01x05 - Part Five

Episode transcripts for the TV show "We Own This City". Aired: April 25, 2022 - present.*
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6 part mini-series based on the novel by the same name about the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's g*n Trace Task Force and the corruption surrounding it.
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01x05 - Part Five

Post by bunniefuu »

That was Jenkins, though.

He just didn't care
if he saw another sunrise.

Okay. Let's shift back over to you.
You... You joined the force...

' . Started in the Northwest.

And you told us that
you were doing small robberies,

places like Belvedere Towers back then.

That was around ' .

And, just laying into some people,
like I said. Not any big stuff.

If I may, you...

sustained a g*nsh*t wound in .
What was that about?

I caught a hot one when some dude
tried to rob me and he got sh*t.

It's in the reports. You said that...
I'm sure you got all that.

Actually, we have conflicting info
on that incident.

Conflicting?

One source indicated that
that sh**ting was actually drug related.

A retaliation for some trafficking
you were involved with.

Who told you that, Rayam?

sh**t. It's...

Jemell just trying to shine
the teacher's apple

if he's laying stuff like that off on me.

I mean, that ain't even credible.
What is... what is that?

I mean, he's my boy,
but he always had his own problems.

- What kind of problems?
- He likes women, for one.

I'm just saying,
this man sets his watch to p*ssy.

Excuse me, Miss Jensen.

This sh*t goes way back
to when he was in uniform.

He was lined up
with the underworld from the beginning.

Jemell was married but, you know,

- he had this girlfriend, Crystal Ferguson.
- What's up?

You want... You want me to...
All right. See ya.

She knew all the players west of M.L.K.

When they'd be at their cribs,
when they wouldn't.

She'd tell Jemell when they could be got.

f*cking G-Money said that sh*t?

Oh, wow. That's f*cking funny.
He... he's acting like he's all pure now.

Okay.

- This f*cking guy.
- Did Crystal Ferguson

provide you with robbery targets?

She mighta. I don't recall, exactly.

This was when you and Detective Gondo

were on the Violent Crime Impact Division
together?

No. We went there later on.
And we weren't on VCID together.

But we were doing our thing, for sure.

But separate.

In , you fatally sh*t a citizen,
Shawn Cannady,

in an alley off Pimlico Road.

Self-defense.

Uh-uh. No, no, not just the one.

No, Jemell sh*t three people that year.

Three.

Get out of the car.
Get out of the car, now!

Now, Rayam told me he did the thing.
I mean...

he never denied it.

Made it like the driver of a Lexus
was using his vehicle as a w*apon,

claimed the Lex had clipped Giordano.

Jemell got off on that one.

Palmere was right there on the scene,
coaching my man.

Palmere, the deputy commissioner?

Yeah. Colonel back then, but yeah.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES

BALTIMORE CITY
FIRE DEPARTMENT

Colonel.

POLICE

You felt that your life was in danger.
Got it?

The Cannady sh**ting was justified.

And you were subsequently suspended
for two years.

Yeah, while they investigated
the thug from the Gary Brown stop.

You lied to IAD investigators
regarding that one.

- Right.
- Suspended with pay.

I guess, you could say I was in limbo.
Yeah.

And when you came off suspension
in ...

Yeah. I went to the g*n Trace Task Force.

What am I paying you
dollars an hour for?

TRAYVON MARTIN - FREDDIE GRAY - MIKE BROWN

I AM HERE BECAUSE ITS HOME

POLICE

BALTIMORE
POLICE

. KILO'S, $ , .

- Back up.
- Back up.

DOUBLE D BAIL BONDS
EVERYONE LOVES DOUBLE D'S

Baltimore is a poster child
for the basic failure to stop lawlessness.

No justice, no peace!

I've heard your calls
for no justice, no peace.

No justice, no peace!

MAGIC

POLICE DEPARTMENT - BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
INDIVIDUAL OVERTIME REPORT

MONDAY

Where there's smoke, there's fire.

These officers, they're s-style
gangsters.

WE OWN THIS CITY

Detective Gondo,
you joined the GTTF .

Two years before Rayam.

He got bounced around
for a couple of years.

He was battling
an Internal Affairs investigation.

Before Rayam joined the GTTF,
what was going on within the squad?

Nothing inappropriate.
Nothing criminal. Not really.

And then after he came back
from his suspension and rejoined?

I mean, this sh*t
just seemed to go downhill.

That's all for now.

All right, man, come on.

Gondo doesn't have a problem
talking about a guy he says was his boy.

Some friend.

Man, it's hard to believe
Rayam has all those sh**t,

lies to the investigators,
gets caught on those lies, and...

and when he comes off suspension,
they reward him

by dropping him
in one of the most elite squads

in the BPD.

Cream rises to the top.

MAY

TWELVE MONTHS EARLIER

Copy, turning around.
Fifteen blocks away. Can I get a...

No ID?

Nothing on him.

Rigor says he's been there a while.

I'll start knocking on doors.

You all right?

