A Badge, A Gun, But No God: The Problems with Policing in America

Long before George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Stephon Clark, Philando Castille, or twelve-year-old Tamir Rice were murdered, police brutality has been rampant in Black communities. Having proudly served as an officer of the law for nearly four decades, author Hilton Napoleon knows first-hand how dangerous the job of policing is and how police are often put in situations where split-second decisions can be a matter of life or death.

In A Badge, a Gun, but No God, he highlights problems in police departments in Black and minority communities-problems with police officers killing unarmed citizens and the disparity in treatment and enforcement of the law in Black and other communities of color. It analyzes some of the most hideous crimes committed by police officers across the nation, and it provides a comprehensive review of what went wrong, what should have happened, and the casual factors that influenced an officer’s improper actions and decisions.

American laws are based on Biblical principles, highlighted in this book, to reflect the responsibility of police officers to enforce the laws equally for all citizens they pledged to protect and serve. A Badge, a Gun, but No God delivers divine spiritual guidance and moral obligations all police officers should possess in executing their sworn oath of office. It concludes with a discussion of obstacles to police reform and offers clear-cut real-world solutions for police.