Baltimore's history of police corruption The scandal broke at a time of struggle and high tensions between Baltimore community members and the police department. Created by David Simon, this seminal series explores the world of crime in Baltimore through the lenses of both civilians and law enforcement. How is this going to be investigated? The cast includes Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead,Show Me a Hero),Josh Charles (The Good Wife,In Treatment), Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country), and Jamie Hector (BOSCH,The Wire), among many others. Long history of neglect: why are missing Black people still less likely to be found? [11/16/21 - 11:00 AM] HBO Documentary "The Slow Hustle," A Searing Look at Corruption Within the Baltimore Police Department After a Detective's Fatal Shooting, Debuts December 7 This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The unsolved case also sparked far-reaching implications for a city already grappling with the complexities of policing in contemporary, urban America. Interview The Wire's Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: 'We are seeing multilayered corruption' David Smith in Washington The actor-turned-director's new film The Slow Hustle tells the. Officers tell me that its a new day over there and everybodys wearing body cameras all the time, which wasnt the case until pretty late in the investigation of the gun trace taskforce. A still from "The Slow Hustle" courtesy HBO. She was, perhaps, a counterculture rebel and social justice activist before her time. WATCH NOW The Slow Hustle, an HBO original documentary from director Sonja Sohn (HBO's " Baltimore Rising " and " The Wire "), chronicles the still unsolved death of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter, fatally shot in 2017 while in the line of duty, and explores the ongoing speculation about what really happened that day. For HBO: senior producer, Sara Rodriguez; executive producers, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller. English, Portugal Jenkins name appears in the opening shot of We Own This City, an HBO drama that chronicles the rise and fall of the Baltimore police departments gun trace taskforce (GTTF), described in an independent report as the most shocking corruption scandal in Baltimores history. To return to our unfair comparison, The Wire believed that systemic forces mattered more than individual failure or triumph. Instead, its members were convicted on corruption charges. And in a war, you need warriors. All rights reserved. English, Vietnam Suiter is assigned to a new murder case. English, Israel It found an extended institutional failure of the police departments internal affairs along with broad supervisory breakdowns. SOHN: Well, you know, that's a really good question because, yes, there was a lot floating through the air. D. is what I would call a true son of Baltimore and a voice of Baltimore. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Six of the eight arrested pleaded guilty to the charges. FLORIDO: Your film really does document the Baltimore Police Department's long history of corruption. The Wires Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: We are seeing multilayered corruption, Director Sonja Sohn interviewing D Watkins for The Slow Hustle. Crime in Baltimore has been at extraordinarily high levels for decades, he adds, leading to an emphasis on crime fighting and its quantification: numbers of arrests and seizures and other measures. The phones are smarter; the law enforcement machinery is not. Theres been so much rightful attention on police brutality and so we know when an officer shoots somebody theres an injury, theres a death. Really, The Wire isnt the only show the setup brings to mind. English, Taiwan Focusing on the 1980s, the documentary tells the story of Michael Dowd, a former. See the full cast here. What it does offer, however, is a forlorn perspective on a major metropolis whose police force has so betrayed the publics trust that the truth is now impossible to determineand, consequently, cynicism reigns supreme regarding the powers-that-be. English, Russia Looking for more? As "The Slow Hustle" (2021 release; 88 min.) Jenkins learns stark truths about policing as a new officer. In a war, civilians get hurt and nobody does anything. The corruption and civic woes the show details, as in much of Simons work (Treme, The Deuce), are systemic. So the federal investigation that eventually brought Jenkins and some of his cronies to justice is no spoiler. Ultimately, the journey reveals how theculture of corruption within the ranks of the Baltimore police forcecontributed to the destruction of the publics trust and impacted the police departments ability to solve a shooting deathof one of its own. Maurice Ward recounts how Jenkins remained unscathed despite several illegal incidents. The leader of a rogue Baltimore police unit sobbed as he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in a corruption scandal prosecutors called "breathtaking". And so I really hope we're talking about not recreating, you know, revamping the system, but I think it's really about creating