Just a moment of your time. All right?
That's all I need.

How you doin' today, sir?
Detective Sean Suiter.

- You are?
- I'm not inclined to give my name.

Do you live around here?

I stay up on Bond, near Preston.

I was wondering if you saw or heard
anything related to this,

probably last night.

By any chance,
do you recognize the victim?

Look, let me be straight with you,
Detective, to save you some time.

I don't talk to police.

- I'm Homicide.
- Make no difference to me.

Ain't nobody born Homicide.

Were you one of those jump-out boys?

I did that for a while, yes.

Some of y'all rob people.
Hell, I got robbed my damn self.

Look, nothing personal.

But I've been living in Baltimore
all my life.

I know. I know.

Just a moment.

Something comes to you... please call.

Hey, Sean. These houses are vacant here.

So what else we got, Charlie?

What do you want?

I got Fourth Amendment violations,
warrantless searches...

You know what people are gonna say
out in the suburbs?

Hell, you know what half the country
would say if they were to read this stuff?

"They might not have been guilty of
something on the day they got pulled over

or jacked up, but they damn sure
were guilty of something."

So?

So I'm saying,
in the minds of Wonder Bread Americans,

these people aren't really victims.
They deserved it.

Ahmed's right about the optics.

Look, we dug up instances
where Baltimore police came down on people

who weren't drug dealers,
who weren't doing anything dirty.

These folks had no previous charges
whatsoever

outside of simple marijuana possession
or traffic violations.

I've got claims that cops
flat-out robbed straight citizens.

Hold on. Let's see...

Here it is.

Guy's name is James Otis.
You should talk to him.

He ran afoul of a guy we know and love.

Our old friend. All right.
I'll go and talk to him.

We have a little time to add
the finishing touches to the decree.

There's Gondo.

Be advised,
the subject has gone to ground.

We'll wait to be sure he's in
for the night, then move.

Copy that.

Okay.

Hey, I can do this for you.

You can do this for me?

I mean, you know, in case...

In case what?

I'm just saying. You know,
I mean, it's dark,

- you're crawling around in there.
- It's dark and I can't find my way

around the interior of a Chevrolet?

I guess that didn't sound right.

How did you want it to sound?

Like a middle-aged White guy from .

No, you pretty much nailed that.

We are a go.

Copy that. We see her on the move.

Come on, come on, come on.

Testing. Can you hear me?

Okay.

She's out.

Copy. We hear it.

Picked you up as soon as you got in.
Clear as a bell.

Sound activated.
So as soon as you open that door,

it kicked in.

Okay, we're set. All clear.

Oh, man. Oh, no.
I think I messed my hair up.

- Oh, Johnny, how's my hair look?
- Okay. Enough. Thank you.

No casings anywhere around the body.
Could be he got done with a revolver.

Or the casings got picked up.

Well...

Autopsy will tell us tomorrow.

We're not gonna get much help
from the residents.

Man you spoke to earlier
was rough on you, huh?

Well, he's right about some things.
He had his truth.

I had my path. I took it to get here.

I like what I'm doing now.

I'm not gonna get all dramatic about it,
say it's my calling.

But being in Homicide,
doing this kind of work, it feels right.

But working dr*gs,
that wasn't my finest hour.

I mean, that sh*t was pointless, really.

And I saw some things.

That was a long time ago.

You want another? I'm buying.

In that case, let me get something
off the top shelf.

- James Otis?
- That's right.

Nicole Steele, DOJ. Thank you.

It's quiet in here.

We got three kids, so that's unusual.

Two of 'em are in school today.
And my wife took the youngest one out

so we could talk.

Are you currently employed?

Not currently.
I was a HVAC repairman, you know,

heating and air? I'll get to that.

Tell me about the incident.

You mean, when I got pulled over.

I had just grabbed some pizza for me
and my family,

at that Ledo's they got behind Hopkins.

And I was headed home
on a street off of North Avenue,

near Green Mount Cemetery.

It was Hersl and two others.

And this wasn't the first time
I got stopped by Officer Hersl.

He had a thing about my car, I guess.
Anyway, they said my taillight was out.

Was it?

Yeah, it was. I got this classic car,

an Impala SS. I bought on time.

I knew my light was out,
but I was waiting on the bulb to come in.

Not easy to get parts on older cars.

Homer Avenue. Still in Lower Park Heights?

That's a nice neighborhood.

If you're gonna give me a citation
for that taillight,

give me one.
I'm trying to get home to my family.

Oh, you see that?
Assaulting a police officer. Cuff his ass.

m*therf*cker.

What'd you say?

Oh, sh*t. You know what? That reminds me,
I almost forgot to search your vehicle.

Man, you got no cause for that.

Yes, I do.

Could it be that sweet, sickening smell?

You know, the one they told us about
in middle school?

Middle school about as far
as you got, too.

- Yeah, keep talking.
- Sit down, assh*le.

Had you been smoking weed?

I mean, everybody got that smell
on them these days.

You catch it just walking down the street.

