baltimore police corruption documentary

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. So rumors and speculation ran rampant about what really happened to Officer Suiter, not just among residents, but also among politicians, among journalists. FLORIDO: That was Sonja Sohn. Exploring crime-related stories and the issues surrounding them, the anthology includes: 2023 Warner Bros. English, New Zealand At the center of it all lies a fallen officer and the complexities of life in one of the most investigated police departments in the country, where impropriety appears to penetrate a broken system at every level. Their solution: They sold the drugs and firearm back onto the street. English, Portugal D. is what I would call a true son of Baltimore and a voice of Baltimore. So the federal investigation that eventually brought Jenkins and some of his cronies to justice is no spoiler. It wasnt a very large initiative, just a handful of officers, a single unit, and they went about their work with little fanfare. 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. 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. (And even Pryzbylewski eventually redeemed himself.). I think of Baltimore as my soul home, Sohn, 57, says by phone from North Carolinas Outer Banks. Whats Their Deal? Includes: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo - Brazzaville, Congo - Kinshasa, Cte d'Ivoire, Djibouti . They are joined by longtime collaborators Nina K. Noble as executive producer, and Ed Burns as writer/executive producer. African-American police officer Sean Suiter is pronounced dead soon thereafter. HBO Documentary Films presents A Blowback Production THE SLOW HUSTLE director and producer, Sonja Sohn; executive producers, Marc Levin, Kary Antholis, Sonja Sohn; supervising producer, Daphne Pinkerson; producer, Mahrya MacIntire. English, Turkey For HBO: senior producer, Sara Rodriguez; executive producers, Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller. Engaging the journalists was, I think, one of the better decisions that I made. 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). Actor Darrell Britt-Gibson (Jemell Rayam) and technical adviser Detective Andres Severino sit down together to talk about the friendship they formed while making We Own This City, and how working together opened their eyes to new perspectives. 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. 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. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I got one officer down. Many residents in the city, especially in Black communities, just don't trust the police. So that's sort of like the sieve through which the rumors come through. That twist alone makes The Slow Hustle a fascinating whodunit, and complicating matters further, it eventually came out that Suiter may not have been as clean as people thought. We are seeing multilayered corruption with new eyes as a culture. 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. It is not a good look.. Im not victimising real people if I steal some of their ill-gotten gains, so if I go into their homes and I find $100,000, Ill take $20,000 of it and nobody will be the wiser because these are people who are compromised and theyre not going to complain and, if they do complain, nobodys going to believe them because theyve got criminal records., You take that and you multiply it by a large number of officers who get captured by that culture and what you get is the gun trace task force., We Own This City airs on Mondays on HBO in the US, on Binge and Foxtel Now in Australia, and in the UK at a later date, The Wires Sonja Sohn on her Baltimore documentary: We are seeing multilayered corruption, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. 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. With Jon Bernthal, Wunmi Mosaku, Jamie Hector, Josh Charles. 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. That is D.s perspective within the film. 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. It also tracks several local journalists, including Baltimore Sunreporter Justin Fenton andSalon editor-at-large D. Watkins, while they parse the investigation into Suiters death to its official andto many, including Suiters familyunsatisfying conclusion. 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. Supervisors had no incentive to report misconduct by their underlings because, given the culture of the police department, that would put them in a bad odour in the rest of the department.. 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. Coming to the city was was kind of a reckoning with my own self. But the GTTFs reign of impunity was cut short when a suburban drug investigation happened to reveal one officers contacts with a drug organisation. 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. I got one officer down. THE SLOW HUSTLE is included in a collection of four gripping documentary titles that debut on Tuesdays, beginning November 23. With candid interviews from members of the Baltimore P.D., Suiters widow and children, journalists committed to uncovering the truth, 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. For me this case, and the familys position in this case, represent the microcosm of the macrocosm, she says. Led by interviews with Salons D. Watkins (a Baltimore native), The Baltimore Suns Justin Fenton and WMAR-TVs Brian Kuebler, Sohns film immerses itself in a city plagued by pervasive distrust of the police, thanks to a long history of corruption, harassment and murderthe most recent and notorious example of which was the 2015 killing of Freddie Gray. 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. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. 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 police department is now under federal oversight but the decades-old spectre of corruption lingers. 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. They were veritable gangsters, and the fact that Suiter died in this puzzling manner a mere day before he was speaking to the feds about his shady colleagues raised immediate suspicions that he was actually the victim of an orchestrated hit. It found an extended institutional failure of the police departments internal affairs along with broad supervisory breakdowns. Through media arts education, Wide Angle Youth Media cultivates and amplifies the voices of Baltimore youth to engage audiences across generational, cultural, and social divides. Its arguments are bold and impossible to miss. SOHN: Well, you know, that's a really good question because, yes, there was a lot floating through the air. The creators, cast, and crew discuss the rigorous research and attention to detail that went into bringing this true story to life in Baltimore. 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. The six-episode scripted series is at once an extension, an updating and a partial revision of their landmark dramas critique of policing. opens, it's "November 15, 2017" and we hear a frantic 911 call about a Baltimore police officer having been shot, and we then get the body cam footage as cops arrive on the scene. Suiter faces distrust of the police at a crime scene. Fenton, who worked as a consultant on the six-episode TV drama, says: It really is just absolutely staggering. We Own This City is based on the true story of the Baltimore police department's Gun Trace Task Force division and the corruption that . As new evidence emerges, the mystery deepens. Portuguese, Brazil, Chile He was praised as a positive role model. Executive producers George Pelecanos, David Simon, cast, and crew go behind the scenes. I dont think were losing momentum. 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. Copyright 2021 NPR. The official podcast of the HBO Original Limited Series. So there was something different. A unit of the Baltimore Police Department, the Gun Trace Task Force, was supposed to target guns and drugs on the city's streets. 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". 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. Long history of neglect: why are missing Black people still less likely to be found? Ex-po. And in a war, you need warriors. Canada 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. The Feds prepare charges. The Slow Hustle starts with shocking footage of Suiters body being discovered (Oh, my god!, Sean, no! Having thus stipulated, it would also be absurd to pretend not to notice the connection. English, Denmark To reveal one officers contacts with a drug organisation Ed Burns as writer/executive producer the rumors through., no son of Baltimore and a partial revision of their landmark dramas critique of policing is what I call! Dead soon thereafter of his cronies to justice is no spoiler engaging journalists! 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