GANG IN BLUE

Black cop Michael Rhoades (Mario Van Peebles) knows that some of his white colleagues ride roughshod over blacks and other minority citizens. He has contacted the FBI, but it seems his concerns have been lost in the bureaucratic maze. What Rhoades does not realise is that these seemingly random acts of police misconduct are the work of a highly organised racist brotherhood called the Phantoms.

The Phantoms take note of Rhoades’s curiosity and mark him for death. During a bust, his white partner Beckstrom (Zach Grenier), and ruthless officer Moose Tavola (Stephen Lang), let a criminal attack Rhoades. Veteran officer and mentor to Rhoades, Andre Speier (Melvin Van Peebles), warns Rhoades, “You go to the Feds, you watch your back.”

Rhoades pays particular attention when white rookie Keith DeBruler (Josh Brolin) joins the precinct without serving the required two years duty at the county jail. Convinced that the Phantoms recruited DeBruler, Rhoades observes that suspected ringleaders Tavola and Sgt. William Eyler (J.T. Walsh) take a shine to the new cop. Rhoades meets with Anita Bayard (Cynda Williams), an ex-girlfriend, now an FBI agent, and urges her to investigate the Phantoms. To his chagrin, though, Bayard refuses to take action.

Beckstrom and Tavola, hoping to rid themselves of Rhoades, remove the bullets from his gun before a raid on a drug gang. The plan backfires when a gang member kills Beckstrom. Rhoades finds his bullets in Beckstrom’s bloody shirt, proof that the Phantoms want him dead.

Deserted on all fronts, Rhoades requests DeBruler as his new partner to test his theory that the Phantoms set him up and will try again. DeBruler protests, but Sgt. Eyler explains that the pairing is a necessary public relations gesture following a recent grand jury investigation of police brutality against minorities. On the beat, Rhoades is sure that DeBruler hates working with a black cop.

DeBruler behaves like a bigot until Rhoades learns he is an undercover FBI agent working for Anita. Now comrades, they work together to build their case against the racist cops. But Eyler and Tavola soon discover that DeBruler is a Fed, forcing the Phantoms to make a desperate and deadly stand to preserve their nefarious fraternity.