Cops use that as an excuse
to toss your car all the time.

Okay. What happened next?

Hersl robbed me.

I had just cashed my paycheck
at the M-and-T on Fayette.

Six hundred and fifty-eight dollars.

All right, come on. On your feet.
Let's go, up, up, up.

You take my money?
You take my money, Hersl?

You ain't right, man.

- That's some bullshit.
- Get up there, let's go.

I was jail side for two days
before anyone got to me.

Otis.

Never even spoke to a public defender.

A state prosecutor they had there
interviewed me,

and when I told him what happened,
he had me sign a form

that waived my right
to sue the city for false arrest,

in exchange for them throwing out
the charges on the spot.

They knew what they had on me
was bullshit and wouldn't stick.

So it never went to court.
That's a good thing, right?

Let me finish.

Come on, man. Give me a break.

- On account of the days I was locked up...
- I got a family.

...my calls went unserviced,
and we lost a couple customers.

- Sorry, James.
- My employer told me he had to let me go.

You had no recourse?

I already signed away
my right to a lawsuit,

I told you that.

But I did file a complaint, on principle.

Did you get your money back, at least?

sh*t. Of the dollars he took?

Hersl submitted to Evidence Control.

- He pocketed the rest.
- You surprised?

He probably drank my money away.

Hell yeah.

- About to take all your money.
- Or had himself a good old time with it.

Let's see what you got.

g*dd*mn!

Some sh*t like that.

Come on. I'll spot ya, I'll spot ya.
Come on.

It was nothing to him.

- Later.
- You go ahead.

That money meant something to me.
I earned it.

My wife and me,
we got no cushion, for real.

When I cash my paycheck,
every penny goes to my mortgage,

groceries, stuff for my kids.

This set me back.
Bank's about to repo my car.

If I do get a job now,
how am I supposed to get to work?

Everyone who lives here
knows what time it is.

Police treating all of us like criminals,
people like me, my family.

Detective Rayam, your partner, Gondo,
says that when you joined GTTF,

things, in his words,
"Began to go downhill."

Yo, Gondo was in the mix from the start.

All right? It wasn't me who cultivated
a relationship with Brill.

You mean, Antonio Shropshire.

Right.

That goes back to when they were kids,
long before Gondo knew me.

And honestly, neither one of us
supervised the squad.

We just followed the leader.

You're talking about Wayne Jenkins?

And Allers before him, too. sh*t.

Oh, f*ck. You know...

There was this...

one robbery back in...

.

Allers got the tip from a CI
he'd been working with.

Out in West Edmondale?

That's it. Fifty-four- .
One with the white bars on the door.

Sergeant Allers brought his son
with us on that one.

I reckon it was
a "Bring your Kid to Work Day."

- Husband and wife team.
- Yes, sir.

George Williams
and Yolanda Paige-Williams.

G, this sh*t could be big, man.

Yeah, seen his photo.
Bigger than a m*therf*cker.

Are we gonna call
the county boys in on this?

After we see what we got.
Come on, y'all ready to do this?

- Let's go. You ready?
- Let's go, man.

- Wake your ass us up, m*therf*cker.
- Let's go.

All right, son, you fall back right here.

- Police!
- What do you want?

Police!

- Stand back. Get down!
- Stand back, m*therf*cker.

That house was hot.

We cleaned the f*ck up. Wife sh*t.

Hey. Don't play with me.

Seventy, , , .
Look at this sh*t, baby.

That's a hundred grand right there.

There was , dollars in that bedroom.

- Forty, fifty, sixty, seventy...
- When the county police showed up,

they found three-fifty.

You believe this sh*t?

- sh*t. Stop playing with me.
- Detective Ward, when Wayne Jenkins

took over the supervision
of the GTTF from Sergeant Allers,

what was the biggest change?

Well, I came after Allers,
but from what I heard,

it wasn't like he didn't know
how to steal.

It was just Jenks, man,
he... he was something else.

Tell us.

Well, you gotta remember,
it was like a new squad.

Me, Taylor, Hendrix, and Jenkins
had just come on.

And later on, Jenkins added this new kid,
Kost-o-please.

James Kostoplis.

K-Stop.

Yeah, his people are
from one of them countries over there.

But Jenkins knew him
from when he was a patrol sergeant

in the Northeast.
K-Stop was in his squad over there.

I make big money, I drive big cars
Everybody know me

This kid adored Jenkins.
I mean, he really looked up to him.

I feel I'm being tailed
By the same sucker's head lights

And also when he came,
Jenkins told us new guys

that Gondo and Rayam
were under federal investigation

for selling dr*gs.

Were Gondo and Rayam...
Did they seem concerned?

Not really. I mean,

when Jenks came in, everybody was excited
about the money.

To be honest with you,

nobody really thought too hard
on anything else.

The money?

The overtime pay.

With Jenkins,
it was like we had permission

to rob that fund.

The faucet was on, full force.

I don't know Jenkins. Not like you.

All right.
Let me tell you how this boy be.

