What every citizen should know. What every cop should believe.

"To serve and protect" - This time-honored mission statement of American law enforcement is steadily giving way in police departments all across the nation to an ethos of intimidation, military-style siege, and disdain for citizens' rights. Richard Mack - the man who as sheriff of a rural Arizona county fought the Brady Bill gun-control law all the way to the Supreme Court and won - gives us an insider's glimpse into the pervasive forces that are relentlessly driving America towards a police state.

In almost confessional style, he recounts how he came to realize, while working as a beat cop, how wrong the all-too-common orientation of police officers is when they think of their job as being "to write tickets and arrest people." Richard Mack tells of his personal transformation from "by-the-numbers" cop to constitution-conscious defender of citizens' rights and freedoms.