{"product_id":"the-fence-a-police-cover-up-along-bostons-racial-divide-9780060780999","title":"The Fence: A Police Cover-Up Along Boston's Racial Divide","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eThe Fence\u003c\/em\u003e is a monumental account of an urban travesty. Dick Lehr's depiction of one of the darkest chapters in recent Boston law enforcement history and the savage injustices perpetrated on two hero cops--one black, one white--has all the earmarks of a classic.\" -- Dennis Lehane, author of \u003cem\u003eMystic River\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Boston police officers who brutally beat Michael Cox at a deserted fence one icy night in 1995 knew soon after that they had made a terrible mistake. The badge and handgun under Cox's bloodied parka proved he was not a black gang member but a plainclothes cop chasing the same murder suspect his assailants were. Officer Kenny Conley, who pursued and apprehended the suspect while Cox was being beaten, was then wrongfully convicted by federal prosecutors of lying when he denied witnessing the attack on his brother officer. Both Cox and Conley were native Bostonians, each dedicating his life to service with the Boston Police Department. But when they needed its support, they were heartlessly and ruthlessly abandoned.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA remarkable work of investigative journalism, Dick Lehr's \u003cem\u003eThe Fence\u003c\/em\u003e tells the shocking true story of the attack and its aftermath--and exposes the lies and injustice hidden behind a \"blue wall of silence.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLehr, Dick:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDick Lehr \u003c\/strong\u003eis a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of six previous works of nonfiction and a novel for young adults. Lehr coauthored the \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestseller and Edgar Award Winning \u003cem\u003eBlack Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil's Deal, \u003c\/em\u003ewhich became the basis of a Warner Bros. film of the same name. His most recent nonfiction book, \u003cem\u003eThe Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited The Battle for Civil Rights, \u003c\/em\u003ebecame the basis for a PBS\/Independent Lens documentary. Two other books were Edgar Award finalists: \u003cem\u003eThe Fence: A Police Cover-up Along Boston's Racial Divide, \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eJudgment Ridge: The True Story Behind The Dartmouth Murders\u003c\/em\u003e. Lehr previously wrote for the \u003cem\u003eBoston Globe, \u003c\/em\u003ewhere he was a member of the Spotlight Team, a special projects reporter and a magazine writer. While at the \u003cem\u003eGlobe \u003c\/em\u003ehe was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting and won numerous national and local journalism awards. Lehr lives near Boston. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50317828784402,"sku":"9780060780999","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ac006cae-93ab-4d89-b54a-3fd5a89eae02.jpg?v=1727540953","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-fence-a-police-cover-up-along-bostons-racial-divide-9780060780999","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}