He'll come in late every day.
So we don't come in till : , : .

And depending on how he feel,
we might roll out on regular time.

That's how he gets down, man.
We got that green light.

Some supervisor told Jenks
the overtime budget is wide open.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- "Work as much as you want."

Bet.

Ain't no thing, man. You gonna like him,
you gonna like Jenks. Matter of fact...

last night, Jenkins tells us
to put in slips

for six OT hours.
We ain't even work a full shift.

Then we banging... We like this.
Banging that OT, G.

- Hey. Yeah, hit me with that.
- You know what I'm saying?

- He cool.
- I'm with that.

- Yeah.
- He crazy, but he cool.

The summary reads like butter.

Got it all done.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake asked for it.
And she'll get her copy

just in time for her to make her exit.

"The Baltimore Police Department
engages in a practice

or pattern of making
unconstitutional stops, searches,

and arrests."

Here we go. "Disparities in
the rates of stops,

searches, and arrests
of African Americans,"

and, "Driven by systemic deficiencies
of BPD policies, training,

supervision,
and accountability structures."

This is incendiary sh*t.

I would hope so. But it's not a directive.

We still have to get
the consent decree signed.

- Right.
- So we drop that on Pugh

- as soon as she puts on the crown.
- We moving pretty fast now.

We gotta get the consent decree out there

before the new administration comes in,
in January.

Hilary's AG, whoever that is,

should be a little bit sympathetic
to police reform.

Assuming...

How is your friend,
the police commissioner,

gonna like this?

Have you read this?

- I read enough.
- We're doing our jobs.

What do people want,
for us to stop policing?

They want us to do it in a better way,
without the collateral damage.

But how? How do you keep control
with this much v*olence

without being aggressive?

It doesn't help that sh*t like this
gets everyone all ginned up.

These popped up all over the city.
Idiots misspelled "loiterers".

It does make a point.

Is that all?

Hey, G, what up? What up?

Look, Jemell, I know
Jenkins do some crazy sh*t.

You don't gotta tell me.
You know, Jenks is code-m*therf*cking-red.

All right, but look, this last paycheck
I just got from the city?

Eight thousand dollars.

When I looked at it, I was like,
"Oh, my God, who did this?"

"This is a lie."

Telling you, there's a method
to Jenkins' madness. He...

Yeah. Yeah, that m*therf*cker
off the chain, G.

Look, like I said,

let's go at this sh*t hard.
Let's enjoy this sh*t while we can

'cause all good things come to an end.

For real.

But Jenks,
man, he off the f*cking chain, yo.

He off the m*therf*cking chain, B.

He off the f*cking chain, B.

I swear, that n*gga off the chain, G.

All this bogus overtime they're banking,
we'll get every one of 'em on wire fraud.

Bring in the IRS
and we got tax evasion too.

The old-fashioned way.

I'm starting to love me
some Wayne Jenkins.

He off the chain, yo.

I read most of your book, Mr. Grabler.

And sure enough,
you write about many of the same issues

that we at the DOJ are trying to address.

Thank you.

You know, there's an old joke
that inside of every old cop is a book.

And that's exactly where it should stay.

Well, you certainly wrote from experience.

Oh, I did. I did. I came on in ' .

Walking foot up in the Northwest,
and then...

plainclothes ops, after that, narcotics.
And I did my longest stint in Homicide.

After my retirement, I ended up back here,
at the Academy, teaching.

Sounds like a rewarding career.

It was, it was.
I loved being a cop, you know.

I loved it when the job meant something,
when you could...

make an arrest for a street robbery,
or a r*pist,

or put down a m*rder*r.
There was nothing finer.

Nothing finer.
But people had to talk to you,

and once upon a time, they did.

Well, of course, not all of them.
There is a street code for snitching.

But there were always

enough people on the post
that would talk to you.

That trust is broken.

Yeah, well, you can't...
you can't get information out of somebody

while you're b*ating on 'em,
or you got your hand in their pocket.

- And then lying about it in court.
- Yeah.

You know... everything changed
when they came up with that expression,

"The w*r on dr*gs."

What an idiotic f*cking thing to say.

What the hell is a w*r on dr*gs?
What does that mean?

Waging a w*r against citizens...

by definition is separating us
into two opposing camps.

The colonizer and the colonized.

Albert Memmi, very good. Yes.

And with the w*r
comes police militarization.

SWAT teams, tactical squads,
stop-and-frisk,

strip searches, a complete gutting
of the Fourth Amendment.

And it's like we're, we're fighting
t*rrorists on foreign soil.

And you can't just blame the cops.
We serve the politicians,

who thrive on being tough on crime.

Zero tolerance.

Zero tolerance, quality of life arrests.
Having a beer on your own stoop.

Loitering, spitting on the sidewalk,
existing.

Existing.

In , I think it was,
when O'Malley was still mayor,

they made , arrests,
most of them Black, most of them poor.

That's almost one arrest
for every six Baltimoreans in one year.

They jacked up people six, seven times,
maybe times.

