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Michael Middleton

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Sergeant Michael L. Middleton, LAPD (ret.) is a 21 year veteran of law enforcement.  He is the author of Cop: A True Story and Medal of Valor Firefighters: Gripping Tales of Bravery from America's Decorated Heroes.

Publishers Weekly said of Cop: A True Story, “Middleton joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1966 and served for 21 years, reaching the rank of sergeant before he retired. His chronicle of his experiences is a top-flight view of police work at the street level, where an officer's death is an ever-present possibility and physical battles with suspects are frequent. Middleton's anecdotal history is grouped into subjects such as heroism, the ``us against them'' police mentality, drugs, gangs and deadly force. He is optimistic about certain aspects of the LAPD, reporting that many of the racist and sexist officers have retired; but he ends on an exceedingly pessimistic note, opining that the 1992 post-Rodney King verdict riots showed that there have been no vast changes in L.A. ghetto life. Middleton provides one of the most dramatic depictions of gritty police work in memory  In this brutally honest portrait, Sergeant Michael Middleton--a now-retired veteran of the LAPD--tells the gripping tale of his two decades on some of the America's meanest streets.”

One reader of Cop: A True Story said, “I respect Sergeant Middleton for his apparent honesty, but not for the way he neglected to effect a better police department during his time as a sergeant. I don't recall if I ever met him during my own 30 years on the LAPD, or during the four years I was in charge of trying to transform hundreds of top street police officers into effective supervisors at the LAPD Academy. In that respect I apparently must apologize for that small part I had in it. But if the reader wants to know what the streets of L.A. are like, and to experience in graphic detail the pressures and effects it can have on the proper supervision and guidance of otherwise fine police officers, read Mike's book, particularly the explanation on the effects of the use of deadly force.”

One reader of Cop: A True Story said “I found this book informative, interesting, inspiring and worrisome. Middleton is quit honest about the realities of life in the LAPD - the bravery, politics, and racism. The book leaves you inspired by the heroism of some officers and disgusted by the racism and abuse of others. COP takes the reader inside the life of street cops as no other book I've read.”


Cop : A True Story
Michael Middleton  More Info

Medal of Valor Firefighters : Gripping Tales of Bravery from America's Decorated Heroes
Michael L. Middleton  More Info

According to the book description of Medal of Valor Firefighters: Gripping Tales of Bravery from America's Decorated Heroes, “Pocket-size text contains true stories of heroism from around the nation. Stories are recounted in the words of the heroes themselves.”

One reader of Medal of Valor Firefighters: Gripping Tales of Bravery from America's Decorated Heroes said, “I originally bought this book used for something like two bucks, expecting very little from it. Just another one of my fire-guy books that I like to read.

I was quite pleasantly surprised when I realized that many of the stories were ones I knew or had heard told and re-told in the fire academy and in the firehouse. They were well-researched and well-told versions of stories that I only ever knew the "gist" of. Famous rescues made by firefighters famous in the fire service: The woman they cut out of the collapse of a building also on fire during the 1989 San Francisco quake. Atlanta FF Matt Mosely rescuing a worker off a crane while dangling from a helicopter. The Worcester 6 in 1999. The double rope rescues made by Paddy Brown, Paddy Barr, and Kevin Shea in NYC in 1991 that was the inspiration for the rope rescue in the movie Ladder 49.  This is not a throw-away book, it's a must for anyone serious about the lore and legend of the fire service.”

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