Author David Bushman will be joined by Schenectady Police Chief, Eric Clifford, to discuss his new book, Forget It, Jake, It’s Schenectady: The True Story of The Place Beyond the Pines. His work explores the scandal that rocked the Schenectady police department in 1999-2000, resulting in the imprisonment of four officers, the suicide of a fifth, and the resignation under extreme pressure by Chief Greg Kacamarek, who a short time later himself did time for possession of cocaine.  The Schenectady scandal very loosely formed the basis for the 2012 film The Place Beyond the Pines, starring Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, and Ryan Gosling, and the foreword to the book was contributed by Ben Coccio, who grew up in Schenectady and coauthored the movie.

Bushman is also the author of Murder at Teal’s Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks, and it was while researching that book that he first encountered Kaczmarek–as his Lyft driver. Bushman, a former television curator for The Paley Center for Media, program director for TV Land, and TV editor at Variety, lives in New York City with his wife and two daughters.

Members free, non-members $8.