New Liberty by George Cramer is a police procedural for readers who crave a gritty story in a modern urban jungle. It is not for the faint-hearted.
In New Liberty, a (fictionalized) Arizona city, a war is heating up between two rival gangs: the Black 4-Aces and the Latino Los Scorpios Locos. The cops of New Liberty’s Anti-Gang Enforcement Unit (AGE) are working hard to limit the damage. From the start, life within each of these organizations is stressful and complex.
Hector Navarro, a young officer, joins the AGE unprepared. Despite his Mexican heritage, he grew up in Connecticut, doesn’t speak Spanish, and was looking forward to embracing his love of motorcycles by being assigned to the city’s motorcycle unit. He has no idea how to talk to gangs, set up snitches, or even dress to not be identified as a cop.
Hector is assigned to Davey Jones, a slovenly drunk, as his street mentor in undercover work.
His first assignment in breaking into the gang world is to get a massage parlor worker to solicit him for sex, but a blunder on his part results in a humorous exchange. The investigation eventually leads to a tragic shooting– a double murder– that changes Hector’s life and, more tragically, the death of his partner. It sets into motion a sequence of events that will drill deep into the hearts of both gangs as well as the police who watch them.
New Liberty tells the stories of gangs and cops with the sharp eye of a documentarian.
The gangs’ operations, their casual murders of friends and foes alike, and the cold-eye battles for leadership are told with an authenticity that places the reader amidst the characters. One story stands out: a young woman is kidnapped by the Los Scorpios Locos, becoming a sex slave for the gang, and eventually a police informant at great personal danger. She gives a rare glimpse of the horror of sex trafficking that young women, and young men as well, face in the shadows of the modern world.
This same unsparing look is trained on the police as well. A shooting tragedy, the death of an officer and a gang leader both involving young Hector Navarro, is shown to have its roots well beyond the actions of one officer. It winds up having grave ramifications for the entire New Liberty police management.
Readers see the detailed planning of each group.
Every action requires careful consideration, whether a police sting or a bloody raid on an opposing gang. The similarities in thinking between these three organizations are remarkable, even though some operate within a set of laws and others within the bounds of only money and violence.
This is a must-read for anyone looking for a great if harrowing story told with the unmistakable authority of someone who has been there and seen it all.
