Our Lawless Police: A Study of the Unlawful Enforcement of the Law

By Ernest Jerome Hopkins. Introduction by Graeme R. Newman

When Our Lawless Police first appeared in 1931, it shocked the American public with its unflinching revelations about the dark machinery behind everyday law enforcement. Ernest Jerome Hopkins—an investigative journalist of rare precision and independence—exposed a world where the police, entrusted with upholding justice, routinely violated the very laws they were sworn to enforce.

Drawing on first-hand interviews, case records, and on-the-ground reporting from major cities, Hopkins documents a pervasive system of beatings, coerced confessions, warrantless searches, political favoritism, payoffs, and routine brutality. His study reveals not a handful of rogue officers but an entrenched culture in which illegality operates as a method of governance—shielded by political machines, tolerated by the courts, and often applauded by a public eager for swift results.

More than a historical exposé, Our Lawless Police remains a profoundly relevant critique of institutional power. Hopkins’ analysis anticipates many of today’s urgent debates over police accountability, civil liberties, and the limits of state authority. His work reminds us that democratic societies cannot rely on the rule of law unless those who enforce it are themselves bound by it.

This new edition brings Hopkins’ landmark investigation back into the center of contemporary conversation—an essential text for readers concerned with justice, reform, and the unfinished struggle to build lawful, transparent, and accountable policing in America.

Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p.203.