Understanding Policing Through HBO’s The Wire
In 2020, you mustn’t search far for vivid picture of what life in America looks like. Whether its TV shows that discuss police brutality, art that portrays the necessity of the Black Lives Matter movement, poetry that defines political corruption, or protest centered on the dangers of living as a black person. With the overwhelming amount of content out that is shining a new light on what it means to be black, I want to try and understand the relevance of blue. For folks like myself, injustice is evident. Equality is still a dream unattainable without mass reform and reparations, but there are those hell-bent on upholding systematic racism and protecting our ‘boys in blue’ without fully acknowledging its history of oppression. This is an attempt at understating policing through one of HBO’s most underappreciated shows that depicts the hard truths of criminality and policing, The Wire.
Created by former police reporter David Simon and writing partner and former Baltimore police detective Ed Burns, The Wire was an American crime drama set in Baltimore, Maryland that explored the relationship between the police institution and the city. Particularly West Baltimore’s drug and crime syndicate. The show ran from 2002 to 2008, introducing the world to Idris Elba, Michael K. Williams, and a young cornrowed Michael B. Jordan. In its heyday, The Wire was (mildly) hailed as a phenomenal depiction of what drug crime and police intervention was like. It didn’t sugarcoat the realities of crime nor what it meant to be an officer of the law, unlike Dick Wolf’s idolization of police in Law and Order, or Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s attempt at humorous levity. The Wire gave viewers a look into the lives of drug kings and ‘corner boys’, as well as unveiling a gross reality as to how far the police will go when it comes to violence, abstaining from the truth, and protecting their own. Over the course of 5 seasons, there are several scenes that could be used as examples to how the police operate, but I’ve chosen five moments that speak to the larger theme of how the system of policing works.
1. The Truth of Misconduct
In second episode of the first season, we get our first glimpse of senseless brutality at the hands of police when an officer inadvertently blinds a young man in one eye for leaning on the hood of his car. The tension begins when two veteran officers (Hauk & Carver) and one rookie (Pryzbylewski) take it upon themselves to drive through the Baltimore projects in the early hours of the morning, hoping to find a reason to ‘bust some heads’. Upon entering the shows infamous West side housing projects the three officers immediately begin harassing residences, even using public humiliation and ridicule to assert their power. Embolden by the misconduct of his peers, the rookie antagonizes a young man for leaning against his car. When his intimidation tactics against the young boy fail, the rookie cop bludgeons the him with his service weapon. Towards the end of the conflict, after other officers come to the scene, when asked why he decided to attack the young man his response, “because he pissed me off”. What this scene offers viewers is a glimpse into what abuse of power can look like when wielded by someone with authoritative status. Derek Chauvin knows this power firsthand when he kneeled on George Floyds neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. This was his assertion of power. While most acts of abuse are swept under the rug, others are simply labeled as acts of misconduct. Like Chauvin, there is a long history of officers abusing their ‘power’ and using it against those they’ve sworn to protect. Recently, as reported by USA TODAY, the Invisible Institute in Chicago created the largest known collection of police misconduct records, which they have made open to the public. Out of those findings the highest number of investigations were for misconduct and abuse. 22,924 for excessive force, and another 2,307 for domestic violence. It was only the second episode of the season that we see an officer abuse their power and another person, representing just how quick this idea of authority can go to someone’s head. It is a fallacy to believe that because someone wears a badge, this makes them humble or heroic. Anyone is capable of misconduct and abuse. The only thing separating one violent act from another is a badge.
2. Looking Out for Your Own
Looking out for your own is a mentality taught in every family, team, unit, and gang you could think of. No matter the cost or circumstance you are supposed to look out for your own — a commonality shared between the Baltimore city police and the lawbreakers they hunt. In almost every season of The Wire, cops who find themselves unfortunate enough to be caught up in some type of misconduct are always protected by their superiors and colleagues. Solemnly are they reprimanded, suspended, or relieved of duty, but instead are advised to get their story straight to avoid further investigation. In season one, episode three (notice the writers give the audience little time to see the corruption within the police system) when dealing with the aftermath of the assault against the young black man, the assailant and officer (Pryzbylewski) is advised by his lieutenant to lie and say, “he felt threatened for his life, and the lives of his fellow officers.” To avoid a case from the Internal Investigation Division (I.I.D). His commanding officer has proven himself a good man who seemingly wants to do good for the city of Baltimore. But by allowing his officers to lie instead of facing rightful charges, he proving 2020 protesters right: there are no good cops in a crooked system. From what we’ve learned from the Invisible Institute about a misconduct cases is that they’re pretty easy to avoid if you get your lie in order ahead of time. Just as the corner crews looked out for one another by refusing to ‘snitch’, cops employ the same defense mechanism in protecting their own, despite the crimes they’ve committed. Daily News wrote about the harassment one officer faced after trying to report a police brutality case in Baltimore back in 2015. Fittingly enough the ‘blue wall of silence’ has become the unbreakable bond that keeps the public in the dark of real police crimes, and keeps the brotherhood for the boys in blue so strong.