And many of those arrests were illegal,
never made it to court.

But they got their stats.

What do you teach here?

I teach the law

to cadets who are
about to hit the streets.

Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

A cop can't uphold the law
unless he understands the law.

I teach these young kids to be good,
honest cops.

The rest is up to them.

You've given a lot of thought to this.

Yeah.

I come off as angry sometimes.

Aren't you angry?

So at some point, Jenkins told you
that you were under investigation?

We knew. By that time...

we had a sense y'all was on us.

There wasn't no charade about the fact
Jenkins was in the sh*t, too.

There was this one night
where we pulled over a suspect,

then followed him to his house.

Took him off
for like a pound of marijuana to sell.

Jenkins told me to off it.

Did you?

No. I had Gondo sell it
through his friend, Glen Wells.

Yeah, but you must have had
your own connect

to sell the dr*gs
that you've been confiscating.

That was my boy up in Philadelphia.

Let's come back to that.

On July of , you and other GTTF,

detained a Ronald and Nancy Hamilton.

Oh, sh*t. Y'all remember that?

The f... That's f*ckin' impressive.

We have you and Gondo on tape,
discussing it.

Right.

Well, yeah, we got the tip on Hamilton
from a sergeant in the Southwestern.

We got a warrant from a judge.
I put a tracker on the car.

He had a big old house out
in Carroll County with a pool.

m*therf*cker was a monster. sh*t.

You had authority for the tracker?

Hell, no. Did that on my own.

Anyway, after we decided to do,
you know, the thing,

we followed the Hamiltons
to Reisterstown Road.

- Where's your money at, Hoss?
- Jacked 'em up.

Let's see what you got here.

Is that a cellphone?
Now, where that money at?

I found a roll of cash on Hamilton
right there.

Put your hands down. Go over there.
Yo, go over there.

sh*t had to be drug money,
so I knew we had the right dude.

Don't talk to her.

Sergeant Jenkins there?

No. He was at the barn.

You see, the plan was to bring them there,

and then to introduce Jenks
as a US Attorney.

Oh, sh*t, f*cking Jenkins
as a US Attorney.

Oh, no offense intended there.

Sir, I can see from your file here
that you are a smart individual

and as a federal prosecutor,

I have been dealing
with these kinda cases for quite a while,

I'm just gonna tell you, full candor,

Mr. Hamilton, you are looking
at a serious amount of years

unless you start giving us
the right answers.

Now, look, we have you
on three separate controlled buys.

- Now, we...
- Man, get the f*ck out of here.

Okay, first off, I'm not "man," okay?
So, let's just do that again.

- I'm a US Attorney, okay?
- Whatever. And I don't sell no dr*gs.

Man, what are you doing?

You have
multiple federal drug convictions.

You did six years
because of those convictions.

This says that right there.

What do you think you gonna do?
You think you gonna outsmart me?

Now, let's try this sh*t again.

You currently own this home in...
in Westminster, correct?

Do you currently have quantities of dr*gs
at that home?

- Man, he don't like talking much, huh?
- No.

I'm sorry, you're... you're hearing
what I'm saying, right?

- I'm hearing you perfectly f*cking clear.
- Am I not talking loud enough? What is it?

You want me to be slower?

- What is it? Is it... is it pronunciation?
- No, I heard you just fine.

- What do you f*ckin' think the deal is?
- Yeah. I heard you good.

Do you currently have quantities of dr*gs
at your home in Westminster?

Well, sh*t. Guess we're just gonna
have to go out there and find out.

Hamilton's house was nice.

Boom! Yahtzee.

Hey, yo!

I see money.

- Come on.
- Bump that sh*t.

- Hersl and Gondo found money.
- Into it.

- But no dr*gs.
- Look at that. All right, man.

- Yep!
- Hell, yeah!

He left Hersl in the room,
which was a mistake.

We were downstairs,
waiting on the State Police to arrive.

Fifty K. Where the rest of it at?

How you gonna take my money?

I earned that gambling,
selling cars I get at auctions.

We're seizing this under forfeiture laws.

You'll have a chance
to account for it later.

That's some bullshit.

Appreciate it, fellas.
You all get home safe, all right?

You left after that?

Jenkins wasn't done.

Man, this a nice ass crib, man.

I tell you. Is that what you call it?
It's your crib?

g*dd*mn. This was a long-ass drive, man,
so we gonna need something.

Come on, man. Where the dr*gs at, man?

What, you got one of those safes?

- Ain't no f*cking dr*gs.
- Okay, but you do know people, right?

You know drug dealers.
Where's your plug, man?

I know you know somebody.
Give us a name, baby.

Look, here's the bottom line.

You take care of us,
we're gonna take care of you,

'cause here's the crazy part...
One morning, you could wake up

with ten kilos in the backyard.

You split up the Hamilton money?

Yeah, later that night at a bar.

When Gondo went back to the bedroom
for the cash, there was the ,

then there was the loose , .
I mean, I had counted more.

