We'll help you live your best #DCLIFE every day, A Bigger Field Awaits Us: The Scottish Soccer Team That Fought the Great War. FLORIDO: Your film really does document the Baltimore Police Department's long history of corruption. English, United Kingdom Jenkins learns his fellow officers are cooperating with the investigation as the full extent of his crimes come to light. This malaise, Sohn points out, goes beyond Baltimore and policing in general. Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal), who as the real-life head of Baltimores Gun Trace Task Force turned that elite plainclothes unit into a state-run gang, skimming cash and drugs from raid targets and using his status in the department to cover up abuse, corruption and deadly procedural violations. I was railing when there was nobody railing with me. Seven Baltimore Police officers indicted on federal racketeering charges I did not want to initially direct another film that involves law enforcement. Michael Bromwich, a former US justice department inspector general, and his team conducted a two-year investigation that included more than 160 interviews and examined hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. The phones are smarter; the law enforcement machinery is not. Eight members of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) were being investigated for a wide range of offenses, including shaking down citizens, filing false paperwork, committing civil rights violations, and making fraudulent overtime claimsas well as rolling around town in unmarked cars while wearing black hockey masks, robbing drug dealers of their narcotics and cash, and then planting evidence on them to send them up the river. Sonja, thank you for joining us. Baltimore prosecutors want greater flexibility to undo convictions after Gun Trace Task Force scandal. Wayne Jenkins, who as the real-life head of an elite Baltimore plainclothes unit turned it into a state-run gang. 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. We Own This City is still a very good show, with granular realism, a sly sense of humor and fine acting top to bottom. Momodu Gondo finds himself in an interrogation. Visitors come to BARCS every day for reasons as diverse as reuniting with lost pets, adopting new furry family members, joining our foster and volunteer programs, and receiving free and low-cost resources to help them keep their pets at home. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Sohn cofounded ReWired for Change, a local outreach programme for at-risk youth, and made her directorial debut in 2017 with Baltimore Rising, which depicted the Black-majority city in the aftermath of the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody. Sohn was born to an African American father and Korean mother who met after the Korean war. But its indictments lack the character shading that animated Simons adaptations of the housing-policy story Show Me a Hero and his own book The Corner.. English, Japan They drove a short distance to a side street where Jenkins told Kostoplis to leave his phone and equipment in the van and get out. I consider Baltimore to be as much of a home to me as the place where I grew up in Virginia. He was born in 1980 which, Fenton notes, means that Baltimore has been shrinking and struggling for most of his life. Two former Baltimore Police officers sentenced to a combined 454 years in federal prison for shaking down citizens in the early 2000s had their prison terms reduced to 20 years each by a. But they also have a brash, cocky face: Sgt. It's been three years since Baltimore erupted in a series of protests over police violence, exposing deep divisions between the city's police department and the community.The protests captured national attention - prompting a federal investigation - and several high-profile efforts at reform.Now a new scandal is threatening to undermine those efforts, raising questions about the depth of police corruption in Baltimore, and the institutional forces that allow corrupt officers to remain on the street.Fault Lines returns to Baltimore as new details emerge about an elite plain-clothes police unit that, for years, doubled as a criminal gang - robbing residents, planting evidence, and sending countless innocent people to jail.The unit operated with impunity in part because of the way police complaints are investigated.In Baltimore - like many other cities - if a police officer is accused of wrongdoing, the complaint is investigated behind closed doors by the police department's own Internal Affairs Division.Fault Lines investigates how this latest police scandal once again places Baltimore at the centre of a national debate over how and whether police departments can be held accountable to the communities they police.- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/#AlJazeeraEnglish #BaltimorePolice #Fautlines Stream on HBO Max on Dec. 1. The film will debut on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max. You know, I think we're already, across the country, not trusting our law enforcement. What do you think, Sonia, the mystery of Sean Suiter's death and the fallout say about Baltimore and the public's relationship with the police as a whole? Six of the eight arrested pleaded guilty to the charges. This beautiful family who is patient and has faith in them, they really dont care. Baltimore Police. With candid interviews from members of the Baltimore P.D., Suiters widow and children, journalists, lawyers and political leaders, The Slow Hustle examinesthe continuing mystery surrounding Suiters deathand the multiple theories that emerge in the investigation of the case, including that Suiters death was a calculated murder hit or a suicide. See the full cast here. A protest of Sean Suiters death in The Slow Hustle. He was praised as a positive role model. It hasnt escaped David