Some People Need Killing
A Memoir of Murder in My Country
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4.0 • 26 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
TIME’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
“Patricia Evangelista’s searing account is not only the definitive chronicle of a reign of terror in the Philippines, but a warning to the rest of the world about the true dangers of despotism—its nightmarish consequences and its terrible human cost.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain
“Tragic, elegant, vital . . . Evangelista risked her life to tell this story.”—Tara Westover, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Educated
“A journalistic masterpiece”—David Remnick, The New Yorker
For six years, journalist Patricia Evangelista documented killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of then president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs—a crusade that led to the slaughter of thousands—immersing herself in the world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of terror created when an elected president decides that some lives are worth less than others.
The book takes its title from the words of a vigilante, which demonstrated the psychological accommodation many across the country had made: “I’m really not a bad guy,” he said. “I’m not all bad. Some people need killing.”
A profound act of witness and a tour de force of literary journalism, Some People Need Killing is a brilliant dissection of the grammar of violence and an investigation into the human impulses to dominate and resist.
WINNER OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY’S HELEN BERNSTEIN BOOK AWARD • FINALIST FOR THE CHAUTAUQUA PRIZE AND THE MOORE PRIZE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS WRITING • LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, CrimeReads, The Mary Sue
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this shattering debut, Filipina journalist Evangelista interviews detainees, families, and key government officials to illuminate the Philippines' brutal war on drugs. Even before Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as president of the Philippines in 2016, he was known for his tough stance on drugs, and for his lack of distinction between dealers and users. As mayor of Davao City, he sanctioned death squads that assassinated citizens suspected of being involved with narcotics. After he became president, Duterte inflated the number of homicides in the country and tied them to drug abuse in order to justify his use of secret police to kill suspected drug offenders. When media pushback and human rights campaigns finally forced Duterte to put an end to the national police's involvement in 2017, the death toll stood at over 7,000; but the blood didn't stop running, according to Evangelista, who reveals that vigilantes, paid by police, took over the killings. With rigorous reporting, Evangelista painstakingly lays out how Duterte gathered political power and convinced his constituents to support the slaughter. Most chillingly, she speaks to several ardent Duterte followers and allies who've come to regret their support for the ex-president, who left office in 2022. The result is an astonishing and frightening exposé that won't soon be forgotten.
