andreweverett360 Book Review, Crime & Law Enforcement

The Profession

The Profession: a Memoir of Community, Race, and the Arc of Policing in America

by Bill Bratton with Peter Knobler   

Bill Bratton was sworn in as a Boston police officer in 1970 and rose to become chief or commissioner of six major police departments in three different states. He deserves a lot of credit for dramatically reducing crime, most notably as New York City Transit Police chief in the early 1990s and as commissioner of the NYPD in the mid-1990s.

Chapters two through six cover Bratton’s career through his first stint as NYPD commissioner until his falling out with Mayor Giuliani—basically a retelling of Bratton’s first book, Turnaround. Chapter seven covers his years as chief of LAPD; the writers were sloppy with the details in this chapter. Chapter eight is about Bratton’s second turn as NYPD commissioner under Mayor de Blasio.

The remainder of the book deals with contemporary issues related to race, implicit bias, terrorism, and the defund-the-police movement. I imagine Bratton wrote this book out of frustration with the anti-police climate and the resulting unraveling of 25+ years of crime reduction. It is extremely informative and he offers a valuable perspective. I read all 476 pages with great interest.

Continue reading “The Profession” →
andreweverett360 Book Review, Crime & Law Enforcement

Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities

Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities

by George L. Kelling and Catherine M. Coles

The origin of broken windows theory was an article in the March 1982 edition of The Atlantic by George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson about the link between disorder and serious crime. The term comes from an analogy: “Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones… One unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares.” Continue reading “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in Our Communities” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, General

The Death of Expertise

The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters

by Tom Nichols

This book is about the erosion of respect for facts, logical analysis, and critical thinking. Uninformed opinions carry the same weight as expert opinions. There is no vetting of dubious sources from credible sources. Beliefs are conflated with facts. It is in this climate that hoaxes, conspiracy theories, fake news, propaganda, and all manner of bullshit thrive. Tom Nichols, professor of national security at US Naval War College, examines this phenomenon and some of the causes, including higher education, technology, and the news media. Continue reading “The Death of Expertise” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story

Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story

by William A. Haseltine

The Singapore healthcare system produces world-class outcomes at half the cost of Western European countries and less than one-fourth the cost of the United States: Singapore spends 4% of GDP on healthcare; the United States spends 18%.  The World Health Organization ranked Singapore 6th in overall performance; the United States ranked 37th. (See page 200, The World Health Report 2000.)

Looking at costs of specific procedures, ”an angioplasty in the United States is almost $83,000, while in Singapore the cost is about $13,000. A gastric bypass in the United States is almost $70,000, while in Singapore the cost is $15,000. (These figures are in US dollars and include at least one day of hospitalization).”

This book explains how the system works. Continue reading “Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Healthcare Story” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Healthy Competition

Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and How to Free It

by Michael F. Cannon and Michael D. Tanner

Healthy Competition was published in 2005, but I pulled it off my shelf and reread it in early 2017, in the midst of the discourse about how to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare). Both the ACA and the proposed replacement focus on insurance, ignoring the exorbitant cost of health care in the United States. In this book, Cato Institute scholars Michael Cannon and Michael Tanner examine how the basic economic principles of price transparency, competition, and consumer choice could lower costs, reduce waste, and increase quality of care. Continue reading “Healthy Competition” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Health

Urgent Care: 10 Cures for America’s Ailing Healthcare System

urgent-care-minda-wilson

Urgent Care: 10 Cures for America’s Ailing Healthcare System

by Minda Wilson, J.D.

As I write this in early 2017, there is much chatter about the potential repeal and replacement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) commonly known as Obamacare. I was motivated to read this book to get beyond the myopic hysteria and gain a deeper understanding of the problems and possible solutions presented by healthcare attorney Minda Wilson.

“The United States has the world’s highest [per-capita] healthcare cost, double that of Canada… The number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is due to overbearing healthcare costs… A devastating illness means that, beyond your deductible, you could be responsible for a minimum of 30 percent of the medical bills incurred if you stay in-network. If you go outside of your network, then you could be responsible for between 50 percent and 100 percent of every bill.”

Wilson asks, “Why did the [ACA] focus on providing insurance and not healthcare?” I think this is the fundamental issue. The cost of insurance is a function of the cost of claims. So if the main focus is on subsidizing premiums, the law simply masked the underlying problem rather than solving it. “To be clear, deductibles, copays, and/or the costs of excluded care or limits on care were not included in this measure of affordability.” Continue reading “Urgent Care: 10 Cures for America’s Ailing Healthcare System” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, STEM

Water 4.0

water-4-0

Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World’s Most Vital Resource

by David Sedlak

David Sedlak is a professor of environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. In this book he explains the history, science, engineering, and political aspects of water and sewer systems. First, it may be helpful to decode the title:

  • Water 1.0—a system of importing and distributing water.
  • Water 2.0—drinking water treatment including filtration and chlorination.
  • Water 3.0—sewage treatment.
  • Water 4.0—next-generation water systems.

I will focus on some of the more contemporary topics in this summary. Continue reading “Water 4.0” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, General

The Higher Education Bubble

the-higher-education-bubble

The Higher Education Bubble

by Glenn Harlan Reynolds

In the first decade of the new millennium we saw the dot-com bubble and housing bubble end badly. In this concise 48-page booklet, University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds explains why higher education will be the next bubble to burst. “Bubbles burst when there are no longer enough excessively optimistic and ignorant folks to fuel them.” Continue reading “The Higher Education Bubble” →

andreweverett360 Book Review, Crime & Law Enforcement

The Crime Fighter

The Crime Fighter: How You Can Make Your Community Crime Free

by Jack Maple

Engaging stories from Maple’s career as a detective for the NY Transit Police, deputy commissioner of NYPD, and consultant to Newark, Philadelphia, and New Orleans police departments make this a very interesting read. The fact that the problems and solutions discussed are relevant to other cities—not just NYC—broadens the appeal of this book. While some of the principles will apply to smaller police jurisdictions, the context of all examples is with large cities. Continue reading “The Crime Fighter” →