The Gun King

Southside collection

By: John H. Richardson

Narrated by: Ron Butler

When a middle-class kid from the suburbs was caught using Facebook to distribute firearms bought legally at Indiana gun shows to notorious gangsters across the border - was he a kingpin or a scapegoat?

David Lewisbey received perhaps the harshest sentence ever in a gun-trafficking trial. A college student from the suburban outskirts of Chicago, he allegedly embodied the enterprising swagger of his favorite rap lyrics, moving weapons for stacks of cash. John H. Richardson tours Chicago’s gun-soaked South Side with Lewisbey’s clientele and meets with the “Big Man” himself to unpack the truth.

John H. Richardson’s The Gun King is part of Southside, a collection of five true stories about racism and reform, crime and corruption, justice and injustice in Chicago - from the Pulitzer Prize-winning team at The Marshall Project. Each story can be listened to in a single sitting.

©2018 John H. Richardson. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Bookworm Speaks! - The Gun King

Bookworm Speaks!

The Gun King (The Marshall Project)

****
The reason that the social ills that plaque our world seem so intractable and difficult to solve can, at least partially, be explained by one word:

Oversimplification.

The issues such as racism, criminal justice reform, and gun control are such large, complicated issues back by multiple powerful interests and ideologies that are either in conflict with each other or completely ignorant of each other. It is truly mind-boggling how far these problems go and what they are connected to. Even though this book is short, it showcases the dangers of oversimplification. The issue of guns on the streets of Chicago is so complicated, people are willing to scapegoat someone just to make it look like something is getting done, when in reality. It is almost less than nothing.

Great

Loved it. Clear and conscise. A bird's eye view that was not boring. I reccomend.

The Arc of Justice Bends the Wrong Way

A compelling illustration of how complex attempts at addressing gun violence have to be to even begin to be effective

Thought provoking

This is part of The Southside, a collection of shorts (around an hour in length) by The Marshall Project.

Obviously, as a short, Richardson isn’t able to fully examine the prosecution of David Lewisbey or the policies that lead to a first time offender receiving one of the harshest sentence for gun trafficking ever. One of the main points he makes, and well, is that there is a confluence of attitudes that make this a lucrative practice and that those who face the penalties are not actually the people who end lives with these weapons.

Juxtaposed with a “day in the life” ride along, we’re able to glimpse a great deal about the circumstances faced by Chicago residents in some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the country. The statistics shared and critical examination of laws, police focus, prosecution, and sentencing are invaluable in offering a perspective seldom shared in news soundbites and political posturing.

Narration:
I enjoyed Ron Butler’s narration. It’s non-fiction, but he still brought life to the story with unique voices and emotions for the quotes in addition to a smooth delivery of the main text.

Captivating

I couldn't stop listening until the book's ending. With journalistic rigor, the author described why so many guns make it onto Chicago streets. And he developed the timeless question of whether a particular convict, in this case, David Lewisbey, was a criminal kingpin or a scapegoat. During my listen, my convictions went back and forth in response to this issue.

The systemic problems are so extreme that if David Lewisbey didn't do it, somebody else surely would have. And plenty of others probably did but either didn't get caught or were not prosecuted as gun running kingpins. The gun situation in Chicago is scary.

The narrator was excellent, the right one for this book.

Great

Great story... I wish it was longe
Non stop listening I would recommend to anyonw