Than an hour. Walked to jades room, and in deep conversation about be which thinks her mom would need to take. I flood on the bed. No television or radio. I listenedded to the conversations through the paper thin walls. Did you see that little girl from . Shes here all by herself. Sounded like jade. Know, she said, thats so sad. Although i couldnt see her i was almost certain she was shaking her head. She felt are so for me. I drowned out to the rest of the conversation i couldnt see it. I floccussed on the to done focuses on me bedspread. I said that working hard to convince myself i was going to be okay. To. The i was a little girl from california, the who didnt have a mother to help her up pack. To me i was the girl who made it. [applause] i love what you said. Me a we all continue to be sustained. Nicole will meet new the lobby for further conversation for a book signing. Thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] every sunday at 3 00 p. M. Eastern from now until the election, booktv will bring awe authors who provide different perspectives of one campaign issue. This week our focus is on policing. Youll hear from steve as osborn, and Heather Mcdonald who has a back. First, steve osborn. About the life of a new york city cop. How are you doing . My name is steve osborn and i used to be a new york city cop for 20 years, and yes, thefo accent is real. But the funny thing is i didnt know i had an accent nil came to savannah. I was a cop for 20 years and then i became a writer. People asked me how you go from being a cop to a writer. Dont liketling the story especially at a back festival with other writers because they want to strangle me. Happened by depend. Action dent. When youre a cop you have no life. Im working around the clock. Im working nights, weekends, holidays, never home. Then all of a sudden im retired. And im sitting there and stare at the walls. First thing did was to move the sofa from there to there. And my wife says, what are you doing . She goes, you havent been homea in ten years. Put that sofa back writ was. Where it was. So i did. So now im sitting there and im kind of bored, and i dont know why. I guess everybody had that little voice in the back of their head that whispers in their ear what to do. And that same voice kept me t safe, watch out for this or that guy. It was that same little voice that was whispering in my ear to write. So i grabbed a pad and a pen and i wrote a story. A short story. P about 12 pages. About just something that happened to me on the job. So after i wrote this thing im looking at it, like, all right can what now . So i handed it to some family and friends. Im like, i just wrote this. Do you mind reading and it tell me what you think. So they read and it they were like, we didnt know you could write. We d we didnt know you were that smart. But they loved it. So im like i was kind of surprised and taken back. So a i wrote another one and handed it out and everybody read and it they loved it. So i wrote another one, and the first one had them crying. The second one had them laughing so i wrote a third one and had them crying again. Had these stories and i was juss doing it to kill time. Didnt know what to do now. Am i wasting my time . But it felt good to write. Its hard to explain but writing, the actual act of writing and putting those stories and my thoughts and my feelings on paper, it stirred something in my soul. It was the same way at 3 00 in the morning id be out on patrol. This was where i was supposed to be. Not supposed to be home in bed, sleep, watching a movie with the wife, or i was supposed to be out on patrol at 3 00 in the morning, chasing bad guys. It stirred something in my soul. So i had these stories, and everybody was telling me they liked it, but being a cop youre cynical. So they were family and friendss and i thought they were just telling me what i wanted to hear. But i had a friend who was aiter real writer. She wrote a best seller,es television, movie. So she knew what she was talk about. I called her and said, just read this stuff. If its no good, im throw thego computer out the window and start a garden or something. Dont know what. So, she read and it gets back tt me and goes, this is pretty good. A little rough around at the edges but this is pretty good. So i kept writing. Wrote another story. Bat year later she called me up out of the blue. She tell monday she is doing this show called the moth. Anybody heard of it . H. [applause] what a great organization. For those who dont know, the moth is a group where you get up on stage and regular people tell a real story about their life. E. So they had this show. And the night before they had a cop who was scheduled to appear and he had to bail out. Now theyre stuck. So they asked my friend, know anybody who can fill in . A cop maybe. Sure enough she called me. The universe work inside mysterious ways. So she called me up and tells me about this. So i call them and pitch the story over the phone. Next night, im at the players cup in park. Thought this would be in thee bailment of a church, a couple people sitting around, going like this for applause. Theres 300 people there. I was never so scared in my whole life. And i was involved over the years in, like, thousands of arrests. This was the scarest thing i ever had to do. I wanted to run out the door. Told the producer, i would rather by chasing a guy with a gun down a dark alley. Than get up on the stage. But i got up there, and not for nothing, blew the roof off the itint. Everybody liked it. The theme of the show was crimes and misdemeanors and the speakers before me all had these stories. Isde one guy says he did 20 years for murder he didnt commit. Another guy was a defense attorney. Talking about how screwed up the criminal Justice System was. And then my friend gets up and tells about how she got arrested at the Republican National convention by some less than friendly riot cops, and how you could use a baloney sandwich aso a pillow in central booking. So i get up there and told my story and they loved it. I thought that was the end of it. About two weeks later the moth called me and said, were going on a nationwide tour and want to bring you next thing i know im in l. A. At ucla in front of 2400 people. Thats what i said. Ot d then we went to seattle. San francisco, denver. Kind of encourages me to keep. Wrote more stories and then they put me on nw npr then i get a call from