With a mission to improve Baltimore through green space and education, Parks & Peoplebelieves that everyone deserves a park as a place to learn, play, grow and enjoy. The Slow Hustle contains interviews with Suiters widow and children, lawyers, politicians and investigative journalists, and Baltimore police including former commissioner Kevin Davis. In the case of [the detective] Maurice Ward, he said it was an accident: he didnt turn in drugs and he realised that nobody asked him about it and then he sees other people around him skimming money and its like, Wow, we can do this and nothings going to happen. And it just escalates from there.. English, The Netherlands 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. At the center of The Slow Hustle is Baltimore Police Department detective Sean Suiter. United States Having thus stipulated, it would also be absurd to pretend not to notice the connection. The Slow Hustle starts with shocking footage of Suiters body being discovered (Oh, my god!, Sean, no! English, Romania Naturally, Suiters wife Nicole didnt take kindly to the notion that her husband had offed himself in a supposed plan to avoid testifying, and the medical examiner failed to shed conclusive light on the situation. She's also an actor. Police stuffing their pockets and rationalizing it as their just dues was the subject of The Shield (itself inspired by a Los Angeles police scandal), which celebrates its own 20-year anniversary this spring. You were filming as this was all playing out in real time. 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. When we spoke recently, I asked what drew her to Detective Suiter's case. It is revealed that Suiter had been summoned to testify in the now infamous Gun Trace Task Force trial, an elite police unit that proved to be one of the dirtiest in Baltimores recent history. The GTTF officers provide additional damning evidence. D. is what I would call a true son of Baltimore and a voice of Baltimore. Here, WWD looks at 11 new documentaries and docuseries to watch in December 2021. Fenton, who worked as a consultant on the six-episode TV drama, says: It really is just absolutely staggering. Then I thought, okay, heres the possibility of actually solving the case. 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. ReBUILD Metro is a community change organization that revitalizes historically redlined neighborhoods of East Baltimore without displacing their legacy residents. 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? The presence of a local filmmaking community can have a positive impact on citizens and neighborhoods. For years its plainclothes officers went on a a crime spree that included robbing people they stopped on the streets, planting drugs and guns on innocent people, invading peoples homes and stealing from them as well as fraudulently charging the city for working overtime. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Its arguments are bold and impossible to miss. 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. Do we extend that to law enforcement as well? I said, Where were you? Sean!) in an alley in West Baltimore, an area notorious for poverty, segregation and violent crime. Read on for more. And I think that's quite a journey that we're all on here, you know, in this country. Kostoplis replied: No. English, Vietnam 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 figures behind that HBO all-time great, which marks its two-decade anniversary this year. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. 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. Baltimore prosecutors want greater flexibility to undo convictions after Gun Trace Task Force scandal. The GTTF further damaged the already troubled relationship between police and residents of Baltimore, especially communities of colour. Watch these additional moments featuring Sean Suiter's family attorney, Jeremy Eldridge. Will it be reported? Oh, Lord. Why isnt his death solved by now? 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. We Own This City seems to question not whether good policing exists but whether the current system makes it impossible. 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. It begins with dramatic real-life body-cam footage filmed just after a shooting in the Harlem Park neighborhood of Baltimore. Wayne Jenkins Wikipedia, age, wife, children, Baltimore police, corruption history, movie. The HBO drama is based on Justin Fentons nonfiction book of the same name. I want to just give the team credit; theyve been making documentaries for 30 years. But theres a lot of pushback of course. They connect people in need with high quality used furniture and household goods, helping them to establish a sense of pride and stability. The Wires Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: We are seeing multilayered corruption, Director Sonja Sohn interviewing D Watkins for The Slow Hustle. 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. Whatever Happened to Permanent Daylight Saving Time? The phones are smarter; the law enforcement machinery is not. (The 2021 HBO documentary The Slow Hustle, by the Wire alum Sonja Sohn, touched on aspects of the case.) Scenes for the HBO show based on Justin Fenton's book about the corruption in the Baltimore Police Department Gun Trace Task Force are being filmed outside the vacant Bengies Groceries in the 4000 . I think Baltimore does what it did to me and its a divine mirror. Maurice Ward recounts how Jenkins remained unscathed despite several illegal incidents. English, Turkey An independent review board ruled that the 43-year-old detective had in fact shot himself a finding that his family and others vehemently reject. English, Poland They are joined by longtime collaborators Nina K. Noble as executive producer, and Ed Burns as writer/executive producer. His elite unit came to be seen by senior commanders as a bulwark against chaos. Michael A. 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. See the full cast here. Was his death a calculated effort to keep him silent, or was Suiter himself a cop under scrutiny with a past he couldnt face? 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. Once they realized that the rules that supposedly exist didnt really exist, its a slippery slope into saying, Well, Im dealing with bad guys and theyve made a lot of money through dealing drugs or whatever. Nobody knew. Podcast episodes are available each week right after the latest episode. Theres been so much rightful attention on police brutality and so we know when an officer shoots somebody theres an injury, theres a death. Momodu Gondo finds himself in an interrogation. The editor, Donna Marino, she had something to do with that. It found an extended institutional failure of the police departments internal affairs along with broad supervisory breakdowns. But at the same time, this was a police officer. Kostoplis was transferred out of the GTTF soon after. SOHN: Well, you know, that's a really good question because, yes, there was a lot floating through the air. While an Independent Review Board was ultimately created to get to the bottom of this, its conclusionthat Suiter had taken his own lifedidnt convince skeptics, especially considering that its final report featured at least one glaring factual error that undercut its reliability. