Reflecting on 'Alphaville'

At the Daily News, Denis Hamill has high praise for "Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side." St. Martin's Press released the book yesterday. It's a memoir by retired NYPD detective Michael Codella (and written with Bruce Bennett).

"It's one of the best cop books I've ever read, and sits on my bookshelf beside such classics as 'The French Connection,' Serpico' and 'Prince of the City.'"

Hamill accompanies Codella on a stroll down Avenue D ... where Codella and his partner Gio worked to stem the tide of the neighborhood's heroin trade in the 1980s. "When I first came here, everybody told me Alphaville was a lost cause," he says. "Kids kicked syringes instead of cans to school. Today women jog, listening to iPods. Couples eat in outdoor cafes. Kids walk safely to school. I busted one junkie kid named Mario at least 10 times. One day he shows up clean, saying we made it so hard to cop dope that he was forced into rehab. If I helped save one kid, yeah, it was worth it. But I think me and my partner helped save this neighborhood filled with good people from the junkies and the dealers."