On the evening of July 7, 2016, protesters gathered in cities across the nation after police shot two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. As officers patrolled a march in Dallas, a young man stepped out of an SUV wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a high-powered rifle. He killed five officers and wounded eleven others. It fell to a small group of cops to corner the shooter inside a community college, where a fierce gun battle was followed by a stalemate. Crisis negotiator Larry Gordon, a 21-year department veteran, spent hours bonding with the gunman - over childhood ghosts and death and racial injustice in America - while his colleagues devised an unprecedented plan to bring the night to its dramatic end. Thompson's minute-by-minute account includes intimate portrayals of the negotiator, a surgeon who operated on the fallen officers, a mother of four shot down in the street, and the SWAT officers tasked with stopping the gunman. Their stories go to the heart of the deeply pressing issue of race and policing in the USA, and reflect America's divide over how to view the men and woman assigned to protect us.

This textbook is designed to help trainee probation officers with the Diploma in Probation Studies, especially with the NVQ elements and making the link to the degree programme in probation. Written by Philip Whitehead and Jamie Thompson, each with over 25 years' experience of the probation service, it will also be valuable to those assessing and managing trainees.

Opening with an historical overview of training in probation, the book moves on to examine aspects of the NVQ, report writing, information for Practice Development Assessors, how to put training into practice once qualified, and beyond the codification of knowledge to vocational excellence as a probation officer.

Teaching and learning features include: Chapter menus and summariesFurther readingGlossaryAppendices

Timely and relevant, "Knowledge and the Probation Service: Raising standards for trainees, assessors and practitioners" will stimulate and motivate trainees, offer food for thought for those involved in the planning and development of probation training, and will contribute to the wider debate about the nature of probation identity in these changing times for the service.

Seeking answers amidst LA's occult underground, a hard-boiled detective chases down a serial rapist intent on consuming the souls of the innocent and becoming a god. The clock is winding down in "As Above So Below..". In the theatre of my mind, these are sweeping, fantastical adventures, mixing themes of dark magick with beauty, violence and chaos.