an editor who says i just saw your stuff. I think its imperative you write a book. I said, i think youre right. So before i got up and i toldyo these story is would write them out. I helped me flesh the storiesld out in my head. So i told them, maybe i have half a one of first draft stuff. He said sent it to me. Had never written anything before. Didnt know if it was really worthy. So i sent it to him, and three days later he calls me and says, you got on agent . Just so happened i did. And an agent had herd me on npr radio and he goes, id like to rep you. And when i told him i wanted dish like writing short stories. I enjoy that. A cops life is a series of short stories. When you go out on patrol, you know, i may handle 10, 15, 20 jobs in a night and every job is a story. It has a beginning, middle, an end, different characters, different dialogue, different consequences. So a cops life is really a series of short stories my agent told me. People dont do for that. D he want me to write a memoir. And i thought about it but the little voice, it wasnt working. I didnt would to do that. So my agent and i didnt talk for a couple of months. Then the editor from double day and offers me a practice. I called my agent and said, we good at contract. And then i had to finish my book. I kept writing and writing and finished the book itch wasnt as hard dish wouldnt say it pass therapy but i did enjoy it. Everybody cop out there has great stories. Its the nature of the job. Every night youre involve in peoples lives. During crisis. And it just after doing that for 20 years you got a million stories. Not everybody can write and it put it on paper. Ev so, i wrote the book. And as i was writing it, through some of the stories i was afraid, im like, nobody is going to believe this. Theyre going to think im makes if the stuff up. And i wrote one story about a busy night i had in a fourhour period, really a fourhour period, 17yearold kid shot, two women stabbed in a family dispute that went crazy, and i had a 2yearold kid fall out a fourth are store under before the party and before he hit the ground he clipped his head on the fire hydrant. So i talked to him while he died. And after that i looked at my watch and im lying, all that happened in four hours. Nobody is going to believe thisu but thats a cops life. And the next night was probably a quiet night. Nothing memorable, but every night when you good to work you do not know what is going to happen from one minute to the next. As i got towards the end of the book, there was one story that had to be written, and i didnt want to write about it. I didnt feel the need too write about it. I felt very selfconscious writing about it but it was about 9 11 and if i didnt write about it there would be a hole in the book. When i start writing about it, the first couple of day is dont remember much. Its all still kind of a blur to me. Even when i hooked up with guys with me at the time, they say the same thing. They remember something very vividly. Have no recollection. Remember something sir vividly, they cant remember. So all of us the first couple of days, its a blur. After that i was working 12 hours on, 12 hours off for the next two months and my unit was in Detective Bureau so we got assigned to the morgue, and our job was to identify the remains coming in. And i couldnt write about what i saw and what we did. D. Those are peoples families, buildinembers, and i the building was falling down, cracked walls walls and peelingt and the front door nyes up and this guy comes running through the front door, covered in blood. And another guy chasing him with a pipe. Im jumping over the desk and with some other cops and were wrestling and fighting to trying to get the pipe off of him it was two guys from across the street, they were sharing a beer. Then im signature on the deskng again, looking at this big piece of peeling paint, waiting for it to fall down and the front doors burst open again and some guy with bagpipes coming burst it 3 00 in the morning. Comes through the door of the station houston. Rs does a couple of laps. He plays plays some song like ot braveheart. I launches out the door, down the block, you hear the bagpipes fading away. Im like, i love this job. I really do. I love this job. This is like the greatest job in the world. Now, im sure a lot of people have questions and if you want i could take a few questions from you. Quest can you come up to the microphone here. Were on cspan. If you decent to that nobody on the television can hear you. So yaw have to talk into the microphone. I wondered well two questions. Im from new york. Where is the ninth precinct . Lower east side. Fromhouseon to 14th, from broadway to the east river. And i was there during the 80s and 9s9s so when new york city was the wild west. Go there now and dont even recognize the place. Now i have three questions. Go ahead. Keep going. How did the neighborhood change while you were there . Is one question. And then if you could tell us if the writing was therapeutic for you, if any one of this stories is like, this is really helping me work through one h thing that happened one time. And then in the funniest one. Four questions. New york changed like you cant imagine. Like the lower east side. It was the wild west. Streets divide walk down with a gun any hand, inside the coat pocket because it was so dangerous, now days there are little cafes down there and people are sing lattes. Moms are going into the park that would just they wereto where are zones in and now theyre war zones and now theyre pushing baby carriages. Writing was therapeutic. And theres a lot of funny stories but a lot of sad stores and you would think that the book would be filled with actioo asked venture, and there is. Theres a couple of stories where guys pulled guns on me and i had a gun in my face and im fighting for my life. And those are good stories. I enjoy them but its the stories about people, about being in peoples lives, that interaction between two human beings. Like you would think the first story i wrote would be, like, some big car chase with shots fired or homicide or Something Like that. But i wasnt. I dont know why but the first story i wrote was the first time i had to tell a parent that their child was dead, and their child was in the other room. And she had been dead for a few days, and she her body was badly decomposed and mom wanted to go into the room. She was not going