You know, Hersl must have taken
a few thousand when he was up there alone.

Of course, I lifted the ,
off of Hamilton when we pulled him over.

That... What I'm sayin' is,
we weren't just stealing, all right?

We were stealing from each other.

Jenkins more than most, though.
At that point in time,

we was all in it for ourselves,
to be honest.

But all this while you knew
we were looking at you.

You knew there was a federal
investigation.

Oh, my God. Keisha. Last night.

This girl got a big old ass.

I call her Bonanza, 'cause she got them
wide open spaces.

What the f*ck is Bonanza?

Like some show out west, B,
I don't know.

My father used to watch that sh*t.

Yeah, bet. Look, women gonna get you
in trouble.

The females is just...
You know, who needs an extra complication?

You know the big boys are looking at us.

"Looking at us"? They looking at you.

Jenks said that we was under
investigation, and you in particular...

The way you be flashing money,
you could be the biggest drug dealer

- in the whole g*dd*mn department.
- f*ck you, man.

- Look.
- That's some bullshit.


Look, look,

if it is the feds who are on this,
the case could go on for years.

What case? This ain't no Pablo Escobar.
It's the police.

I'm just saying, you doing a lot
of flashing of sh*t,

- you know, like, silk...
- You finished, or you done?

...silk robes. And you like the king
of Zamunda in Anne Arundel County.

If you're gonna get it,
you gonna spend it.

I mean, we in Baltimore.
It's not Houston, all right?

All right, look here.
When the sh*t ends, it ends.

In the meantime, we keep bangin'.

Yeah. Guess we keep bangin', then.

So, Detective, what you're saying,

everyone in the squad
knew they were being investigated.

The way Jenks put it,
Ryan Guinn had hipped him

to the fact that y'all were looking into
Gondo and Rayam.

Like, Guinn thought Jenkins was clean,
and he was just warning him

about Gondo and Rayam.

Still, into the fall of ,

the GTTF continued to operate
as a rogue unit?

Until Jenkins went on leave.

And then Jenkins went on leave in October.

Yeah, maternity.

Paternity? His... his wife had a baby.

Is Jenkins a family man?

He said.

You know, I mean we all went
to titty bars, and watched girls dance,

and stuff, so...

He had stayed married a long time.
He... he met his girl in high school.

And they had a crib out in Middle River
where Wayne grew up.

So, yeah, he took a couple months off
when they had their new kid.

- Singing to him? He loves it.
- Bedtime. Yeah.

He had a better day, huh?

Yeah, we went for a walk and everything.

- You gonna come next time?
- Yeah.

Jenkins was a proud father.

But he had his other life too.

- Baby's down.
- Hey, baby.

I guess I'll make dinner.

You okay if we just
boil some pasta tonight?

Baby, you so pretty.

Yeah, gorgeous.

You make whatever you want
as long as I get to kiss you later.

You too. Downstairs. In twenty.

- Love you, baby.
- Love you.

You kiss my nose?

Jenkins spent time down
in Harbor East on his own,

at those fancy hotels there.

He had money, so why not?

Look at you, baby.

He liked those big rooms
they had upstairs, too.

He had this one chick on the regular.

Jenkins never really
copped to it directly.

You know what they say,
"If it's eatin', it ain't cheating."

He wasn't a family man, exactly.

Oh, f*ck!

- Get...
- More like...

- f*ck. Come on.
- ... just a man.

Motherfuck...

What happened with Officer Kostoplis?

K-Stop. Jenkins was grooming that boy,

but it didn't go the way he planned.

Quiet tonight.

This cold keeps the natives indoors.

- Yeah.
- Tough to make money on a night like this.

All right. Should be here.

Cut the engine.

Hey, K-Stop.

Why don't you go on and leave your phone
in the van, all right?

Don't worry, Danny's not gonna make out
with you, man.

This is good.

What's up?

You've been doing a hell of a job, K-Stop.

- Thank you.
- Yeah, man.

I just...

I guess, we wanna... yeah, we wanna run
a little... little hypothetical by you.

- You know, like, a "What if?"
- Right?

- Okay.
- Yeah.

Say, we're on an investigation,
following a big-time drug dealer.

A real f*cking monster, right?

We... Yeah, we get wind on
where he's keeping his cash.

And then we actually come upon that cash.

It's right there in front of us,
and we just... you know, we take it.

What would you think about that?

I think that's a terrible f*cking idea.

You can't have a badge on your chest,
do things like that.

We don't do that sh*t.

We don't.

Hey, man.

- Exactly the answer we're looking for.
- There you go. Come on.

Good sh*t, K-Stop. I like it.

All right.

Let's get something to eat.
I wanna go to Matthew's.

You always wanna go there, man.

Yeah, 'cause it's f*cking good.

It wasn't too long after that,

Wayne Jenkins transferred K-Stop
to a new squad.

Jenkins forgot there was still
straight police on the job.

K-Stop.

- These are the attendees?
- According to the email we received.

Andre Davis. I know this name,
from the Fourth Circuit.

