(5/28/2008)
While this is a good story and written fairly well, the book's impact is really weakened by its constant moralizing, both in character dialogue and in author editorializing. In the author's stereotypical view, all of DC's street crime, corruption and evil is always the fault of someone else...never the truly bad nature of the punks and minor league gangbangers in DC's nefarious Hoods (pun required).
It's always someone or something else that causes the kids to go bad in this book...never their lack of parents, education , a positive future that can be had, or, their own innate racism.
I have been on the streets as both a cop and as a journalist, and this author does have the characters' talk and the walk right. But, his blaming all the violence on strawman gun deals is pure ATF bunk and propaganda. This author is another limo liberal and it shows in his book.