Unflinching examination of a system that’s broken

Ghettoside Investigating A Homicide Epidemic. By Jill Leovy. The Bodley Head, €18.90. Reviewed by Jack Horgan-Jones.

LA’s 18th Street Gang was once a minor crime threat, but now is the city’s largest and most dangerous gang with tens of thousands of members who deal in kidnapping, illegal immigration, fraud, drug and weapons trafficking and claim at least one victim every day. Picture: AP
LA’s 18th Street Gang was once a minor crime threat, but now is the city’s largest and most dangerous gang with tens of thousands of members who deal in kidnapping, illegal immigration, fraud, drug and weapons trafficking and claim at least one victim every day. Picture: AP

Last November, Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn found himself in the firing line. Unlike some of his colleagues, he wasn’t facing bullets, but a barrage of questions from ...