Kevin Deutsch

Into the streets

The Triangle: A Year on the Ground with New York’s Bloods and Crips by Kevin Deutsch (Lyons Press/Globe Pequot, $16.95).

Kevin Deutsch is an experienced criminal justice reporter with Newsday, and The Triangle: A Year on the Ground with New York’s Bloods and Crips is the outgrowth of some long-term reporting he did on street gangs.

The Triangle is an area in Hempstead, Long Island; once a very nice neighborhood, it’s gone far beyond “blighted” as drug-running gangs shoot it out for dominance while their customers try to score and the area’s residents try to fight back. Deutsch’s reporting chops are evident, as is his willingness to immerse himself in the neighborhood. The stories he tells aren’t limited to shooters, drug dealers and users; instead, he gets inside the neighborhood to show us the range of people affected by—and, in many cases, determined to stop—the violence. The Triangle is excellent reporting and engrossing reading, with insights into how troubled neighborhoods become that way.

Reviewed on Lit/Rant: www.litrant.tumblr.com… (meer)