3. ‘The West Side Rides Again’ & The Excitement Behind Unnecessary Arrest
In season four, episode eight we witness the West Side police department in action as they make their rounds detaining ‘criminals’ and busting ‘drug dealers’. When in actuality, all the police were doing was antagonizing residence, inciting violence, and making petty arrest for small charges. Coming from their superiors, they were given orders to increase arrest, by what seemed to be any means necessary. We see cops pulling folks from their homes, forcibly pressing them against walls and searching them for paraphernalia that didn’t exist. There are scenes of cops incriminating young black men by persuading these young men to buy drugs, and assuming their selling if they are in possession. They then proceed to arrest these men for small charges, while using the utmost force. It is a pathetic scene of policing that many of the officers admit to being excited by. The line that stands out during this poor example of police work comes during a stop and frisk of a group of black men by several officers. When they finish their act of tyranny one officer calls out, “The West side rides again”. A phrase that in this context eerily resembles Jim Crow era when members of the Klan would ‘ride’ together before a lynching. Here, white cops of the West Side police district ‘ride’ on young black men with the intention of using violence and unnecessary amount of aggression directed towards these young men. The idea of this scene is that while some officers abhor the deplorable work, others revel in it. This episode is a display of police efficiency in making unnecessary arrest, but draws into question the very real notion of ‘juking the stats’. Matthew Yglesias wrote for Thinkprogress about the meaning of this concept, and what says about city crime rates. How it invigorates violence at the hands of police. “One of the concepts they introduce you to on The Wire is the practice of “juking the stats” as a crime reduction strategy. You code aggravated assaults as simple assaults. You code robberies as larcenies. And presto-changeo violent crime is down. And it’s not just on television, the availability of these tactics is why crime researches say that if you want to compare violent crime levels from city to city or within a given city over time, you need to just ignore most of the statistical information available to you and focus on the murder rate.”
4. Brutality, Prejudice, and Crime is Fine, if it’s Protected by a Badge
Police brutality is not a new concept, and watching it on screen in 2020 evokes a different kind of pain. In fact, it’s more of a seething rage. We’ve seen discriminatory acts of violence for so long and done absolutely nothing about it. Shows like The Wire even chose to highlight it back in 2002, and yet we’re still having this conversation over a decade later. In season one episode seven, we see three detectives in an investigation with a lone suspect. When the suspect refuses to cooperate, these three detectives physically assault the suspect behind closed doors. In season four episodes ten, an officer breaks the fingers of a young black boy for stealing a car rather than taking him in for processing. He threatens the child, and breaks his fingers as a warning. While the show is built around the tumultuous relationship between police and those they are sworn to serve, it’s interesting to watch from an officer’s perspective at the joy it brings them abusing black bodies. The phrase ‘busting heads’ should not be one cops gleefully. The job detail is not about promoting violence, but supposedly de-escalating high pressure situations — something that is lost on these cops anytime they get their told to ‘mount up’. While most of the show is told from the point of view of the officers, the writers have a loyalty to neutrality and take a point to share with viewers that cops are susceptible to violence and brutality, and they should not be absolved of their crimes solely because of their status. For years, we have seen cops get away with acts of brutality with little to no repercussions, we’ve seen it with new jersey cab driver John Smith in 1967, Rodney King’s beating in 1991, Oscar Grant in 2011, to Eric Garner 2015, the list extends back to the days of slavery and into the dawn of the camera phone. When the Black body is seen as expendable, cases for brutality, abuse, sexual assault and further ‘misconduct’ only prove violence and even death is an acceptable form of punishment so long as you do it wearing a badge.
By the end of my second go at The Wire, it felt odd to say I was rooting for the ‘bad’ guys. For the savvy drug lords, and queer stickup boys. I ended up rooting for those who grew up in a broken system that rewards violence mistaken for heroism. There are no good cops in a crooked system. A system that protects abusers, murderers, rapists, and child molesters cannot produce good cops, but take good people and corrupt them with false and dangerous ideologies and brotherhood. Or, nourish the hate in others. The police are no more than a violent gang co-opting the colors of an existing prominent group. The Wire brings to light the fact that despite how poorly police treat the people, we are quick to pledge our allegiance to a historically racist union. This HBO drama has made it clear, until we properly address the entire system of policing there will be no change, justice, nor peace. Abolish the police.