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. What, he asks Steele, is driving the polices actions? Exploring crime-related stories and the issues surrounding them, the anthology includes: 2023 Warner Bros. 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. The six-episode scripted series is at once an extension, an updating and a partial revision of their landmark dramas critique of policing. FLORIDO: Your film really does document the Baltimore Police Department's long history of corruption. The convicted officers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to 25 years. THE SLOW HUSTLE debuts TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7 (8:00-9:30 p.m. ET/PT). English, United States How, why and by whom has never been solved. info_outline, Includes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo - Brazzaville, Congo - Kinshasa, Cte dIvoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Guyana, Madagascar, Mali, Martinique, Mauritius, Monaco, Niger, Runion, Senegal, Togo, Germany, Austria, Switzerland The Baltimore police department, recognising that the problem was perhaps guns more than drugs, wanted to have a smarter approach. I believe that this film substantiates further in a different way how broken the structure of law enforcement is. See production, box office & company info, Undercurrent: The Disappearance of Kim Wall, Bad tidings in the Baltimore Police Department. This beautiful family who is patient and has faith in them, they really dont care. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE SLOW HUSTLE"). 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. Im still worth something., The Slow Hustle is now available on HBO with a UK date to be announced. Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor. We Own This City is still a very good show, with granular realism, a sly sense of humor and fine acting top to bottom. 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. And Josh Charles (The Good Wife) plays impressively against type as Daniel Hersl, a bullet-headed task-force thug who makes Jenkins look like a diplomat. Stream on HBO Max on Dec. 1. French Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. What you might miss is the vivid human tapestry that brings this kind of institutional analysis to life on the screen and keeps it alive in your memory. 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". The two men were sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. 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. And I felt that the rumors, you know, also have some validity because there is a history of corruption, though rumors, you know, can't always be proven. The Feds prepare charges. For me this case, and the familys position in this case, represent the microcosm of the macrocosm, she says. She grew up in Newport News, Virginia, had a stint in New York as a slam poet and recorded an album in London. I did not want to initially direct another film that involves law enforcement. Their solution: They sold the drugs and firearm back onto the street. 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 doesnt deliver a definitive resolution to its central question. Rayam opens up about the GTTF. Watkins is the most outspoken of The Slow Hustles many talking heads, but even he confesses that anythings possible when it comes to Suiter, given that its difficult to ascertain the nature and degree of his involvement with the GTTF. I had my moment of doing all of that. We Own This City tends to choose telling over showing, however, especially on the investigation side of the story. Anyone can read what you share. Maryland State Senator Jill P. Carter helps contextualize some of the social and political misdeeds that have led to an environment that so easily breeds institutional misconduct. Suspicions were aroused that a hit had been ordered to silence him. Reinaldo Marcus Green directs and serves as executive producer. "Adrienne". 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.. And there was all of this corruption that he was around. 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. 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. There was no specific training for supervisors. Filmmaker and actress Sonja Sohn of "The Wire" returns with the follow-up to her 2017 documentary"Baltimore Rising." The new film, titled "The Slow Hustle," looks to be an equally powerful look. 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 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. He became a police cadet in 2003, married and bought a house. This emphasis on numbers and quantity over quality really had a corrosive effect on the police department and influenced the conduct of officers. I was sitting up at CBGBs [music club], the only Black girl with shaved hair, screaming, and I had a zine. It opens as Jenkins gives a speech to his unit in which he seems to say the right things that beating on people gets in the way of doing the job and that, in the task force, were not about that kind of brutality. Another 156 people had been injured in shootings, up from 115 in the corresponding period. English, Thailand That produces a culture taken to its extreme, which it was in Baltimore by many, that the ends justify the means, Bromwich continues. Spanish, Colombia We dont always like what we see but we need to see whats in that mirror if were going to actually present truthfully in the world.. But these challenges continue and I wonder how we will know if the department has fixed itself. Det James Kostoplis testified that, soon after joining the GTTF, he was asked by Jenkins to go for a ride. 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. 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). There are other theories. She is the director of the new HBO documentary called "The Slow Hustle." 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. Five years after the Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal broke, a new report is giving the first comprehensive account of how the Baltimore Police Department repeatedly failed to address . Sonja, thank you for joining us. 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. THE SLOW HUSTLE includes insightful commentary from journalists who remain determined to speak truth to power, including Justin Fenton, author of We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops and Corruption and D. Watkins, author of We Speak for Ourselves: How Woke Culture Prohibits Progress who believes the shooting death of Suiter could have been an inside job. It wasnt that we heard about them all the time. 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. His book A Bigger Field Awaits Us: The Scottish Soccer Team That Fought the Great War was published in 2018. The unsolved case also sparked far-reaching implications for a city already grappling with the complexities of policing in contemporary, urban America. 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. I think of Baltimore as my soul home, Sohn, 57, says by phone from North Carolinas Outer Banks. By Samuel Sasu April 26, 2022. 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