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Some People Need Killing
A Memoir of Murder in My Country
1 of 3 copies available
“Tragic, elegant, vital . . . Evangelista risked her life to tell this story.”—Tara Westover, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Educated
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, CrimeReads, The Mary Sue
“My job is to go to places where people die. I pack my bags, talk to the survivors, write my stories, then go home to wait for the next catastrophe. I don’t wait very long.”
Journalist Patricia Evangelista came of age in the aftermath of a street revolution that forged a new future for the Philippines. Three decades later, in the face of mounting inequality, the nation discovered the fragility of its democratic institutions under the regime of strongman Rodrigo Duterte.
Some People Need Killing is Evangelista’s meticulously reported and deeply human chronicle of the Philippines’ drug war. For six years, Evangelista documented the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte’s war on drugs—a crusade that has 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 a vigilante, whose words 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.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Awards
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Release date
October 17, 2023 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593742792
- File size: 329243 KB
- Duration: 11:25:55
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from August 28, 2023
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. Agent: David Granger, Aevitas Creative Management. -
Starred review from February 1, 2024
An investigative reporter in the Philippines, Evangelista presents a chilling expos� of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's infamous campaign to stop the drug trade. For six years, Evangelista chronicled the killings carried out in strongman Duterte's war on drugs during his violent rule from 2016 through 2022. Duterte's brutal approach boiled down to advocating for the extrajudicial execution of anyone associated with the drug trade, including motivating the general public to kill drug users without due process. Evangelista chronicles how Duterte's police and civilian vigilantes indiscriminately slaughtered over 7,000 people, including the families and even children of drug users. Her interviews with the killers and survivors vividly portray the terrifying atmosphere that ensued after Duterte decreed that some lives are worth less than others. Narrator Corey Wilson's sober conveying of these firsthand accounts of nationwide torture and bloodletting eschews hyperbole and lets Evangelista's horrifying narrative tell itself. Wilson also makes the author's grief and emotional connection to this tragedy heard. Evangelista risked her life to cover the atrocities, and her efforts caused the shutdown of her news organization. VERDICT A brave and heartbreaking work that fleshes out the human cost of Duterte's violent rule.--Dale Farris
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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