He's been a federal appeals court judge
going back to the Clinton years.

Yeah, I hear that Pugh's gonna make him
city solicitor.

Now, my impression is that he'll be
on our side.

And the police commissioner,
he's gonna be an ally, too,

for the most part.

But the two that we have to look out for
are Tisha Edwards and Jim Smith.

They both have Mayor Pugh's ear.

We better get over there.

All right. I'm ready.

I'm sure you'll understand with all the
hustle and bustle

in my first month in office,

I have to study up
on this cassette decree.

I've read it, of course,
but I wanna confer with my people

about the details.

We do understand,
and we appreciate your attention to this.

But in light of the outcome
of the presidential election,

and Tr*mp's impending installation
of Jeff Sessions as attorney general...

Simply put, Sessions is not going
to support any consent decree anywhere.

We need to get this done
before Tr*mp is inaugurated

on January th.
I agree.

Due to the unforeseen circumstances

of the national election,
time is of the essence.

This is not something to rush.

Of course not.
But with my team, Jason and Ganesha,

I can iron out the finer points
of the decree with Nicole, Vanita Gupta,

and the DOJ.

We do have concerns.
But let me be clear, Madam Mayor,

I support this initiative.
It's not a cure-all,

but it is a tool for reform.

Mayor Pugh, may I jump in?

Please.

I've looked at what this has cost
in other cities.

You're gonna have to hire
monitoring teams.

You're gonna have to purchase
new equipment, new technologies,

body cameras for all officers
on the street.

Are you aware of the expenditure
on those items?

The money has to come from somewhere,

or rather, it will be taken
from somewhere else.

I'm all for police reform.

But not at the expense of social programs.
I'm especially concerned

that this decree could siphon off
funds earmarked for young Black boys

who have been
historically marginalized here.

That's right.
We can't forget about my babies.

No one's suggesting this is an either-or
proposition.

The consent decree is designed
to protect citizens,

including those young men
you're talking about.

But we can't ignore the expense of it.
And frankly,

a report is not gonna be a cure
for bad leadership

within the department,
present company excepted, Chief Davis.

I mean, how many police commissioners
have we had in the last ten years?

Three, four?

You can't keep throwing money
at a management problem.

These are dollars that would be
better spent enticing business interest

and development in Baltimore.

We have to do something.

Well, I would not in good conscience
recommend to our mayor

that we increase the police budget
to accommodate this decree.

In my opinion, Chief Davis,
you're gonna have to find the money

within your existing budget.

And that means making significant cuts
to the department

in advance of the decree
being implemented.

I wanna know if we're ready.

Well, we can always get more evidence
to shore up our case.

I'd really like to see how far up
the chain this goes.

We're fighting time here.
I'm worried about leaks.

None of the brass know about us.

We've even managed to keep
the commissioner out of the loop.

But the fact is, we have enough.
We have taped conversations

where the subjects discuss robberies
they committed

resulting in the illegal seizure
of cash and dr*gs.

We've recorded jail calls
where the inmates talk about being robbed

of dr*gs and money by those same subjects.

That's enough
for a racketeering conspiracy.

Will the victims testify in court?

Not all of them, no.
Some of them don't trust us,

and to some, snitching on a cop
is still snitching.

But we've got a couple of people
that I'm pretty certain will stand up.

What about wire fraud?

Rock solid.

We have multiple conversations on the wire

with massive overtime theft
being discussed.

I've used my departmental access
to pull their timecards.

It wasn't just others clocking in for 'em.

Taylor was pulling OT
when he was in the Dominican Republic.

Jenkins was collecting overtime
when he was on... on vacation

with his family in Myrtle Beach.

It's time to go.

We're on the indictments.
You handle the logistics of the arrests

and keep us apprised.

And we'll tell the police commissioner
at the last moment.

As for the dog and pony,

the US Attorney will wanna be
at the podium.

Rosenstein?

Yeah, he's getting bumped up
in the Tr*mp administration,

and this will be a nice send-off for him.

- Okay.
- All right.

MARCH ,

Wow.

What is that from?

Debussy's "Prélude."

I feel like I...

heard that on an episode of Star Trek.

You know how to play some... you know,
some other stuff?

Classical mostly.

Like Jethro Tull? Aqualung,

I mean that's some classical sh*t
right there, right?

Someday, John, you're gonna surprise me.

Maybe.

You sleep in that shirt?

I don't think I slept at all. You?

Not much. The details kept me up.

So many things can go wrong.

Your people are monitoring the GPS
on their phones, right?

Yeah, as of this morning,
they're all in the Baltimore area.

And they all got their orders
to report to IAD.

They all confirmed their appointments.

Jensen.

Hey. He's on the move. Stand by.

Copy that.

Jenkins just left his house.

Let's go.

BALTIMORE POLICE DEPARTMENT

Look at you, Steve.
Getting that good police work in, huh?

You know, committing su1c1de by cigarette.

- Got a date with IAD?
- Yeah, some nuisance sh*t.

