We Own This City - by Justin Fenton (Hardcover)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"Baltimore, 2015. Riots were erupting across the city as citizens demanded justice for Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year old black man who had died while in police custody. At the same time, drug and violent crime were surging, and that year, Baltimore would reach its deadliest year in over two decades: 342 homicides in a city of six hundred thousand people. Under intense scrutiny--and a federal investigation over Gray's death--the Baltimore police department turned to a rank-and-file hero, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and his elite unit, the Gun Trace Task Force, to help get guns and drugs off the street. And yet, despite intense scrutiny, what The New York Times would call "one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation" was unfolding. Entrusted with fixing the city's drug crisis, Jenkins and his posse of corrupt cops were instead stealing from its citizens--skimming from the drug busts they made, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes, and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years, and would result in countless wrongful convictions, the death of an innocent person--and the mysterious death of one implicated cop, who was shot in the head just one day before he was scheduled to testify against the Force. Award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton has been relentlessly exposing the scandal since 2017, conducting hundreds of interviews and poring over thousands of court documents. The result is an astounding feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, and the American city they held hostage"--<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br><b>The astonishing true story of "one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation" (<i>The New York Times</i>), from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their yearslong plunder of an American city <p/><b>"A work of journalism that not only chronicles the rise and fall of a corrupt police unit but can stand as the inevitable coda to the half-century of disaster that is the American drug war."--David Simon, author of <i>Homicide, </i> co-author of <i>The Corner, </i> and creator of <i>The Wire</i></b></b> <p/>Baltimore, 2015. Riots are erupting across the city as citizens demand justice for Freddie Gray, a twenty-five-year-old Black man who has died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Drug and violent crime are surging, and Baltimore will reach its highest murder count in more than two decades: 342 homicides in a single year, in a city of just 600,000 people. Facing pressure from the mayor's office--as well as a federal investigation of the department over Gray's death--Baltimore police commanders turn to a rank-and-file hero, Sergeant Wayne Jenkins, and his elite plainclothes unit, the Gun Trace Task Force, to help get guns and drugs off the street. <p/>But behind these new efforts, a criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scale was unfolding within the police department. Entrusted with fixing the city's drug and gun crisis, Jenkins chose to exploit it instead. With other members of the empowered Gun Trace Task Force, Jenkins stole from Baltimore's citizens--skimming from drug busts, pocketing thousands in cash found in private homes, and planting fake evidence to throw Internal Affairs off their scent. Their brazen crime spree would go unchecked for years. The results were countless wrongful convictions, the death of an innocent civilian, and the mysterious death of one cop who was shot in the head, killed just a day before he was scheduled to testify against the unit. <p/>In this urgent book, award-winning investigative journalist Justin Fenton distills hundreds of interviews, thousands of court documents, and countless hours of video footage to present the definitive account of the entire scandal. The result is an astounding, riveting feat of reportage about a rogue police unit, the city they held hostage, and the ongoing struggle between American law enforcement and the communities they are charged to serve.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"Fenton populates his narrative with a network of officers, informants and street dealers, all with different motivations and interests. . . . The overall effect is to capture the disorienting, churning quality of a city where the good guys and bad guys aren't easily distinguished. . . . [Fenton] shows how, in our zeal to combat crime, we have allowed institutions to produce it."<b>--<i>The New York Times Book Review</i></b> <p/>"Baltimore's grim realities have been mined by talented writers like D. Watkins, Wes Moore and, most famously, celebrated author and TV producer David Simon, whose books and television series--<i>Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, </i> <i>The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood</i> and <i>The Wire</i>--deftly illuminated Charm City's complex web of problems. One could be excused for wondering whether there is any more to say about Baltimore and crime. But the gripping new book <i>We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption </i>puts that concern to rest."<b><b>--<i>The Washington Post</i></b><br></b><br>"Fenton tells a story of bad people and bad attitudes. . . . His book reveals the way systemic discrimination operates, whom it affects and how it is sustained. His narrative is brisk and engaging."<b>--<i>London Review of Books</i></b> <p/>"A standout examination of the failures of policing, laid out in context with greater systemic failures . . . <i>We Own This City</i> is a sobering and necessary account of one dramatic way that trust was destroyed, but it is as much a damning indictment of how that destruction grew out of a mixture of negligence, incompetence and hubris."<b>--<i>The Wall Street Journal</i></b> <p/>"A remarkable story about the real-life collision of corruption, criminality, and racial profiling. Justin Fenton tells a well-written, wrenching narrative about a dark chapter in not only Baltimore's history but in the legacy of disconnect between American citizens and those who are sworn to protect and serve them. This book is a must-read."<b>--Wes Moore, author of <i>The Other Wes Moore </i>and </b><i><b>Five Days</b><br></i><br>"A masterful account of how police corruption takes root in a Baltimore plagued by crooked cops, oblivious leaders, and beleaguered citizens. The scandal at its heart is shocking in the sheer scope of its venality, and Fenton's years of reporting lays it bare in novelistic, riveting detail. Here is a writer with a singular command of his story, spinning a dark tale so deftly that it's impossible to look away."<b>--Evan Ratliff, author of </b><i><b>The Mastermind</b><br></i><br>"A tale of chaos and corruption, <i>We Own This City </i>is a meticulously researched account in which one of our foremost criminal justice reporters unwinds one of the biggest scandals in the history of American policing."<b>--Wesley Lowery, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of <i>They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America's Racial Justice Movement</i></b><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br>A crime reporter for the <i>Baltimore Sun</i>, <b>Justin Fenton</b> was part of the Pulitzer Prize finalist staff recognized for their coverage of the Baltimore riots that followed the death of Freddie Gray. This is his first book.
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