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Comment by phren0logy | Hacker News Reader

So I guess "The Wire" was basically a documentary?

The situation sounds much more like The Shield. The Wire was focused on institutional problems. It was more interested in the tragedy that incentives in the police force and city government were such that barely an iota of thought was ever given as to how to actually fix the problems of the city. Instead most work was expended in public relations efforts, cooking the books and ass covering. There was one storyline in season 1 where Herc and Carver thought about pocketing some drug money instead of turning it in as evidence, but they ended up giving it back didn't they?

The Shield on the other hand..

Yeah, main character(s) of the Wire were "good police" which is what caused many of them to self destruct trying to get actual police work done in a setting where politics was more important than justice.

These guys don't exactly sound like good police: "The unit, whose purpose was to get guns off the street, even stole and sold guns."

They think about stealing but realize that they might get caught due to the wiretap. In a later season when they're taking part in a raid with a dead wiretap and no risk of being caught after the fact, they do take the money.

The entire 5th season has most of the department cooking the books to get their overtime pay.

> They think about stealing but realize that they might get caught due to the wiretap.

If I remember correctly they still and accidentally lose some of that money in the back of their car. Lt. Daniels notices and tells them to bring it it back. They find it, but it looks bad regardless of their honest intentions. ("Do you think he believed us?" - "Would you?")

It is not exactly the same because real Baltimore cops would not even consider the possibility of being caught and know that if they were, nothing would happen to them.

Reminder that Lance Reddick's character in The Wire made his money stealing from drug dealers. This fact was later used to blackmail him into resigning as Police Commissioner when they threatened to use the info to derail his estranged wife's political career.

Man, the main character from the shield was one scary effing guy.

The Wire was more sympathetic to the police, probably because of the Ed Burns influence.

The creator worked the city desk/homicide reporting for 12 years @ the Baltimore Sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Simon

Yes it basically is based on true stories. I live in Baltimore, I should say just lived, because I just moved out. The city is every bit as corrupt, dangerous, and malicious as it's made out to be. Don't want anything further to do with this city. And the folks here were delirious thinking that Amazon was going to set up HQ2.

I also recently moved away (I wonder if we know one another), in the last 18 months , and was blown away by everyone's collective delusions about Amazon. With the police terrorizing most communities, the lack of heat in the schools, and the delay in bike plan implementation to 2020+, I can't believe anyone thought it was even a remote possibility.

>the lack of heat in the schools https://twitter.com/AaronMMaybin/status/948632894699921409

The inner harbor area seems safe enough and has interesting tourist sites including several museum ships.

But the crab cakes are so good!

I've always liked Baltimore, but I never lived there. I used to visit every year when I lived up North, but since moving to Richmond, I haven't been up at all. I kind of miss the weird grittiness it has.

Yep. Been living here for around 12-13 years and it's definitely a mixed bag. Plenty not to like about it, but that can be said for many cities with the sort of history as this one. Not planning to move anytime soon (partly because I love living close to work and partly because it's a relatively affordable city compared to some others in the region. Suburbs aren't for me and I guess on some Sisyphean level, I don't like the idea of just moving because it's got problems. When the only people who don't flee to the 'burbs are those who are unable, you get issues like this city's been seeing for years.

Been here for almost 4 and agree about the affordability aspect. You could buy a rowhome less than 3 miles from O's stadium for like 250k in a not-terrible neighborhood.

It was written by David Simon..so yeah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Simon

In light of those current issues I wish David Simon would revisit Baltimore and "The Wire". However I guess he's busy with "The Deuce" these days.

Based on true stories, and if it wasn't a British guy cast in a lead role you would find a lot of the actual local 'personalities' in the show.

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