Book Review: Blue Lives Matter: In the Line of Duty

by Tony Medley

With all the hullaballoo about “police brutality,” former 3-time Los Angeles District Attorney, Steve Cooley and co-writer Robert Schirn have come along with a compelling book telling the true stories of nine police (8 humans and one dog) who were murdered in the line of duty.

Told in “Law & Order” style by first outlining the facts and then telling of the criminal legal actions taken against the killers and tried in a court of law, this bares the truth about the danger our police face day in and day out.

Each of the eight chapters deals with one murder of a police officer, starting, as did the TV show, with each of the victims starting out on what is for them a normal day before each turns deadly violent, costing each victim his life.

Told in no nonsense, but fascinating, manner this book is a real grabber. In fact, when I received it I was in the middle of reading a library book that I had to read under a deadline to return, so I put Cooley’s book aside to finish my library book.

One evening shortly thereafter I picked up Cooley’s book to see what it was like. It was so interesting and real that I didn’t put it down to go back to my other book until I finished it.

It’s a quick read and it brings home the dangers these police face every minute of every day. Some of these murders begin with a simple traffic stop.

This is a factual book written by a tough prosecutor that lays bare the violence faced by the police every day. And it’s a monument to prosecutors who are dedicated to bringing the guilty to justice, especially when the victim is a police officer killed in the line of duty. One of the cases profiled is a “cold case” that took 45 years to solve. But they never gave up and finally got the murderers.