Simon and George Pelecanos, the creator and a producer of The Wire, who have returned to their geographic and rhetorical turf with We Own This City, beginning on HBO Monday. Many residents in the city, especially in Black communities, just don't trust the. English, New Zealand That produces a culture taken to its extreme, which it was in Baltimore by many, that the ends justify the means, Bromwich continues. Tells the story of the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption surrounding it. English, Pakistan Thats a terrible fucking idea. Rather than just railing against the GTTF, Watkins spends time discussing the numerous similarities he shares with one of the convicted officers in order to highlight how Baltimores problems are less about individuals than about the environment in which theyre raised and operate. Despite numerous complaints, Hersl is placed on the GTTF. For every inept, violent Roland Pryzbylewski, there was a Lester Freamon, practicing the patient craft of building a case. Im sure those who are involved in policy making are in the midst of looking at how to develop a more nuanced strategy on some other levels because the folks who are in opposition are playing serious chess right now. 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. We Own This City tends to choose telling over showing, however, especially on the investigation side of the story. But except for flashbacks, the story is set in the latter 2010s. Former members of the GTTF. Watch these additional moments featuring Sean Suiter's family attorney, Jeremy Eldridge. African-American police officer Sean Suiter is pronounced dead soon thereafter. You know, you cant have a badge on your chest and do things like that.. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. I felt alone and I was happy. Im still worth something., The Slow Hustle is now available on HBO with a UK date to be announced. Premiering Dec. 7 on HBO and its streaming service, HBOMax, "The Slow Hustle" is said to provide an inside look at the Baltimore Police Department by exploring Suiter's "mysterious" death and . But these challenges continue and I wonder how we will know if the department has fixed itself. (And even Pryzbylewski eventually redeemed himself.). Debuting on Dec. 7 on HBO, The Wire actress Sonja Sohns sophomore directorial effort is, like 2017s Baltimore Rising, a story about racial unrest and institutional misconduct in Baltimore, all of it once again revolving around dirty cops and a dead Black man. We Own This City does not do much to explain Jenkins or complicate his villainy, but it is insightful about how a bad cop learns to be bad more effectively (and how he makes his colleagues worse). The Slow Hustle, which debuts Tuesday night on HBO and HBOMax, looks at the death of Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter, who lived in Prince George's County and who was shot in the head in late 2017, the day before he was due to testify in a federal probe of police corruption. FLORIDO: That was Sonja Sohn. The convicted officers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to 25 years. Sharp Dressed Man is the only program of its kind in the greater Baltimore area. Jenkins learns stark truths about policing as a new officer. Its that systemic rot which proves to be The Slow Hustles fundamental subject. Like many series right now, this one is using a nonfiction story to approximate the power of fictional drama. The unsolved case also sparked far-reaching implications for a city already grappling with the complexities of policing in contemporary, urban America. Sonja Sohn, who played Baltimore cop Kima Greggs onThe Wire and who founded a Baltimore-based nonprofit, directs the film. 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. A 2016 Department of. He enjoyed the admiration and respect of his superiors and was given special privileges. I need a unit medic right now. In July of 2022, the lead investigator into Sean Suiter's death, Sgt James Lloyd was sentenced to one year in jail for using his fellow policemen to harass a contractor working on his home. And so being able to make that connection, I think, to those other cases was in the back of my mind. Former members of the Baltimore Police Department, from internal affairs to the former commissioner, attempt to shed light on that fateful afternoon and the atmosphere within the department. Spanish, Mexico 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. All those season-ending montages seemed to say: No matter how you feel about the end of this or that particular story, the beat goes on. I think of Baltimore as my soul home, Sohn, 57, says by phone from North Carolinas Outer Banks. The Wire's Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: 'We are seeing multilayered corruption' The series was shot in Baltimore and brings together several alumni of the The Wire, both on. Jenkins then asked Kostoplis what he thought about investigating a high-level drug dealer, determining where he kept his money and stealing it. (The 2021 HBO documentary The Slow Hustle, by the Wire alum Sonja Sohn, touched on aspects of the case.) In a war, civilians get hurt and nobody does anything. Documentary Crime After Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter is killed in the line of duty, the tragedy soon becomes enmeshed in a widening corruption scandal that threatens to unravel the public's already strained relationship with law enforcement. So to me, that was a microcosm of the macrocosm. THE SLOW HUSTLE, a feature documentary directed by Sonja Sohn (HBOs 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 series was shot in Baltimore and brings together several alumni of the The Wire, both on screen and behind the camera, including David Simon and George Pelecanos. Now she returns there with The Slow Hustle, an HBO documentary that