The program serves men in re-entry, addiction recovery, and veterans returning to the workforce. FLORIDO: Your film really does document the Baltimore Police Department's long history of corruption. 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. Police Sgt Wayne Jenkins is now serving a prison sentence until January 2039. Fenton explains in a phone interview from Baltimore: It started as a way to try to do more sophisticated gun trafficking cases. 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. 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. A far-reaching corruption scandal is the last thing Baltimore's troubled police department needs. However, in this particular instance, the dynamics at play arent quite as clear-cut as that description makes them sound. The convicted officers were sentenced to prison terms ranging from seven to 25 years. We Own This City instead works as a kind of appendix, an updated extra for Simon and Pelecanoss existing, well-earned fan base. They didnt trot these guys out for press conferences. Its like someone describing how they first stole money. I dont know about the soul, because Nicole is the soul of the film, or maybe Nicole is the heart. Canada I feel like the city is a reflection of my own psyche. e was praised as a positive role model. The Slow Hustle exists at the intersection of true crime and social justice documentaries, concerned as it is with a fatal mystery wrapped up in an epidemic of police corruption. info_outline, Includes: Ascension Island, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, St. Helena, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Eswatini, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Finland They connect people in need with high quality used furniture and household goods, helping them to establish a sense of pride and stability. I was railing when there was nobody railing with me. Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor. 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. David Simon returns to a familiar beat for HBO, updating if not improving on an old critique. 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. 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. German Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. We Own This City seems to question not whether good policing exists but whether the current system makes it impossible. And I think that its a very valid perspective, which is why I made sure it was included in the film. Stream on HBO Max on Dec. 1. Baltimore is rocked by the Freddie Gray protests. On Wednesday morning, former Baltimore police Sgt. 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. Jenkins learns stark truths about policing as a new officer. Start from the beginning and watch the first episode ofWe Own This Cityfor free. 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. Suiter is assigned to a new murder case. And so I really hope we're talking about not recreating, you know, revamping the system, but I think it's really about creating a new structure for public safety and in a time where Americans across the board are - to some degree, are triggered by law enforcement. 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 . Jenkins duly tested his colleagues willingness to put personal loyalty to him above their oaths to uphold the law. English, Italy Like, even if youre a police officer, they really dont.. 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Jenkins brings Suiter along on a raid. United States Jenkins learns his fellow officers are cooperating with the investigation as the full extent of his crimes come to light. 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. 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. 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. Despite numerous complaints, Hersl is placed on the GTTF. D. is what I would call a true son of Baltimore and a voice of Baltimore. From top left, Daniel Hersl, Evodio Hendrix, Jemell Rayam, Marcus Taylor, and from bottom left, Maurice Ward, Momodu Gando, Wayne Jenkins and Thomas Allers. 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 Georges 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. Will members of the community reach out to us? It wasnt that we heard about them all the time. As Nicole Steele, a civil-rights-division attorney, Wunmi Mosaku does all she can to create a character who feels her mission deeply and who chafes at her departments resistance to real change. I can make a movie. Jenkins followed in his fathers footsteps by joining the Marines but happened to leave with an honourable discharge just a month before the September 11 terrorist attacks. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The results of this quest were predictably meager, and it wasnt long before pressure began to mount on Commissioner Kevin Davisfrom both the public and the mayorto find the assailant who killed this heroic cop in the line of duty. English, Bulgaria 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. 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. Then I thought, okay, heres the possibility of actually solving the case. Oh, Lord. 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. FLORIDO: That was Sonja Sohn. Nobody knew. I didnt know how much I had been impacted by it physically until 2020 came and I saw the correlation, she says. The official podcast of the HBO Original Limited Series. I think of Baltimore as my soul home, Sohn, 57, says by phone from North Carolinas Outer Banks. In total, the task . Spanish, Mexico Theyre up in that supreme court and they are winning. Suiter faces distrust of the police at a crime scene. Suspicions were aroused that a hit had been ordered to silence him. FLORIDO: The officer shot that day in 2017 was Baltimore Police Detective Sean Suiter. Its arguments are bold and impossible to miss. This malaise, Sohn points out, goes beyond Baltimore and policing in general. This series may not change the game. 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. Former members of the GTTF. 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. Except, as The Slow Hustle soon reveals, things werent as cut and dried as they initially appeared. It is not a good look.. The crime drama series is based on Justin Fenton's 2021 nonfiction book of the same name and stars . And so being able to make that connection, I think, to those other cases was in the back of my mind. I said, Where were you? 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 revelation that Suiter was granted limited immunity for testifying didnt clear anything up either; the fact remains that its conceivable he was executed for planning to rat out his friends, shot in a random skirmish gone wrong, or killed by his own hand in order to avoid facing future legal prosecution. Maurice Ward recounts how Jenkins remained unscathed despite several illegal incidents. 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. 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. They told us not just what they did but how and that was very eye-opening testimony. The two men were sent to prison for crimes they did not commit. He enjoyed the admiration and respect of his superiors and was given special privileges. We Own This City Review: Baltimore Police Problems, Rewired, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/arts/television/we-own-this-city-review.html. 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.. As new evidence emerges, the mystery deepens. 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. English, Pakistan His death set off a massive manhunt for the killer, and Suiter gets a hero's funeral. Courtesy of HBO Max . Obvious answers werent forthcoming, but many came to think that if the latter were true, Suiter might not have been murdered at all; rather, he could have committed suicide, and staged it to look like a homicide so that his family would receive his full post-mortem benefits. Why isnt his death solved by now? Suiter died just a day before he was due to testify before a federal grand jury investigating an elite Baltimore police unit, part of one of the worst law enforcement corruption cases in recent US history. Im not sure the police have proven that.. There was no specific training for supervisors. Looking for more? English, Poland See the full cast here. 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. The true story of the Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force. 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. 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. English, Russia Executive producers George Pelecanos, David Simon, cast, and crew go behind the scenes. The Slow Hustle doesnt deliver a definitive resolution to its central question. Whats Their Deal? Fenton has spoken to many people in Jenkins orbit and made multiple attempts to contact Jenkins in prison but without success. NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with director and actor Sonja Sohn about her new film, The Slow Hustle. 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. Spanish, Colombia English, Australia It begins with dramatic real-life body-cam footage filmed just after a shooting in the Harlem Park neighborhood of Baltimore. info_outline, Hungary 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. A still from "Adrienne.". We Own This City: Created by George Pelecanos, David Simon. You know, you cant have a badge on your chest and do things like that.. He and members of the GTTF framed the two men that Jenkins had been pursuing by planting drug evidence. With Jon Bernthal, Wunmi Mosaku, Jamie Hector, Josh Charles. English, Argentina 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? 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. 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