Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz - Softcover

Moore, David W; Short, Deborah J; Smith, Michael W; Tatum, Alfred W

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0736231838 ISBN 13: 9780736231831

Publisher: National Geographic School Pub, 2006

Synopsis

Mona Ruiz grew up in a gang lifestyle, but she always wanted to become a police officer. Would Mona get the chance to change her future, or would the gangs decide for her?

About this title

Review:

Never forgetting the words of her father, who said that police are Christ's soldiers on the rough city streets, Mona Ruiz spent her youth with gangs, married an abusive husband, then went from collecting welfare to preserving the welfare of others as a police officer in her hometown of Santa Ana. Ruiz tells her story with the objective eye of a detective who sees both the issues of necessity in joining a gang and the gang system's fatal vision of drugs and war. Informative and inspiring, Ruiz is one who made it out of the gangs, but never abandoned the streets.

From the Inside Flap:

"Beneath the unique story of a gang-banger turned cop was the story that really grabbed my attention: how a young Chicana went beyond all the social pressures to fail—including physical abuse, racism, and sexism—and followed her own dreams. Geoff Boucher has helped transform this experience into a good read." —Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running: La Vida Loca ". . .Fascinating—alternately gruesome, tragic, and funny." —The Women’s Review of Books

". . . this well-written book is the engrossing autobiographical account of how one woman found her way out of the world of gangs to achieve her dream of being a police officer." —MultiCultural Review

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic School Pub
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0736231838
• ISBN 13: 9780736231831
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 338