Ghettoside

“According to the old unwritten code of the Los Angeles Police Department, Dovon’s was a nothing murder. ‘NHI—No Human Involved,’ the cops used to say. ‘Population control,’ the prosecutors downtown once joked. It was only the newest shorthand for the idea that murders of blacks somehow didn’t count.” 

Popular perception of black-on-black violence is that it’s cultural and nothing can be done; this is the perception that Leovy wishes to counter, and one way she counters it is to demonstrate that police apathy is in large part to blame. This quote demonstrates the historical treatment of such violence—both phrases suggest that the victims are less than human, the former explicitly and the latter by referencing a concept more commonly applied to animal control.

“[Skaggs] had molded his life around an urgent problem seldom recognized, and he was unshaken—perhaps even encouraged—by the fact that so many others didn’t get it.” 

An important theme of the text is that of forging one’s own path, and Skaggs is an interesting example of that in his approach to police work. Often, this theme is discussed in the way we search for happiness and vocation; for Skaggs, though, it’s a matter of responsibility: he is good at his job, and it’s a necessary job, so he does it. Here, though, is another element—almost a contrarianism in that he believes in its importance despite the fact that others don’t see it. Symbolically, he is not only working for, but siding with, the residents of South Central.