What’s worse is the establishment continued to protect and serve these rogue policemen, despite repeated complaints filed by the apprehended criminals and the general public. The show presents a demoralising account of how the public’s trust in the police, the elected officials and the government is destroyed when those meant to protect and serve are the very ones habitually violating people’s constitutional rights. The GTTF’s blatant abuse of power was the subject of Baltimore Sun journalist Justin Fenton’s book, We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption, and now its adaptation by Simon and frequent collaborator George Pelecanos. The reign of terror ended with federal indictments, with eight members sentenced to prison. The reality was far different: these officers pocketed the money during seizures, sold stolen drugs, planted evidence, robbed law-abiding citizens, and made overtime claims for unworked hours. Epitomising the incurable malady afflicting the city this time around is the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF), an elite Baltimore Police Department (BPD) unit tasked with getting guns and drugs off the street. David Simon, the Baltimore Sun reporter who was the creator of the HBO series, returns to the corners, the streets and the police precincts to sound another warning about a system in paralysis.īaltimore stays on as the lead character in Simon’s new miniseries, We Own This City. The bleak reality of the city shaped five seasons of The Wire, which remains one of the most incisive feats in longform storytelling on TV.
Reading about its drug, homicide, policing and administrative problems can take you into a rabbit hole you can’t get out of. The truth about Baltimore’s systemic dysfunction has always been stranger, uglier and knottier than fiction.
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