examines the 2017 death of Sean Suiter, a widely respected Black police detective fatally shot in the head while on duty. Suiter is assigned to a new murder case. This emphasis on numbers and quantity over quality really had a corrosive effect on the police department and influenced the conduct of officers. As he notes, despite numerous different mayors and police commissioners, nothing much has changed in Baltimore over the years aside from the names of those engaging in criminal activity. We Own This City, the anticipated new drama from The Wires David Simon, cracks open the story of a corrupt Baltimore police unit fallen from grace. The police department is now under federal oversight but the decades-old spectre of corruption lingers. But the spirit of those protests also seems reflected in this new story. SOHN: Well, you know, that's a really good question because, yes, there was a lot floating through the air. This series may not change the game. Baltimore's largest police corruption scandal is in the national spotlight with a new HBO drama. The Wire had built into it the distinction between good police work (painstaking, intensive, focused on real harm) and bad (petty busts and harassment to drive up arrest numbers and make politicians look good). English, Romania And hes the worst officer doing the worst things.. Theres been so much rightful attention on police brutality and so we know when an officer shoots somebody theres an injury, theres a death. The presence of a local filmmaking community can have a positive impact on citizens and neighborhoods. 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. Fenton, 38, who worked for the Baltimore Sun newspaper for 17 years and is now at the Baltimore Banner, a new non-profit newsroom, says: I do definitely wonder if it happens again, if its happening right now, will I know? The Bachelor Has Two Maryland Contestants. English, Korea In a war, you count the bodies and then you call them victories., Its a strong editorial, but that does not make for a great show. The city knows that Suiter was going to testify against a group of corrupt cops and there is this history of corruption in the police department in Baltimore, then that lack of trust is amplified throughout this city., So the first theory that folks are thinking is, Of course you guys killed him. At the center of The Slow Hustle is Baltimore Police Department detective Sean Suiter. But at the same time, this was a police officer. I was sitting up at CBGBs [music club], the only Black girl with shaved hair, screaming, and I had a zine. Theyre a very private family. HBOs We Own This City Production team is proud to be working with many local Baltimore non-profits to create positive change in the communities where we filmed. Its arguments are bold and impossible to miss. Portuguese, Brazil, Chile When institutions cant solve their own problems, the people suffer. Local hero and cage-fighting super-cop Wayne Jenkins was federally indicted on racketeering charges, along with six other members of Baltimore's elite Gun Trace Task Force. Sonja Sohn directed "The Slow Hustle." info_outline, Hungary 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. Reports showed that Suiter had been presentand involved in some waywith a 2010 incident in which GTTF members, using unmarked cars, attempted to rob two Black men who subsequently fled the scene, resulting in a car chase and auto accident that killed an innocent motorist. And that case right there has a connection to many other cases that were in the public eye at the time. e was praised as a positive role model. French English, Turkey With police reform stalled in Congress, and Republicans stoking fear of rising crime in major cities, does she believe the momentum of the Black Lives Matter protests can be sustained? THE SLOW HUSTLE follows Detective Suitors widow and local investigative reporters as they work to get answers in the Suiter case and hold the Baltimore Police Department and City Hall accountable. Why isnt his death solved by now? And the rumors start to tear Baltimore apart. You get a guy on a wiretap talking to drug dealers about drugs and then you just keep pulling that string.. Right now were dealing on a mass level with this lack of trust of law enforcement because of the way they have treated Black folks. And so it's clear to me this is another way to look at the question of how we're going to restructure a - how we're going to create another structure for protection and safety because right now, I'm not convinced that "defunding the police," quote, unquote, is really the thing because that's supporting social structures that support the people. Directed by Tiller Russell, The Seven Five examines police corruption in the 75th precinct of the NYPD. He lives in Del Ray. English, Poland Was his death a calculated effort to keep him silent, or was Suiter himself a cop under scrutiny with a past he couldnt face? How, why and by whom has never been solved. Will members of the community reach out to us? Except, as The Slow Hustle soon reveals, things werent as cut and dried as they initially appeared. The crime drama series is based on Justin Fenton's 2021 nonfiction book of the same name and stars . 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. [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 Director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer D. Watkins, along with George Pelecanos and David Simon, discuss the importance of accuracy and authenticity when creating this series based on true events. 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. Having thus stipulated, it would also be absurd to pretend not to notice the connection. FLORIDO: D. Watkins - that's one of the journalists who covers this case as it's playing out and who you feature in the film. Coming to the city was was kind of a reckoning with my own self. The Wires Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: We are seeing multilayered corruption, Director Sonja Sohn interviewing D Watkins for The Slow Hustle. Ex-po. 