Baltimore, Maryland is often ranked and promoted as one of the most dangerous cities in America. The city has become a butt of political jokes, multiple news segments about shootings, violence, inner-city poverty and corruption in its government politics amongst others. Baltimore has come to be known like this for reasons that are not hidden from many if they cared to know: decades of discrimination and racism. Drugs propelled the city in the 1980s while structural racism had struck by early 1900s denying African-Americans and Jews ability to buy homes or access services as well as opportunities enjoyed by Whites. Despite once being home to some of the largest free black populations, black citizens lost various rights through segregation and Jim Crow.
Nowadays critics have focused attention on the police department within Baltimore. On duty, several cops were caught with fake arrests where they planted drugs on innocent people. Moreover, many people have continuously attacked this department over its overuse of force particularly towards African American men which sometimes end up in death such as in case of Freddie Grey. However there may be one television show that might ring a bell when it comes to Baltimore’s cops-The Wire. This was created by David Simon who used to work for Baltimore Sun newspaper hence revealing what is currently happening in urban life as well as law enforcement within the city.
It was Simon together with fellow The Wire writer George Pelecanos who conceived HBO Max miniseries We Own This City. The book “We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption” written by another journalist at Baltimore Sun named Justin Fenton formed the basis for We Own This City (miniseries) which he wrote himself . Two months after HBO Max ordered officially ordered the series; Reinaldo Marcus Green who directed King Richard got on board to direct all episodes related to it since he was brought up natively New York city native but his parents originated from Jamaica . We Own This City primary cast includes names like Jon Bernthal, Jamie Hector, Wunmi Mosaku, Josh Charles and Darrell Britt-Gibson among others. There are some actors from The Wire who also appear in this show cementing the links between its plot and that of the other series.
From the word go, We Own This City sets its standpoint. A cop is seen lecturing his comrades against cuts of Baltimore streets by a camera. “All that authority you think you have, it goes out the window when some cat wants to try it,” he says as the camera cuts to a baton twirling in a cop’s hand. “When you got to fight,” he continues, “you got to win. There’s people who think police brutality is when police win fights. Last time I checked aren’t we supposed to win fights?” As he says this, the camera sweeps over Black men on the streets appearing uneasy as the cop walks past them. That is how it is for Police in Baltimore or to be more precise that is what they expect themselves to do while on duty!
What we see in the show is a demonstration of brutality which says that there is a thin line between legally acceptable actions and morality in law enforcement. Thus, the show wants to know what constitutes as a crime for policemen. A man stands outside a corner store. An officer walks up to him and shatters his drink with his baton. That might not be against the law, but these cops will push boundaries in order to make them break it. Can anyone stop those who are supposed to be keeping us safe? This is the plot of We Own This City.
While The Wire may have had some good seeds in its police system, this show comes in with a vengeance. These officers insult their victims, cursing them out and inflicting a violent reign of terror with their on-screen arrests. At the head of these shenanigans is Sgt. Wayne Jenkins (Bernthal), a quick riser through the ranks. “I was born to do this,” he boasts at one point during episode one where he talks about planting drugs and pilfering money from those arrested. As time goes on, Jenkins moves up as head of the Gun Trace Task Force which serves as the core group of characters for this tale. He is charismatic and well-connected to both Baltimore County and Harford County police—exposing that this is an issue beyond the Baltimore City Police Department.
This film recounts events from real life involving members of what were later called Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). Eight out of nine officers comprising GTTF engaged in unlawful activities while it was being formed; nine individuals originally created the unit itself.Their purpose, when they began, was just to put an end gun violence on streets, but then became everything else but that.They preyed on victims by stealing from them, carrying guns around so corpses could be planted with weapons you could use if you killed someone unintentionally once shooting occurred – all reasons behind this seemed ok for themselves at least – stealing drugs for re-selling them. Those, along with skyrocketing rates of violence, domestic abuse, murder transformed the town into an even greater turmoil.
An attorney (Mosaku) from the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights section notices the rampant corruption taking place in the city police and decides to investigate herself. The first time the lawyer comes on is while witnessing a violent act committed by a police officer against an unarmed black man; a crowd gathers around to see what’s going on and record it. Nicole played by Mosaku is antithesis of Wayne Jenkins too. Without having statistical data to back up why drug arrest is happening or a particular scenario unfolds as such, Jenkins simply depends on his charisma. She spells out racism and discrimination that take place behind scenes being objective and reasonable about the whole matter. Jenkins is charismatic, relying on his own misguided intuition to lay out the details of why he isn’t committing any crimes. Baltimore has some familiar scenes here: there’s always one cop who thinks he’s in charge when he isn’t, gritty corner stores with muffled rap playing somewhere in the distance, and you never feel free because you know you’re always being watched by law enforcement officials who are often racist and discriminatory towards Black people like herself.Nicole’s character lets us look behind this curtain of racism and discrimination which covers everything that happens in her work environment.Jenkins is not just charming but also tries to convince everyone that despite his actions there are no legal grounds for considering them as crimes.There are many moments in this story that we recognize from our city: we see cops acting important where they should not be; we spot those grimy little stores with their soft undertones of rap music seeping through walls; we have our constant fear that Big Brother really is watching after all.
Jenkins takes up more time on the screen, but We Own This City recognizes that it is a deeper problem than him. The GTTF may have been exposed and prosecuted, but Baltimore Police Department has a reputation of being anything but kind. Men of the GTTF were tutored by their forerunners who taught them how to rule with force on the streets. Wayne’s story is shown through flashbacks revealing how he became rotten like himself. It took several generations to arrive where police currently are and it might take a few more before these practices can be eliminated.
As attorney states in first episode, Baltimore has two eras. Freddie Grey’s name is continuously raised as the dividing line between these two eras. Before the death of Freddie Grey and Baltimore riots, the city was calm according to show’s timeline and certain characters such as mayor have indicated. But Nicole’ plot reveals that this happened after those riots turned an already bad situation into an even worse one.
White characters—many of whom are officers depicted in the show—make most of sweeping generalizations about peaceful and non-peaceful era—not surprising at all! What happened to Freddie grey could have been behind many darker happenings as various cops (2015) tried to get away from answering what actually transpired during that day or rather destiny. And that is what we will see here—that none of them thinks they are doing something wrong; it appears as another side of their job: spoils from an invented war.
In brief images caught off guard, We own this captures Baltimore’s soul on its streets although sometimes feels wooden. Police drama films especially those based on real events tend to behave in this way sometimes. There hasn’t been any change since The Wire premiered nearly two decades ago. If anything, it has grown far worse than before. In terms of execution We own this City looks grimmer towards future while telling a lost important story in mainstream media.
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