David Simon vs. the Baltimore police commissioner

[Steak Snabler]

Speaking at the "Amplify Baltimore" event on Jan. 8, police commissioner Frederick Bealefield muses that he wishes "The Wire" was more like "CSI: Miami" in its depiction of its city and police detectives:

"I heard all this stuff about, 'Well there's crime shows about L.A., about New York, about Miami,'" Bealefeld said. "You know what Miami gets in their crime show? They get detectives that look like models, and they drive around in sports cars. And you know what New York gets, they get these incredibly tough prosecutors, competant cops that solve the most crazy, complicated cases."

"What Baltimore gets is this reinforced notion that it's a city full of hopelessness, despair and dysfunction. There was very little effort - beyond self-serving - to highlight the great and wonderful things happening here, and to indict the whole population, the criminal justice system, the school system."

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2011/01/bealefeld_the_wire_a_smear_tha.html

David Simon fires back (as you knew he would):

But publicly, let me state that The Wire owes no apologies -- at least not for its depiction of those portions of Baltimore where we set our story, for its address of economic and political priorities and urban poverty, for its discussion of the drug war and the damage done from that misguided prohibition, or for its attention to the cover-your-ass institutional dynamic that leads, say, big-city police commissioners to perceive a fictional narrative, rather than actual, complex urban problems as a cause for righteous concern. As citizens using a fictional narrative as a means of arguing different priorities or policies, those who created and worked on The Wire have dissented.

Commissioner Bealefeld may not be comfortable with public dissent, or even a public critique of his agency. He may even believe that the recent decline in crime entitles him to denigrate as "stupid" or "slander" all prior dissent, as if the previous two decades of mismanagement in the Baltimore department had not happened and should not have been addressed by any act of storytelling, given that Baltimore is no longer among the most violent American cities, but merely a very violent one.

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/blog/2011/01/simon_responds_to_bealefelds_c.html

 

[Dick Whitman]

To me, one of the themes of "The Wire" - and perhaps the most important one - wasn't that Baltimore is a ****ty place. It was that the only thing separating the detectives who "look like models" and "drive sports cars" from the criminals they are pursuing is the circumstances each was born into. And that bootstraps aren't always enough.

Remember when Bunny Colvin tried to take the middle school kids to the fancy steakhouse? It was impossible for them to conform their behavior and tastes to the venue. That was a microcosm of life for anyone attempting the societal transition on a grand scale.

Stringer Bell was working on a night school MBA and was at least trying to legitimize himself with some real estate ventures. But obviously his only point of entry was from amassing his first fortune through criminal activity.

"Who is this guy?" McNulty said when they raided his apartment and saw his bookshelves stocked with the work of classic economic thinkers.

 

[Double Down]

There is no point in fighting with people who are arguing for PR over something that reflects a greater truth, and who clearly aren't sophisticated enough to understand nuance. Police commissioners come and go in Baltimore. The city remains, in many respects, the same.

 

[LongTimeListener]

The commish picked the wrong fight here. Nobody holds a grudge, or the means to express it, like David Simon.

 

[Bubbler]

"Balti- ... (glasses) ... more."

YEAAAAAAAAAAH!

 

[Det. Jimmy McNulty]

Stringer Bell was working on a night school MBA and was at least trying to legitimize himself with some real estate ventures. But obviously his only point of entry was from amassing his first fortune through criminal activity.

They were community college classes, but your point is still valid.

Needless to say, the Bmore police commissioner is a moron pandering to an ignorant base. Got to love when people with a public platform shoot their mouths off on **** they have no clue about. Doubt this guy saw any of the show.