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. 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. Its remarkable.. Exploring crime-related stories and the issues surrounding them, the anthology includes: 2023 Warner Bros. Spanish. BALTIMORE A documentary film profiling Baltimore's police department in the wake of Detective Sean Suiter's on-duty death is set to hit television and streaming services next month. Copyright 2021 NPR. FLORIDO: Your film really does document the Baltimore Police Department's long history of corruption. English, Italy As "The Slow Hustle" (2021 release; 88 min.) 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. A far-reaching corruption scandal is the last thing Baltimore's troubled police department needs. English, Thailand David Simon returns to a familiar beat for HBO, updating if not improving on an old critique. The corruption has cost Baltimore taxpayers more than $13 million in settlements with victims and hundreds of cases the corrupt officers worked on had to be thrown out. So you have to think thats making a difference. English, Philippines April 24, 2022 Let us stipulate that it is unfair to compare any series to "The Wire," even if it is about policing, even if it is set in Baltimore, even if it happens to be made by two of the. Baltimore and its scandal-plagued Gun Trace Task Force comes into focus in the documentary I Got A Monster, the feature directorial debut of Kevin Abrams. I was asked by an HBO executive if I was interested in pursuing this topic, if maybe there was a certain kind of perspective or access that I had to offer. Sohn was at home in North Carolina when George Floyd, a Black man, was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis last year. Engaging the journalists was, I think, one of the better decisions that I made. On Wednesday morning, former Baltimore police Sgt. The true story of the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force. Along the way, though, you got a lot of rich personal stories to invest in, which is how dramas with a broad social scope manage to succeed as both art and argument. The Feds prepare charges. Executive produced byGeorge Pelecanos (The Deuce) and David Simon (The Wire) -- and based on the book by Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton --We Own This Cityis a six-hour, limited series chronicling the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force. He and members of the GTTF framed the two men that Jenkins had been pursuing by planting drug evidence. 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. 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. Sgt Wayne Jenkins was the ringleader and is the central protagonist of the book and TV series. What, he asks Steele, is driving the polices actions? I think the other thing that really got me was understanding that with this crime not being solved, with this death not being solved, if the police are involved in that, then theyre willing to throw this family under the bus. 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. HBO alum Kary Antholis also serves as executive producer; Bill Zorzi as writer/co-executive producer, and D. Watkins as writer. Created by David Simon, this seminal series explores the world of crime in Baltimore through the lenses of both civilians and law enforcement. And in a war, you need warriors. English, Singapore A still from "Adrienne.". For me this case, and the familys position in this case, represent the microcosm of the macrocosm, she says. 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. There was no specific training for supervisors. We glimpse Steeles motives when she recalls her brothers being racially profiled by police. That revelation leads to speculation that maybe Suiter's killing was an inside job meant to keep him quiet, or that maybe he took his own life. The GTTF officers provide additional damning evidence. I want to just give the team credit; theyve been making documentaries for 30 years. Greenwich Entertainment has just. The film follows Suiters family as it tries to get answers about his death. English, Portugal English, Bulgaria In 2017, Baltimore was rocked by the federal indictment of Wayne Jenkins, a highly decorated super-cop and leader of. In March 2017, eight members of the GTTF were indicted and arrested on federal charges of robbery, extortion, overtime fraud and selling drugs seized during police operations. The actor-turned-directors new film The Slow Hustle tells the story of a detective who was killed just before he was set to testify in a corruption case. See the full list of We Own This Citycast and charactershere. The HBO drama is based on Justin Fentons nonfiction book of the same name. Theyre up in that supreme court and they are winning. That is D.s perspective within the film. Kostoplis was transferred out of the GTTF soon after. I can make a movie. What I knew from the get-go was that the crime scene was going to be critical, so there was going to have to be a graphics person on board to help us illuminate some of those details. We Own This City Review: Baltimore Police Problems, Rewired, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/arts/television/we-own-this-city-review.html. Wood Jr. woke up to find his phone full of thousands of new Twitter notifications. It tells how a shift in policing strategy in 2007 led to the creation of the GTTF amid concern that police had spent too long pursuing drugs rather than guns. Bromwich, a senior counsel at the law firm Steptoe, says by phone: People were promoted without any sense of whether they would be capable of managing people. 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.