believe her child was dead until she saw the body, and i couldnt let that happen. Was a rookie. About 25 years old. This was not my job. Somebody else, a detective, a sergeant, something but there was nobody available. It was sunday morning, and it fell upon me. And the police work, especially when youre a young cop, youre confronted with difficult situations, and you got to rise to the occasion. Youre in these peoples lives during the most difficult time to in their life and yaw have tn rise to the occasion. I dont know hough i did it. Sat we were in the hallway and i sat her down on the steps and i didnt know what to say. And i kind of stopped thinking about what to say and just started feeling and i knelt down in front of her and took her hands in mine, looked like i was proposing marriage or something. And i took her hands in mine and i convinced her it was best to remember her daughter the way she was, and not the way she is. And it worked. And when i walked into that building that morning, i was young. I was 25 years old. Ha was a rookie. But a couple hours later when i walked out, i felt that i had grown, matured and become more of the cop that i wanted to be. Co next question . [applause] do you miss it . Actual work . And does writing about it give you a chance to do it again . Yes, die miss it. We always say that you miss the guys. Other cops they become like family to you. You go through these incredible adventures. With these guys. My life depends on my partner and my Partners Life depends on me, and theres a bond there. Ill meet guys now i know from 30 years ago, and were still friends. We went from something that most people dont. My life depend on him being there when the whole world turned to crap and his life depended on mine. So you develop friendships and bond that last forever. One of my first partners, we hang out together all the time. So, i miss the guys. I miss the adventure. I always say new york city cop was my life of adventure, and i do miss that. You can ride thes craziest roller coaster in the world you want get a rush. Its like being a fighter piloti and then work for united airlines. Its flying but its not the same. Miss that part. Oh. And im a yankee fan. Grew up in the bronx. I was there during the giuliani years. Welcome to savannah, by the way. What was your opinion on stop and fridays income did it work . And stop and frisk . Did it work . If knew somebody would ask me that question. Knew it. The one thing i will say is, stop and frisk works. What happened was in the old days, guys would be walking down the street with guns in their waistbands. Somebody would step on somebody elses shoe. Somebody would look at somebody the wrong way. Or you walk down a block that youre not supposed to walk down and then theyre whipping out guns and shoot thing place up. What happened with stop and frisk, we were stopping a lot o, people. We thrown them up against the wail and friction them, and right away all the bad guys knew youht cant walk around with a gun your waistband because theres good chance youll get stop. So they had to live it its home so now if someone looked at you the wrong way or stepped on your somehow, they had to go home and get their gun, and half the time, by the time he got become the other guy was gone or the situation diffused. So stop and frisk worked. We used to respond to crimes, take reports, try make an arrest and went from reactive to proactive, trying prevent crime. If you or two ask me back in the 80s or 9s so if murders could be reduced and major crime wise say youre nuts. I would not think it would possible. But it was done and it was done because of a more proactive approach to policing. [applause] im from new york. Worked in new york city on Williams Street for six years. Came down here and saw this and it is would copy of the medal of the first cop killed in new york city, and in 1909 the yankees said this is our symbol. Did you know that . I didnt know that. Mayor giuliani is given credit for cleaning up the city. Your knowledge and thoughts on it and was he really a contributing to keep new york city safer than it was . How safe is new york city . Whether you like giuliani or dont like him you have to give credit where credit is due. Before that, like i said we just took reports and watched crime go up and took somebody took a leader to say we can do something about this. It doesnt have to be like thisg back then you couldnt leave a brown paper back in your car without somebody breaking into it to see what was in there. Ar and it just took and back there we had 40,000 cops. , we had an army. Somebody had to lead the charge, and whether you like him or dont like him you have to give credit where credit is due and he showed that something could be done. Mayors after that and Police Commissioners after that, followed suit exacter, suit, and now new york city some over nibbled is worked in were war zones. It was insane. One time my wife calls me. Was working in the bronx and im talking to her on the phone and she is complaining about the bills, the credit card bills. And right outside my office window, bam, bam, bam. A driveby shooting on the stationhouse block. Gunshots echoing through my window, im covering the phone if dont want her to hear it because shell good nuts. And im telling here, got to go, i got to go. She says, you dont understand. The build are killing us. And i want to tell, he somebody else just got killed down thebui block. So i made up some excuse to get off the phone and then im running down the street, good r into n hand, into who knows knat. About then we went from 2200 homicides to like around 300. Its incredible the reduction in crime, and i am proud to say i was there part of it, along with all the other cops and watched it happen, and it was incredible to watch. I was at a Christmas Party and i was talking to young cops. Im the old cop now. Talked to the cop who did the crime analysis. Said how many robberies are you doing a month . You can call tells the barometer of a neighborhood by how many street robberies and she says to me, oh, about 12. I said, 12 . Ay are you kidding me . When i was there we were doing a million, an absolute minimum, of 120 a month. And thats only the ones that got reported. Half the times people got robbed and thought, whats the use, and win opt home, and never made a report. 12 was an astounding number. One night during the blizzard we had eight and now they do 12 in a