A powerful indictment of the criminal behaviour of police officers, and a call for institutional reform, edited by the multi-award-winning author of Black and Blue.
When Cops Are Criminals examines the widespread problem of police brutality and corruption from the perspectives of those who understand it in depth. Pulling together the accounts of survivors, campaigners, and academics, it explores different forms of criminal behaviour by police, the factors that contribute to it, the impact it has on victims, and the challenges of holding perpetrators accountable.
Told with candour, honesty, bravery, and rage, these stories will challenge readers to reflect on the institutions that so many people take for granted. Whose interests are they really serving? And where can people turn when the institutions that are supposed to protect them are the ones doing the damage?
Praise for Black and Blue-
'Gorrie's distinctly Indigenous storytelling makes us feel like we are sitting with her by the fire in the backyard listening to the resounding immediacy of her words. Her warmth and love and care for her readers is felt throughout the book ... Black and Blue is especially crucial at this moment in time. It challenges us to think about power and society, and the possibility of changing the world we live in.'
-2022 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Judges' Comments
'Black and Blue is a work of epic storytelling, a memoir authored by Gunai/Kurnai woman Veronica Gorrie. This is a book that must contend on every page with structural racism and the violent legacies of colonialism, from the account of Gorrie's childhood to her experiences working in the Queensland police and raising a family as a single mum. It's the memoir of a survivor, a resilient woman. If Black and Blue is a grim indictment of institutional racism, Gorrie's highly distinctive voice ensures that it is also surprisingly funny and candid.'
-Judges' comments from the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards' Douglas Stuart Prize for Non-Fiction
'Black and Blue is the extraordinary kind of memoir that has you laughing and then, in the next paragraph, feeling like all the wind has been taken out of you with shock. Veronica Gorrie tells her story of growing up as a Gunai/Kurnai woman in Australia, and then going on to be a police officer in Brisbane where she witnessed and was the target of personal and structural racism. Her voice is so clear and sharp it feels at times like she is talking directly to you and she has a unique gift of threading a story with small details and sideways routes that add to the odd charm of the book. It is a story of great resilience but also of great love, in her family and also in her community.'
-Bridie Jabour, The Guardian, 25 Best Australian Books of 2021
