New book, Left of Bang

[Mr Pink]

Wholly agree. What is funny is that a TON of this stuff was in the USMC system a long time ago......and it didn't jive with the decision makers ideas of what was important. I think most of the longtime street cops were likely bored to tears and thinking "yea, no kidding", but it is likely very good for those not used to working around people who hate you and hunting them in their own backyard.

What's old is new and what's new is old. One of the most successful programs I saw in Afghanistan was a bunch of old school street cops embedded with the conventional military. They'll probably get rid of the program since it was successful and didn't involve some tech gadgets.

[Dagga Boy]

What's old is new and what's new is old. One of the most successful programs I saw in Afghanistan was a bunch of old school street cops embedded with the conventional military. They'll probably get rid of the program since it was successful and didn't involve some tech gadgets.

Used in Iraq with great success as well. Very successful cross training has been employed for a long time. Both LE and MIL folks "know stuff" that is applicable when properly applied to some segments of each other's missions.

[Wayne Dobbs]

The Iraq mission I served on for 25 months was much more street police related than mil. While we didn't and don't have Iranian EFP IEDs CONUS (yet), the work and "vibe" was very much criminal minded instead of what the Army was prepared to do, at least in Baghdad.

Left of Bang is a decent book, but I found myself getting bored with it, since it was telling me how to figure out what I'd figured out 35 years ago dealing with crooks and good guys in the same mixed population. It's a good primer for the "pups" though.

[LittleLebowski]

Ordered the Kindle, I'm sure this is has something I don't know since I don't know much about police tactics.

[John Hearne]

Posted this elsewhere:

I read "Left of Bang" and found it useful but I'm in the law enforcement business. I think the book is most applicable to these parties in this order:
1) Military deployed overseas
2) Police working gangs
3) Police in general
4)
5)
6) The armed citizen.

I think that for a generally accessible technical it is very well done. Too much of the book relies on protracted interactions with the "suspects" to be applicable to the armed citizen. You primary job should be to get out of those situations, not develop detailed hypotheses which you test over numerous, protracted visits. The armed citizen might get something from the book but it is not as deep of a resource for that context.

I also found the references to Grossman annoying. He is trusted as an authoritative source but all of my research finds his work deeply flawed. I especially dislike the tying of arousal states to the color codes. That is straight Grossman and it made me want to scream.

FWIW, I think that two books should be read by the serious armed citizen. Tom Givens' "Fighting Smarter" which is undergoing revision while we speak and Jim Grover's "Street Smarts, Firearms, and Personal Security: Jim Grover's Guide to Staying Alive and Avoiding Crime in the Real World." Tom's book is very narrowly focused at the armed citizen. The Grover book is a collection of his magazine articles but it covers a wide variety of topics including physical security of the home which is something missed by a lot of folks.

[TumblinDown]

John, I think I'd add Rory Miller's "Facing Violence" to your list. Good stuff.

[NETim]

Posted this elsewhere:

I read "Left of Bang" and found it useful but I'm in the law enforcement business. I think the book is most applicable to these parties in this order:
1) Military deployed overseas
2) Police working gangs
3) Police in general
4)
5)
6) The armed citizen.

I think that for a generally accessible technical it is very well done. Too much of the book relies on protracted interactions with the "suspects" to be applicable to the armed citizen. You primary job should be to get out of those situations, not develop detailed hypotheses which you test over numerous, protracted visits. The armed citizen might get something from the book but it is not as deep of a resource for that context.

I also found the references to Grossman annoying. He is trusted as an authoritative source but all of my research finds his work deeply flawed. I especially dislike the tying of arousal states to the color codes. That is straight Grossman and it made me want to scream.

FWIW, I think that two books should be read by the serious armed citizen. Tom Givens' "Fighting Smarter" which is undergoing revision while we speak and Jim Grover's "Street Smarts, Firearms, and Personal Security: Jim Grover's Guide to Staying Alive and Avoiding Crime in the Real World." Tom's book is very narrowly focused at the armed citizen. The Grover book is a collection of his magazine articles but it covers a wide variety of topics including physical security of the home which is something missed by a lot of folks.

I agree with your assessment for the armed citizen. Still, I found the book to be of value to me 'cause it helped illustrate and make more concrete the reasons to GTFO when the spidey senses start tingling (de Becker's "Gift of Fear.") I already knew that I need to listen to the internal alarms but now I'm a little more clued in as to what trips those alarms.

But no, I'm not interviewing anyone. I'm out.

Ordered Grover's book. Waiting for Givens' Fighting More Smarter to come out.

Edited to add: Yes, I've taken SN's MUC class.