In Everyone a Sheriff, the word "sheriff" serves as a metaphor for programs involving citizens in social control initiatives. Partnership between community members and their local police force is at the heart of any effective strategy aimed at reducing urban crime and insecurity. Ordinary community residents represent a vast, untapped resource in the fight against crime, disorder, and fear. The real story of citizens long association with the policing function is revealed. The book highlights include: an in-depth examination of volunteerism primarily at the law enforcement level; the importance of preparing youth and minorities for careers in policing and homeland security; the need for transitioning police and citizen volunteers from serving not only as peacekeepers, but becoming "peacemakers"; a realistic view of various pitfalls when regular and volunteer police are thrust into patterns of co-existence when fighting crime out on the street or seeking solutions to crime; numerous examples of current police-sponsored citizen academies, police cadet and junior deputy programs; histories of the invention of police and citizen-supported neighborhood crime watch programs. The only way to successfully cross the divide between the police and public is to give meaning to the phrase: "the police are the people, and the people are the police."

Violent crime has been rising sharply in many American cities after two decades of decline. Homicides jumped nearly 17 percent in 2015 in the largest 50 cities, the biggest one-year increase since 1993. The reason is what Heather Mac Donald first identified nationally as the “Ferguson effect”: Since the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, officers have been backing off of proactive policing, and criminals are becoming emboldened. This book expands on Mac Donald’s groundbreaking and controversial reporting on the Ferguson effect and the criminal-justice system. It deconstructs the central narrative of the Black Lives Matter movement: that racist cops are the greatest threat to young black males. On the contrary, it is criminals and gangbangers who are responsible for the high black homicide death rate. The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of “mass incarceration.” A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that “black lives matter” than today’s data-driven, accountable police department. Mac Donald gives voice to the many residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want proactive policing. She warns that race-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. This book is a call for a more honest and informed debate about policing, crime, and race.

This groundbreaking history of how American police forces have been militarized is now revised and updated. Newly added material brings the story through 2020, including analysis of the Ferguson protests, the Obama and Trump administrations, and the George Floyd protests. The last days of colonialism taught America’s revolutionaries that soldiers in the streets bring conflict and tyranny. As a result, our country has generally worked to keep the military out of law enforcement. But over the last two centuries, America’s cops have increasingly come to resemble ground troops. The consequences have been dire: the home is no longer a place of sanctuary, the Fourth Amendment has been gutted, and police today have been conditioned to see the citizens they serve as enemies. In Rise of the Warrior Cop, Balko shows how politicians’ ill-considered policies and relentless declarations of war against vague enemies like crime, drugs, and terror have blurred the distinction between cop and soldier. His fascinating, frightening narrative that spans from America’s earliest days through today shows how a creeping battlefield mentality has isolated and alienated American police officers and put them on a collision course with the values of a free society.

Jax and his friends are based on real animals that lived in author's neighbors' backyards in the state of Colorado, USA. The author started writing the book about Jax and his friends when he noticed how all the animals seem to help each other during the cold and snowy months when there seemed to be the least of food. The animals would actually drop a piece of food for any animal to pick up.

This story takes place in a typical small college town in Illinois that holds a long time dark secret. By a mere chance several college students are connected in a way they would never have thought possible. As a string of "accidents" occur that are soon to be discovered murders, the secrets and lies begin to unravel the small town and some of its oldest residents. New relationships are beginning to form as old ones are revisited or tested. Among the fight, confusion, truth and lies a struggle to save lives, may cost more than anyone is willing to give.

Slocum takes on a corrupt lawman and his cattle baron boss… Long on the trail and out of funds, Slocum takes a job as a cowpoke at the Snug T Ranch, lured by the promise of three squares and pay—and by the beautiful and buxom ranch owner’s niece. Little does he know that there’s trouble brewing like bad coffee between Tyson, the Snug T’s owner, and LeDoux, owner of a rival ranch who has the local sheriff on his payroll. When Slocum sees the unarmed Tyson ambushed and shot to pieces by the sheriff and LeDoux’s men, he’s in for the long haul, vowing to send them all to hell. And the tin star on the sheriff’s chest is going to make a mighty nice target for the man who never misses…

Surprise Christmas blessings Her Holiday Family by Winnie Griggs Reserved widow Eileen Pierce never considered herself cut out to be a mother. But when handyman Simon Tucker is stranded in town with ten young orphans at Christmastime, she can't just turn them away. Though Simon’s easygoing demeanor clashes with Eileen’s buttoned-up propriety, his kindness melts her stern facade. Soon Simon and the children upend Eileen's quiet, orderly life. Will they do the same to her guarded heart? The Sheriff's Christmas Twins by Karen Kirst Convinced that Allison Ashworth deserves better, Sheriff Shane Timmons has always tried to remain aloof. But with Allison in Gatlinburg for the holidays and caring for two motherless babies, Shane wants to help her. Allison has always been drawn to Shane, but he never seemed to look her way. Now, spending time with him and the twins gives her hope that her dreams of motherhood—and a life with Shane—may come true.

On an isolated island, vampire Nobility run a mysterious laboratory, continuously pumping out a white mist which compels the inhabitants of a nearby fishing village to become the vampire's slaves! When the village tries to retaliate, their fighters never return. The vampire hunter known only as D has been sighted on the island, but how did he come to be there, and whose side is he on, and will any mortals survive the brewing conflict? This twenty-fifth volume features seven new illustrations by Final Fantasy designer Yoshitaka Amano.