In 1964, the City of Detroit was terrorized by its racist police department, led by a tactical four man patrol team from the Thirteenth Precinct called the 'Big Four'. They enforced an unspoken curfew that only applied to African Americans, as many of them were harassed, beaten, and sometimes killed for simply walking the streets after midnight.
Anthony Fiorello and Wesley Norris were University of Detroit law students who became the best of friends. Tony was a spoiled rich kid from Grosse Pointe who barely finished law school, while Wesley was a poor African American who graduated at the top of his class. Their bond was an unbreakable friendship, vowing to have each other's backs. When Tony took an affluent job with a boutique law firm in downtown Detroit, Wesley was hired as Wayne County's new assistant prosecutor.
When Norris became aware of the Big Four crimes, he indicted them for their crimes, but were exonerated by an all white jury. Norris was found dead in the basement prison of the Thirteenth Precinct, hanging by his necktie in a caged jail cell. Broken with grief, FIlled with grief, Tony Fiorello left his job and took a low-paying position as a prosecuting attorney. What happened afterward changed the trajectory of Detroit's minorities and its urban unrest by those who were harassed and abused by 'The Big Four.'