You know, vehicular.

- What's good?
- What's up, man?

Passed out.

RESERVED FOR LIEUTENANT

Seven officers from the plainclothes unit

known as the g*n Trace Task Force

have been arrested
and charged with racketeering conspiracy

and racketeering-related charges,
including robbery,

extortion, and overtime fraud.

These officers have been involved
in a pernicious conspiracy scheme

that included abuse of power.

Commissioner Davis.

Commissioner Davis,

in light of these arrests,
what are your thoughts

on the deeper implications
for the department?

These officers,
I have no sympathy for them.

They are like s gangsters
as far as I'm concerned.

As for the department,
I'll act swiftly and decisively

to address the problem areas.

I'll immediately disband
select plainclothes units

and order those officers
back into uniformed patrol.

This is the absolute,
final dismantling of VCID.

Officers Gondo, Hendrix, Hersl, Jenkins,
Rayam, Taylor, and Ward

are now in FBI custody
after being arrested this morning...

- Oh, sh...
- ...at the Internal Affairs Department

on Kirk Avenue.

Officials say that some of these officers
are named in prior complaints...

- Holy sh*t.
- ...have been previously accused

of using excessive force
or of other wrongdoing.

- Hey, Sean.
- In fact, the city has paid out more...

You used to work with Jenkins, didn't you?

...than half a million in settlements
related to the actions

- of some of these officers.
- What was that guy like?

A long-time public defender we spoke with
had this to say...

...accountability issues for many years.

We have worked tirelessly
to highlight the issues

on the force, but much of our efforts
were ignored by the department.

What message does that send
to the criticism...

- You all right, man?
- Yeah, I... I just gotta hit the head.

- As recently as late last year...
- This is some f*cked up sh*t.

...Commissioner Davis praised
the g*n Trace unit

in a departmental newsletter.

Sergeant Wayne Jenkins was to be seen
as an example for getting g*ns...

The g*n Trace Task Force made more
than g*n arrests in .

Here's Davis responding
at the briefing earlier today.

Why don't you do me a favor, man?
Just go and toss the car one more time,

you know, in case we missed something.

Man, you f*cking planted that sh*t.
Get off me, man! Y'all cruddy as hell!

Man, you got it now, dawg.

That was some serious police work, man.

...to describe this rogue
plainclothes unit

of the Baltimore Police Department.

- Danny Hersl.
- These brazen officers

- allegedly stopped innocent victims...
- Our poster boy got caught up in this.

...without cause, robbing them
of large quantities of cash and g*ns.

The defendants are accused
of racketeering.

The way I was raised, there wasn't any way
I wasn't gonna be a lawyer.

Oh, I know how that works.

Your father was a...
He was a judge, right?

US District Court.

So, I guess it was preordained
that you would go into law.

I have a sibling named James,
and he had no interest

in going to college.

So someone in our house
was going to law school.

Fell on me.

Got it.

But I... I made a wrong turn for a while.

How so?

Well, early on, I was
a Trial Team AUSA in DC,

prosecuting mostly drug cases.

And it got to me.

Day in, day out, in courtrooms,
sending young Black men to prison.

But I guess, I needed to go through that
to make the next step,

and pivot to Civil Rights, so...

You grew up in D.C.?

Outside the city.
Bethesda. It's high-income, mostly White.

You know, not a very diverse area
to say the least.

My parents knew we'd lose
a little something growing up there,

but they figured the benefits
outweighed the bad,

and they were right.

I have been very fortunate.

You know, my kid brother,
he got a... a lot worse than I ever did.

He's a tile man.

He does high-end bathrooms.
A real craftsman.

So, you know, he has his hair braided.
He wears workman's clothes,

jeans, hoodies.

When he was in his teens,
he'd be standing outside our house,

and this happened more than once,
the Montgomery County Police would stop

and ask him, "What are you doing here?"

He'd point back at the house
that we grew up in,

and he'd say, "I live here."

They couldn't see a Bethesda kid.

When they looked at James,
all they could see was a n*gg*r.

Yeah. Yeah, I get that.

One time, he was coming home from work,
driving down our street,

and a couple cop cars followed him
into our driveway.

When James got out of the car,
I don't know, maybe he got out too fast,

but they cuffed him.

Said that he made a threatening move.

And on the report, to justify the stop,
they lied.

They said that he was speeding
down our street.

All he was saying was,
"Why are you doing me like this?

I just worked a -hour day,
and all I was doing

was driving to my house."

I came outside, and so did my father.

And there was a Black cop,
and he wouldn't answer

any of our questions.
And the other cop, the one who cuffed him,

the White dude,

he threatened my dad.

And it was all for nothing.
None of the cops showed up in court.

The damage was done.

Where's your brother now?

After that last incident,
he moved to Atlanta.

I don't hate the police,

but it's fair to say that my brother
has no love for them at all,

and never will.

I don't know if what we're doing
is gonna change a thing, Ahmed.

But sh*t...

You ready for another?

I gotta go home. We have work to do.
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