 8, 2015

About the author

Gerry Spence is a trial lawyer in the United States. In 2008, he announced he would retire, at age 79, at the end of the Geoffrey Fieger trial in Detroit, MI. Spence did not lose a criminal case in the over 50 years he practiced law. He started his career as a prosecutor and later became a successful defense attorney for the insurance industry. Years later, Spence said he "saw the light" and became committed to representing people, instead of corporations, insurance companies, banks, or "big business."

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Ruby Ridge - exhausive account of the appalling murders of Randy Weaver's young son, Sammy, and his dog and his wife, Vicki, and the baby in her arms by the FBI and USMS stemming from a fake sting by the ATF. Weaver was an end-time religious nutter and white supremacist. However, in the free world no one has the right to police another's thoughts, only their actions. He was defended by Spence and a team of lawyers all of whom worked pro bono. Although they won, no action was ever taken against the murders being as they were government agents and Spence uses this case to further his argument that America is moving towards a police state.

2. Brandon Mayfield and the Madrid Bombings - linked by a faulty fingerprint identification to the Madrid bombings, Mayfield had his entire life and that of his family turned upside down with the FBI playing the 'Muslim' card to justify themselves. Spence exposed how female judges were getting removed from cases without reason among other corrupt devices of government, the worst being getting a ruling declaring some provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act unconstitutional which the government got overturned on appeal.

What the government did in each of the above cases was to offer compensation of a couple of million dollars (which come out of people's taxes) and then go away and carry on.
_________________


I thought this book was apposite given the current situation in the US and having read Ta-Nehisi Coates' incredibly moving Between the World and Me. I've loved some Gerry Spence books and hated others. I hope this falls into the first category.

It starts off with an overview of mostly white-cop shoots black person who is not a perpetrator of anything meaningful but a victim because the cop just wants to shoot black people and knows he can get away with it, that the police and judiciary will be behind him. The introduction mentions some of the recent (up to 2015) murders of African-Americans, but the first chapter is on the well-known Ruby Ridgeattack and murders by the FBI for which Gerry Spence defended Randy Weaver whose wife, unborn child and 14 year old son were killed in the incident.

This might be a really good read.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review originally posted at Book of Bogan.

Police State is a slightly terrifying trip down memory lane through the eyes of one defence lawyer who represented a wide range of clients in their battles against a government, or authority which sought to use its power to overreach and crush the oppressed.

Gerry Spence uses a number of examples from his own case history to examine the different ways that people, and governments in positions of power are able to wield that power in an unequal battle for 'justice' in America. It is slightly terrifying as a reader to realise just how quickly one can go from being an ordinary person on the street, to being in the spotlight, on trial for your life. In a country which proposes ideals like being the land of the free, and offering justice for all, it is apparent that not all are created equal.

Spence has a very engaging writing style, and has the humility to admit where he made mistakes, and a few of the case studies - although they are in the minority - he describes includes where justice did not appear to be served in the end.

Although this is a trip through many of the important cases of the last few decades, Police State ends in the present time, and offers a prescient look at how the justice system has evolved, or perhaps devolved in that time, and raises important questions about the future.

A thoroughly entertaining read, that is up there with any of the hot shot legal fiction authors, while still being authentic.

[Psychonaut · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really at all what I was expecting from the title. I was hoping for a broader overview of the corruption in law enforcement and the legal system. Instead the book was a collection of cases the author was involved in as a defense attorney, many of which were several decades old and some of which are well known (ie. Ruby Ridge and Imelda Marcos). Often they contained the transcripts of entire opening and closing statements and sometimes much of the witness testimony and cross examination dialogue. Apparently Mr. Spence is well known in the legal world and he wasn't shy about saying so. That being said, once I readjusted my expectations, I enjoyed the book. It was never boring. And it did shed some light on the pervasive corruption in America's legal system.

[Mitchell Kaufman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A serious indictment, not just of the police, but the Justice system in general. It is a serious issue, and easy to convict an innocent person, as this compendium of Spence's cases illustrates. Read in conjunction with Sidney Powell's Licensed to Lie, one can easily see how the system is broken and bent in favor of the prosecution.

[Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection of the author's cases, all of which have some element of police corruption. While I very much enjoyed Spence's writing and his court antics on behalf of his clients, I don't think he was particularly successful at proving his hyperbolical subtitle which states that America's cops get away with murder.

[Al Menaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent stories about Spence's cases. Skip the intro and epilogue, just long rants.

