Ayo Onatade is an avid reader of crime and mystery fiction. She has been writing reviews, interviews and articles on the subject for the last 12 years; with an eclectic taste from historical to hardboiled, short stories and noir films
Over the years the reputation of the Police in the US has become tarnished with numerous reports of police brutality. Justin Fenton's We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption in an American City is a further testament to the destructive behaviour of the American police and the way in which trust in law enforcement has been severely eroded.
The police are tasked to serve and protect society. This investigative book reveals that some members of the Baltimore Police Force are unfit to wear a badge. Their methods truly secretive and dishonest with their lack of remorse troubling, especially targeting of ethnic minorities.
In We Own This City, Justin Fenton's fast-paced narrative has chronicled in a novelistic manner, the way Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force continuously rode roughshod over law and order by breaking into people's homes, consistently and persistently without probable cause (or with official search warrants) searching black people. This included stealing guns, money and dealing in confiscated drugs. This behaviour is especially bleak in the light of today’s Black Lives Matter movement. Perhaps they were part of a larger problem in a Police Department full of corruption and illegality.
This is a tour-de-force of a book which acts as a stunning indictment of the state of the Baltimore Police Force and the infestation of drugs in the city. It has been compared to David Simon's seminal work Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets. Fenton draws you in from all sides good and bad. If makes you wonder if television shows such as The Shield was in fact fictional - or if there was some insider knowledge.
A masterful account of chaos and destruction, the book is also the tale of Jenkins and his crew from the set-up of the taskforce, through their reign of terror until their ultimate downfall.
It is both an appalling and fascinating read. We Own This City should be reflective reading for anyone who is considering enlisting as a police officer in the United States.
