Over twenty years ago, on the eve of the Los Angeles riots, several gangs in the historically black and deeply impoverished neighborhood of Watts brokered a peace treaty after years of warfare that had sparked sensationalized press coverage and prompted a heavy-handed police response. After holding for many years, the truce broke down in the early 2000s. The murder rate in Watts never reached pre-truce, pre-riot levels, but the violence continues to this day, even as it has faded from the headlines.

Jill Leovy’s recently published, highly acclaimed book Ghettoside tries to explain that juxtaposition — ongoing violence, flagging public interest — and why young black men are killed at disproportionately high rates.

The book focuses on the 2007 murder of Watts resident Bryant Tennelle, the son of a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detective. It was, as Leovy is quick to point out, an unremarkable case among the seemingly endless murders on the “ghettoside” (slang for the predominately poor and black neighborhoods south of Interstate Ten): two young men associated with the Crips went looking for someone to target in a rival neighborhood, saw Bryant and a friend walking down the street, and opened fire.