[Bianca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Power does not serve the people. It serves itself.

Where does one even start on the topic of Gerry Spence, who is the greatest lawyer to ever live? This book displays some of his most memorable cases from his perspective. It provides readers with a look into the defense attorney’s mind as he seeks justice for his clients. It shows a man who has no fear in demanding everyone intertwined with the justice system, whether it’s judges, prosecutors, and in particular, police officers, to do better. He provides a list of possible solutions to the problems that exist within a country who has a tainted police culture that promotes the brutality of its citizens.

Spence has a powerful voice. He does an amazing job of pulling in the reader and explaining to us the cases that he showcased and the role of the police in each one. He makes you empathize with the clients even when they are people you may have a preconceived notion about based on what the media, the mouthpiece of power, has taught you to believe. You may have rolled your eyes at Randy Weaver’s religious beliefs, but you cried when his son, his wife, his dog was murdered by the people who swore to protect them. He made you look at Ruby Ridge, Waco, and dozens of other mass murders in a different light. He made you fear that it was possible that it could happen to you next. That tomorrow, the FBI could knock on your door and charge you with murder for your religious beliefs, for the color of your skin, for your socioeconomic status, for merely existing.

My favorite part of the book is that Spence continues to remind the readers of one thing: THE POLICE WORK FOR US. Our politicians work for us. We are the employers and while we do not own the means of production (yet), we run things. Those things don’t run us. He acknowledges the role that the media plays in the spread of propaganda about police. Yes, Brooklyn 99 is cop propaganda. Yes, Criminal Minds is cop propaganda. So is every iteration of Law and Order. If a country in the Global South displayed as much cop propaganda as us, the United States would accuse them of brainwashing their citizens and stage a coup. American fascism is wrapped in red, white, and blue. We call it patriotism.

Gerry Spence is a starry-eyed American. In my opinion, that is the only flaw exhibited within this book. Between the lines, there are moments of radical thinking that I admire, and I yearned for more as I read the book. Throughout the book, he references the forefathers and their ideals of America. Yet, the forefathers represented, with a capital-P, Power. They actively oppressed people. They participated in genocide and slavery. They created the system that exists today. The system that empowers police to brutalize their employers (see: the citizens of the United States). The system that empowers the state to criminalize being poor. The system that empowers those who serve us to strive for Power and Capital, with a capital-C, rather than our protection. The system is the problem while police brutality is merely a symptom of it.

Don’t forget: There’s a special place in hell for those who oppress the powerless.

[Lance Eaton · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a trial defense lawyer with decades of experience and involvement in a good deal of high-profile cases over those years, Spence has a keen eye and mind for discussing how the structure of law and power can work to systematically disenfranchise most citizens. That is the major theme throughout the book that no matter the case, the government power is exponentially greater than any human that it puts in its crosshairs. Over a discussion of a handful of his most poignant cases, Spence illustrates the ways in which government in forms of the attorneys, judges, attorney generals, and police agents at all levels of government can abuse their power on people without the means to fight back (save for, of course, Spence and his self-reported amazing lawyerly skills). At that level, the book has a very solid foot to stand on and can present extremely important arguments about the evaporation of (or maybe just the realization of the illusion of) the rights of people against the state in the US. Unfortunately, Spence doesn't try to make the case stand on its own but must--at every turn--instill flowery and disdaining language in a way that proves to tire and does harm to his overall argument. He seems to never miss an opportunity to say disparaging remarks about the individuals whom he casts as the enemy to a degree that one expects to hear the chimes of discord like a bad melodrama. Of course, for those saintly innocent folks he is defending, he can't find enough angelic ways to present them. The end result is that it increasingly becomes challenging to figure out what is dramatic flourish and what is fact, what is thoughtful argument and what is manipulative means of getting readers to once more look angrily towards representatives of the state.

[Andrea Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye opening read. Spence is a great storyteller and it shows in his writing. Loved his recommendations at the end for how to rightsize justice in America.

[Gina Marcelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, Really Excellence
Interesting, based on Gerry Spence’s own personal cases.
New perspective, Smart, Worth the effort.

[Mary-Esther Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shocking, disturbing, and even unbelievable at times (due to Spence's often florid prose and use of literary license). His reform ideas are worth a look.

[Matthew Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never trust or talk to the police if you value your freedom.

[marcia · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Gerry Spence fashion a revealing account of police corruption in investigating and charging suspects.........Need I say more.