Re: RARA-AVIS: police procedurals

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 11 Aug 2002


Joy,

Re your comment below:

> It's dark because the initial crime is the murder of
> a 13-year-old drug
> runner and because the police dilemma of the book is
> to either infiltrate
> the all-powerful drug organizations (the last such
> infiltrator was killed)
> or to reach a power-sharing arrangement with them.

Is it your contention that no law enforcement agency would ever be faced with that dilemma in real life? There are, in fact, police agencies who SPECIALIZE in infiltrating drug rings(the DEA, for example), and the NYPD is said to have come to some sort of accord with the drug rings of NYC prior to the mayoral administration of Rudy Giuliani. That certainly doesn't render it a NON-procedural, by itself.

> The book is too much soap
> opera for me, though, lots of breastbeating and
> angst and infighting and
> snide comments about everyone else's tacky taste.

Like the popular police procedural TV drama, HILL ST. BLUES, you mean? Or are you suggesting that HILL STREET was also a non-procedural?

> There's no police
> procedure, and neither side seems rational enough to
> keep a large
> organization running. Not my cup of tea.

Speaking as a cop with more than a decade's experience I can testify to the absolute truth of a law enforcement agency run by an irrational mangerial/command staff. Again, I have to say that this doesn't mean the James books are non-procedurals.
 I haven't read them, and you may very well be right, but none of the reasons you've given so far are convincing.

JIM DOHERTY

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