I Can't See the Azaleas

Shreveport police officer Dianna Thomas, decided three years ago to write a book, of stories from her 12-year career with the department. She uses her gift of writing to put into words those things so familiar to law enforcement officers that are beyond the imagination, let alone the experience, of most of us. The book would be of stories of violence against women and children, stories so horrific that the author felt a moral obligation to tell them and in doing so help others avoid being similarly victimized. Thomas recounts the stories she tells in clear, explicit terms, not in glossed-over newspaper-article wording. She says what needs to be said. I Can't See the Azaleas, referring to life and the choice we have to see its beauty or not; to choose life over death, good over evil, positive over negative; the allegory of the beauty of azaleas and their "petals of hope" is woven throughout the book. It is informative, fascinating, brutally frank, thoroughly vivid, and frequently shocking. And that is just what it is meant to be. This book is about real violent, vicious, evil abuse. Unfortunately, the discussions of domestic violence we most often are exposed to give rise to the notion that any tiff, any argument, any thoughtless word is abuse, a notion that does great injustice to the victims of the real thing. But this book is about the real thing. It is about true brutality and how no one, especially no woman or child, is immune to victimization. Indeed, it is about all manner of violence and how everyone - but again, especially women - can protect themselves. From domestic violence to rape, to child abuse, abuse of the elderly, and even to drunk drivers and beyond, Thomas leaves nothing barred.