A Thug Cop's Redemption Why does the word, "Thug" sound so bad but seems to be a good thing for so many? Many of us were sinners saved by grace. Are we simply thugs in need of redemption? No matter what religious titles we give ourselves, or careers we endeavor to pursue, could it be possible that the, "Thug Nature" is lying dormant within us awaiting the opportunity to manifest? Minister T. Bryant Jr. was born in Savannah, GA. He was raised in a Christian upbringing, the oldest of eight siblings. He attended Chatham County Schools, served in the United States Army and furthered his education while stationed in Texas and Europe. Minister Bryant strayed from his Christian roots, honorably discharged from the military to become a Police Officer in his home town...While a cop and trying to fulfill that empty void in his heart, Bryant began to chase after worldly treasures. After all those things failed him, the thing he greatly feared came upon him. This book is a must read for every prisoner, entrepreneur, saint, and sinner. This minister shares how he discovered he was a thug in need of redemption. Prison saved Tommy's life, while in he discovered his gifts, calling, and purpose in The Kingdom of God. He became a Minister of Music, musician, worship leader, songwriter, psalmist, leading staff and inmates to Christ in every facility he was sent to serve. Tommy was taught how to tap into the power within to experience specific answers to prayer and results where he birthed his Proverbs 31, Ruth 3:11 wife, Amiee. They have a combined total of 8 children and 2 grandchildren. What the enemy meant for evil, God turned around and blessed abundantly. God can and will do the same for you.

After being away from his neighborhood for more than nine years and finding a career as a Wilmington Delaware Police Detective, Jamal is lured back to North Philly when a shoot-out erupts, killing one of his best friends. A Detective, who becomes familiar with Jamal's past, unravels shocking truths about drugs, dirty cops, and their role in a drug war that is claiming lives in a North Philly neighborhood, daily. Jamal is blackmailed and forced into a position to possibly take down his cousin Samir. Now faced with a matter of kill or be killed, Jamal must decide whether he will return to his life from the past, or honor his badge. In this urban fiction sequel, all bets are off and everyone, including Jamal, is expendable!

This book analyzes Hollywood storytelling that features an American crimefighter—whether cop, detective, or agent—who must safeguard society and the nation by any means necessary. That often means going “rogue” and breaking the rules, even deploying ugly violence, but excused as self-defense or to serve the greater good. This ends-justifies-means approach dates back to gunfighters taming the western frontier to urban cowboy cops battling urban savagery—first personified by “Dirty” Harry Callahan—and later dispatched in global interventions to vanquish threats to national security. America as the world’s “policeman often means controlling the Other at home and abroad, which also extends American hegemony from the Cold War through the War on Terror. This book also examines pioneering portrayals by males of color and female crimefighters to embody such a social or national defender, which are frustrated by their existence as threats the white knight exists to defeat.

This collection of essays critically engages with factors relating to black urban life and cultural representation in the post-civil rights era, using Ice-T and his myriad roles as musician, actor, writer, celebrity, and industrialist as a vehicle through which to interpret and understand the African American experience. Over the past three decades, African Americans have faced a number of new challenges brought about by changes in the political, economic and social structure of America. Furthermore, this vastly changed social landscape has produced a number of resonant pop-cultural trends that have proved to be both innovative and admired on the one hand, and contentious and divisive on the other. Ice-T’s iconic and multifarious career maps these shifts. This is the first book that, taken as a whole, looks at a black cultural icon's manipulation of (or manipulation by?) so many different forms simultaneously. The result is a fascinating series of tensions arising from Ice-T’s ability to inhabit conflicting pop-cultural roles including: ’hardcore’ gangsta rapper and dedicated philanthropist; author of controversial song Cop Killer and network television cop; self-proclaimed ’pimp’ and reality television house husband. As the essays in this collection detail, Ice-T’s chameleonic public image consistently tests the accepted parameters of black cultural production, and in doing so illuminates the contradictions of a society erroneously dubbed ’post-racial’.