a new structure for public safety and in a time where Americans across the board are - to some degree, are triggered by law enforcement. Accuracy and availability may vary. French, French Speaking Africa He was praised as a positive role model. I need a unit medic right now. THE SLOW HUSTLE, a feature documentary directed by Sonja Sohn (HBO's "Baltimore Rising", "The Wire"), chronicles the still unsolved death of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter, fatally shot in the head in 2017 while in the line of duty, and explores the ongoing speculation about what really happened that day. The conflicting theories on his death speak to stark divisions between the involved parties an independent review board ruled his death a suicide, a theory that the Suiter family strongly resists. The editor, Donna Marino, she had something to do with that. But they also have a brash, cocky face: Sgt. Its that systemic rot which proves to be The Slow Hustles fundamental subject. But the character functions mostly to deliver exposition and make, or receive, the shows arguments. We glimpse Steeles motives when she recalls her brothers being racially profiled by police. He was born in 1980 which, Fenton notes, means that Baltimore has been shrinking and struggling for most of his life. Fenton writes that the police commissioner Frederick Bealefield insisted that police were not going after everyone in Baltimore any more, just bad guys with guns. However, in this particular instance, the dynamics at play arent quite as clear-cut as that description makes them sound. The Seven Five, also known as Seven Five Precinct, is a 2014 documentary directed by Tiller Russell, and produced by Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, and Sheldon Yellen.The film looks at police corruption in the 75th precinct of the New York Police Department during the 1980s. But unlike that venerated saga, We Own This City is based on the true story told in the journalist Justin Fentons nonfiction book of the same name. SONJA SOHN: I think the one thing that I had to zero in on or hone in on was the fact that there - that this was a Black man who appeared to be murdered, whose murder was unsolved and quite possibly could have been at the hands of law enforcement. (And even Pryzbylewski eventually redeemed himself.). Theres a whole philosophical debate around human beings, and, you know, are they inherently good or evil? He enjoyed the admiration and respect of his superiors and was given special privileges. Here we have a case in which a cop has fallen and ultimately one of the major obstacles to solving this death, this mystery, this crime is the fact that the police cant be trusted. But the spirit of those protests also seems reflected in this new story. Do we extend that to law enforcement as well? Jenkins brings Suiter along on a raid. Actor, filmmaker and activist Sonja Sohn is the founder and CEO of the Baltimore-based reWIRED for Change, an outreach program for at-risk youth inspired by her six seasons appearing on HBOs The Wire. French See the full list of We Own This Citycast and charactershere. English, France Four of them agreed to cooperate with the justice department and testified against the remaining two officers, both of whom were convicted by a jury in February 2018. Executive producers George Pelecanos, David Simon, cast, and crew go behind the scenes. Except, as The Slow Hustle soon reveals, things werent as cut and dried as they initially appeared. Then I thought, okay, heres the possibility of actually solving the case. Underpinning it all is a Wire-style critique of institutions, in particular a police department so hollowed out by corruption that even the attempt to solve the death of one of its own is met with insurmountable doubts. Led by interviews with Salons D. Watkins (a Baltimore native), The Baltimore Suns Justin Fenton and WMAR-TVs Brian Kuebler, Sohns film immerses itself in a city plagued by pervasive distrust of the police, thanks to a long history of corruption, harassment and murderthe most recent and notorious example of which was the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray. English, Bulgaria But day after day, the revelations keep coming. Over the years, as I describe in the book, it lost that focus and was just another unit of plainclothes officers running around the city. Anyone can read what you share. English, Denmark info_outline, Hungary But this type of casual everyday lying, stealing, misrepresenting information, in some cases framing people its hard to prove and for that reason it often went unaddressed., The misconduct continued despite the outcry over Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American man who died of neck injuries suffered in police custody in April 2015. The creators, cast, and crew discuss the rigorous research and attention to detail that went into bringing this true story to life in Baltimore. It has nothing to do with my level of desire. A 2016 Department of. There are other theories. Its her second documentary since 2017sBaltimore Rising, which chronicled the uprising in Charm City that followed Freddie Grays death. The two men were sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. In a heightened atmosphere of distrust between disenfranchised communities and the police, THE SLOW HUSTLE brings to light the challenges of uncovering the truth and highlights the devastating fallout on ordinary citizens and police officers alike. The documentary We Own This City draws attention to the corruption within the Baltimore Police Department. Will it be reported? They were working in the shadows, and deployed by the police department as another tool to roam the streets looking for guns.. His elite unit came to be seen by senior commanders as a bulwark against chaos. They were veritable gangsters, and the fact that Suiter died in this puzzling manner a mere day before he was speaking to the feds about his shady colleagues raised immediate suspicions that he was actually the victim of an orchestrated hit. She grew up in Newport News, Virginia, had a stint in New York as a slam poet and recorded an album in London. Sohn is also sceptical. English, Pakistan On Wednesday morning, former Baltimore police Sgt. Seven Baltimore Police officers indicted on federal racketeering charges English, Argentina Wood Jr. woke up to find his phone full of thousands of new Twitter notifications. English, Philippines English, Belgium Fenton, who reported on the trial, recalls: Through the people cooperating and telling the truth, we gained a new level of understanding of how these things work that I dont think weve had previously. English I got one officer down. The Baltimore police department, recognising that the problem was perhaps guns more than drugs, wanted to have a smarter approach. Bringing Jenkins and his ilk to justice does not mean Baltimores problems are resolved. Funding social structures that support the people is just a given. He says: He was regarded well within the police department as someone who was good at his job, who had this eye for driving down the street and seeing somebody make a movement and it turns out that person has a gun. On Nov. 15, 2017, Suiter was accompanying his rookie partner David Bomenka on an assignment when he allegedly spotted a suspicious figure in an alleyway in the citys Harlem Park neighborhood. Like many series right now, this one is using a nonfiction story to approximate the power of fictional drama. D Watkins, a local journalist and author who shares the view that Suiters death could have been an inside job, says in the film: What developed for me out of the whole story is this whole idea of Black lives really dont matter. A few days earlier, the 35-year-old Marine corps veteran had begun tweeting about his 11 years in the Baltimore Police Department and all the things he had seen that he now felt needed to be shared. Itexamines the corruption and moral collapse that befell an American city in which the policies of drug prohibition and mass arrest were championed at the expense of actual police work. Two Baltimore plainclothes police detectives were convicted Monday of racketeering, robbery and fraud in a trial involving a wide range of criminal . Kostoplis replied: No. Coming to the city was was kind of a reckoning with my own self. We Own This City: Created by George Pelecanos, David Simon. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. Over six episodes, host D. Watkins will share his experiences in and out of the writers room and speak to the people who brought this story to the screen. 890K views 5 years ago BALTIMORE Two Baltimore police officers are on trial this week in federal court for some of this worst misconduct imaginable. English, Turkey HBO Documentary Films presents A Blowback Production THE SLOW HUSTLE director and producer, Sonja Sohn; executive producers, Marc Levin, Kary Antholis, Sonja Sohn; supervising producer, Daphne Pinkerson; producer, Mahrya MacIntire. English, United States So that's sort of like the sieve through which the rumors come through. For every inept, violent Roland Pryzbylewski, there was a Lester Freamon, practicing the patient craft of building a case. English, Thailand The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) is the largest companion animal shelter in Maryland. Youre asking me about the word hope at a very particular time in my life, where Im engaging in a deeper sort of debate around the purpose of the word itself. There was no specific training for supervisors. He was law enforcement. In HBOs We Own This City, Jon Bernthal plays Sgt. The cops once reportedly found a gun and a pound and a half of marijuana in an illegal warrantless search. With no reliable eyewitnesses to the crime, a harried if largely clueless search ensued, most of it predicated on a generic description of a Black man in a dark jacket with a white stripe. Her first feature documentary Baltimore Rising portrayed the city in the aftermath of Freddie Grays death and THE SLOW HUSTLE continues her work focusing on Baltimore and its inherent racial and socio-economic problems. How, why and by whom has never been solved. English, Hong Kong How do we measure that, how do we quantify that, especially given the deep-seated bad feelings about this department?. 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