Mystery/Thriller Reading Friends discussion

Group read discussion topic for part 1 chapters 1-8 of We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption in an American City.
Spoilers welcome on this thread.
If the first to post please briefly summarize to guide the discussion.

Part one "Wind-Up"
%% Chapter one: Knockers
We are introduced to Umar Burley, incarcerated in Federal prison inn 2010, arrested by Baltimore plainclothes police detective Wayne Jenkins - after a car crash and drugs "found" in his car. Burley insists there were no drugs and the car crash was from his fear of men with guns that were not clearly police officers. The tables turn seven years later in 2017.

%% Chapter two: Whatever it Takes
Wayne Jenkins grows up in Baltimore and joins the Marines before entering the police force in 2003; Baltimore politicians institute statistics based crime fighting programs emulating New York City, worrying Black political leaders. Police officers accused of brutality, unlawful searches and planting drugs were reprimanded in court cases but never disciplined on the job.

%% Chapter three: Bad Guys with Guns
2007 Wayne Jenkins is a legend, more arrests and more street aggression than any other officer, he is on elite squads with loose rules, much overtime and continuation of unlawful tactics.

%% Chapter four: Eyes and Ears
2012 Jenkins makes Sergeant allowing him to stifle complaints from going up the chain. Jenkins recruits a family friend, Stepp, to sell the drugs Jenkins skimmed from his arrests

%% Chapter five: Don't Freeze Up
Umar Burley, without representation or notice of a civil case ruling against him is taken before a judge in 2014 who refuses to hear that he is unaware of the million dollar judgement. [this is horrifying]
More politics for policing changes, more elite squads and Jenkins runs down an unarmed man with his car and a gun is planted. Drugs are planted, investigators are closing it on Jenkins.

%% Chapter six: Ground Shift
2014 brings a change in the prosecution strategy, a new District Attorney refuses to charge Baltimore officers for unnecessary force. A Staten Island officer puts Eric Garner in an illegal chokehold ignoring his pleas, "I can't breathe". Unarmed Michael Brown is shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri; and in Baltimore police including Jenkins have killed suspects with no charges.

%% Chapter seven: Let's Stand Together
2015 Freddie Gray was chased by officers and injured severely, videos emerged showing he had likely been injured in a police van during a "rough ride". Gray died from his injuries a week later. The officers were not charged. Jenkins has a huge haul of drugs for Stepp to sell after the ensuing riot. The Police chief Batts who had attempted to improve the force and weed out the bad, leaves.

%% Chapter eight: Cleared
2015 Jenkins is back on the street and out of control, surrounding himself with detectives who either go along with illegal searches and seizures or stay quiet. Internal affairs tries again to change Jenkins but come up short

Thanks for the summaries Ann. I am finally getting around to reading this. Well so far this is quite depressing. Not just how bad Jenkins is but the soaring crime and murder rate with the police having no solutions but to double down on bad policies. Unfortunately this is kind of reminding me of where I live in Indianapolis where the crime and murder rate have been surging the past few years.

I did see that the book will be turned into a limited series on HBO with David Simon and George Pelecanos producing.

Sandi: Wow! I am glad to hear a mini series is planned, thanks for that news. The corruption and escalating crime with little deterrent and impact on the innocent or over charged is quite depressing to contemplate.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/deadline...