Former NYPD Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple was a man in a bow tie and homburg--he was also on a mission to revolutionize the way crime is fought: how cops go after crooks, and how they prevent crime in the first place. And he succeeded. But Maple is not satisfied. In The Crime Fighter, he shows how crime can be attacked all across America. Laced with fascinating, incredible, and often very funny tales of Maple's adventures as a cop, the book is as entertaining as it is informative. Anyone interested in how criminals think and act, and how the police should do their jobs, will devour this absorbing book.

Much analysis of gangster movies has been based upon a study of the gangster as a malign figuration of the American Dream, originally set in the era of the Depression. This text extends previous analysis of the genre by examining the evolution of gangster movies from the 1930s to the contemporary period and by placing them in the context of cultural and cinematic issues such as masculinity, consumerism and technology. With a close examination of many films from Scarface and Public Enemy to Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction , this book provides a fascinating insight into a topical and popular subject.

Ruben Palomares grew up on the mean streets of East L.A., in an abusive home, in a gang infested area, and heavily influenced by relatives who were gang members. However, he succeeded against many odds and excelled in school to become a Golden Gloves boxer and even a sparring partner with superstar boxing champions Oscar de la Hoya and Sugar Shane Mosley. Palomares then joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), where a shooting incident left him with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which led to a downward spiral in his life. Angry at the world, he turned from being a model cop, to a life of crime, working for the Mexican Drug Cartel. Yet his most brutal battles would be against opponents he could not even see, who came from the demonic spirit world, who followed him from his dark life with the Mexican Drug Cartel and the witches who cursed him. This book is about Palomares' turbulent journey from fierce demonic paranormal attacks, to a road of deliverance and inner healing through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Rayford Johnson is a former Correctional Counselor and author of Thug Mentality Exposed, Demon Mentality Exposed and Greek Letter Exposed. He counsels and ministers healing and demon deliverance at correctional facilities, "the streets", online, YouTube, phone prayer-line, conferences, and residential settings. Johnson is the director and founder of ThugExposed.Org Ministries.

An award-winning journalist's gritty, redeeming, page-turning memoir of a city on the brink.

This set covers all aspects of international hip hop as expressed through music, art, fashion, dance, and political activity. Hip hop music has gone from being a marginalized genre in the late 1980s to the predominant style of music in America, the UK, Nigeria, South Africa, and other countries around the world. Hip Hop around the World includes more than 450 entries on global hip hop culture as it includes music, art, fashion, dance, social and cultural movements, organizations, and styles of hip hop. Virtually every country is represented in the text. Most of the entries focus on music styles and notable musicians and are unique in that they discuss the sound of various hip hop styles and musical artists' lyrical content, vocal delivery, vocal ranges, and more. Many additional entries deal with dance styles, such as breakdancing or b-boying/b-girling, popping/locking, clowning, and krumping, and cultural movements, such as black nationalism, Nation of Islam, Five Percent Nation, and Universal Zulu Nation. Country entries take into account politics, history, language, authenticity, and personal and community identification. Special care is taken to draw relationships between people and entities such as mentor-apprentice, producer-musician, and more.

He’s a hip-hop icon credited with single-handedly creating gangsta rap. Television viewers know him as Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola on the top-rated drama Law & Order: SVU. But where the hype and the headlines end, the real story of Ice-T—the one few of his millions of fans have ever heard—truly begins. Ice is Ice-T in his own words—raw, uncensored, and unafraid to speak his mind. About his orphan upbringing on the gang-infested streets of South Central, his four-year stint in the U.S. Army, his successful career as a hustler and thief, and his fateful decision to turn away from a life of crime and forge his own path to international stardom. Along the way, Ice shares never-before-told stories about friends such as Tupac, Dick Wolf, Chris Rock, and Flavor Flav, among others. And he offers up candid observations on marriage and monogamy, the current state of hip-hop, and his latest passion: mentoring at-risk youths around the country. With insights into the cutthroat world of the street—and the cutthroat world of Hollywood—Ice is the unforgettable story of a true American original.