We Own This City

A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption

By: Justin Fenton

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • The astonishing true story of “one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation” (The New York Times), from the Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who exposed a gang of criminal cops and their yearslong plunder of an American city

NOW AN HBO SERIES FROM THE WIRE CREATOR DAVID SIMON AND GEORGE PELECANOS

“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

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. 

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.

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.

©2021 Justin Fenton (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“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.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“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 - Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets, The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood and The Wire - 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 We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption puts that concern to rest.” (The Washington Post)

“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.” (London Review of Books)

Hard to Follow

Easy to get the jist but hard to follow all the details of every single police encounter (who is who perpetrators etc.) - throughout the story.... it all comes together in the end.

Great story/inconsistent narration

Enjoyed the story; nothing touches Homicide by David Simon re: BPD culture, but this is still a quality tale worth a listen.

Frustrated beyond measure with the narration; inconsistent volume and pacing led to constant replays and volume adjustment to hear him fully. Detracted from the story and overall experience with the book.

It's a shame

It has been said by Black People for as long as police came to be that these things happen, but since it happens in throwaway neighborhoods people don't care. Not even the so called justice system.

Fenton Uncovers the Horrors of GTTF

Justin Fenton does a remarkable job revealing the horrors inflicted by the GTTF in Baltimore. Now if we just knew the whole truth of all the officers involved I believe we would be truly shocked. How can the PD and the prosecutor's office let this go on and on and on without listening to the citizens and the defense attorneys who warned and continue to warn.

Excellent treatment of complicated case

Fenton demonstrates his intimate knowledge of the incidents and characters, unravelling a very nuanced modern story of corruption. One gets the sense that there will be a sequel as this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Excellent book about breakfast.

I wanted to know more about breakfast, and this book surely hit the spot. One word.

This is a great story!!

This is an awesome story and likely the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I can't wait to see the HBO mini-series!!!

Unbelievable except it was real.

Absolutely incredible story. Recommended if you watched the HBO series. Just as good and insightful. It's insane that this actually happened.

Great story! Wish it was longer!!!

The one thing I was going to say is that I love this narrator. Dion Graham, you did a fantastic job!

I waited until I finished it to google the cast of crazy cop characters here and I was ASTONISHED to find out Wayne was white!!! They didn’t do a good job painting the picture of these cops if it was that much of a shock to me that he was white. The tone of Dions voice and when he’s quoting Wayne and the dialogue between the task force members make it sound like they’re all a representation of a gangster rap song, which is exactly what they were.

It's kinda slow.

I would have liked it more had the author kept their political opinions out of the story and just focused on the GTTF and its investigation.