But the character functions mostly to deliver exposition and make, or receive, the shows arguments. Director Sonja Sohn Stars Umar Burley Jill Carter Kevin Davis That case gives the series its shape and through-line, but also a relentless, repetitive structure. All those season-ending montages seemed to say: No matter how you feel about the end of this or that particular story, the beat goes on. They are joined by longtime collaborators Nina K. Noble as executive producer, and Ed Burns as writer/executive producer. I was like a serious punk in the 80s, she laughs. At this point, its a more nuanced game. Kostoplis replied: No. English, Sweden English, France The streets, the drug houses, the cops pursuing petty busts to drive up their stats you can almost hear the voice telling you to keep the devil way down in the hole. Its remarkable.. 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. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE SLOW HUSTLE"). 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 George's 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. Right now were dealing on a mass level with this lack of trust of law enforcement because of the way they have treated Black folks. 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. The film is about one of the nation's biggest police corruption scandals. 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 It is not a good look.. Michael A. Theyre a very private family. We'll help you live your best #DCLIFE every day, A Bigger Field Awaits Us: The Scottish Soccer Team That Fought the Great War. Baltimore's history of police corruption The scandal broke at a time of struggle and high tensions between Baltimore community members and the police department. He enjoyed the admiration and respect of his superiors and was given special privileges. 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. Engaging the journalists was, I think, one of the better decisions that I made. He says: He was regarded well within the police department as someone who was good at his job, who had this eye for driving down the street and seeing somebody make a movement and it turns out that person has a gun. 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. How is this going to be investigated? In a heightened atmosphere of distrust between disenfranchised communities and the police, THE SLOW HUSTLE brings to light the challenges of uncovering the truth and highlights the devastating fallout on ordinary citizens and police officers alike. 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.. Tells the story of the rise and fall of the Baltimore Police Department's Gun Trace Task Force and the corruption surrounding it. 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. 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. THE SLOW HUSTLE, a feature documentary directed by Sonja Sohn (HBO's "Baltimore Rising", "The Wire"), chronicles the still unsolved death of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter, fatally shot in the head in 2017 while in the line of duty, and explores the ongoing speculation about what really happened that day. 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 city knows that Suiter was going to testify against a group of corrupt cops and there is this history of corruption in the police department in Baltimore, then that lack of trust is amplified throughout this city., So the first theory that folks are thinking is, Of course you guys killed him. 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. 388K views 4 years ago #AlJazeeraEnglish #BaltimorePolice It's been three years since Baltimore erupted in a series of protests over police violence, exposing deep divisions between the city's. Was Suiter an unwitting participant in a scheme carried out by rogue cops? Underpinning it all is a Wire-style critique of institutions, in particular a police department so hollowed out by corruption that even the attempt to solve the death of one of its own is met with insurmountable doubts. The cast and crew explore Baltimore as a character, touching on the real people and locations portrayed in the series. Focusing on the 1980s, the documentary tells the story of Michael Dowd, a former. However, in this particular instance, the dynamics at play arent quite as clear-cut as that description makes them sound. 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. Created by David Simon, this seminal series explores the world of crime in Baltimore through the lenses of both civilians and 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 . I can make a movie. She was, perhaps, a counterculture rebel and social justice activist before her time. Suiter is assigned to a new murder case. We Own This City: Created by George Pelecanos, David Simon. Police Sgt Wayne Jenkins is now serving a prison sentence until January 2039. German He and members of the GTTF framed the two men that Jenkins had been pursuing by planting drug evidence. FLORIDO: Your film really does document the Baltimore Police Department's long history of corruption. 2023 Home Box Office, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Premiering Dec. 7 on HBO and its streaming service, HBOMax, "The Slow Hustle" is said to provide an inside look at the Baltimore Police Department by exploring Suiter's "mysterious" death and . English, Singapore The crime drama series is based on Justin Fenton's 2021 nonfiction book of the same name and stars . Maybe this is intentional. Now she returns there with The Slow Hustle, an HBO documentary that examines the 2017 death of Sean Suiter, a widely respected Black police detective fatally shot in the head while on duty. info_outline, Hungary WATCH NOW The Slow Hustle, an HBO original documentary from director Sonja Sohn (HBO's " Baltimore Rising " and " The Wire "), chronicles the still unsolved death of Baltimore police detective Sean Suiter, fatally shot in 2017 while in the line of duty, and explores the ongoing speculation about what really happened that day. He lives in Del Ray. The Baltimore police department, recognising that the problem was perhaps guns more than drugs, wanted to have a smarter approach. Was his death a calculated effort to keep him silent, or was Suiter himself a cop under scrutiny with a past he couldnt face? 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. But at the same time, this was a police officer. Spanish. Instead, its members were convicted on corruption charges. A protest of Sean Suiters death in The Slow Hustle. I felt alone and I was happy. The series was shot in Baltimore and brings together several alumni of the The Wire, both on screen and behind the camera, including David Simon and George Pelecanos. Ive been waiting for you all my life and now youre here and Im an old lady. But lets see what I can do. English, Spain Baltimore is rocked by the Freddie Gray protests. What really got me with the Baltimore Rising cast is I saw them speak at a museum and I was like, Oh my god! I cried. Baltimore prosecutors want greater flexibility to undo convictions after Gun Trace Task Force scandal. He enjoyed the admiration and respect of his superiors and was given special privileges. 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. So there was something different. So to me, that was a microcosm of the macrocosm. How, why and by whom has never been solved. English, United States I think of Baltimore as my soul home, Sohn, 57, says by phone from North Carolinas Outer Banks. Jenkins duly tested his colleagues willingness to put personal loyalty to him above their oaths to uphold the law. It begins with dramatic real-life body-cam footage filmed just after a shooting in the Harlem Park neighborhood of Baltimore. We Own This City seems to question not whether good policing exists but whether the current system makes it impossible. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I got one officer down. By Samuel Sasu April 26, 2022. A still from "Adrienne.". In a war, you count the bodies and then you call them victories., Its a strong editorial, but that does not make for a great show. Rather than just railing against the GTTF, Watkins spends time discussing the numerous similarities he shares with one of the convicted officers in order to highlight how Baltimores problems are less about individuals than about the environment in which theyre raised and operate. Nick. 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. Officers tell me that its a new day over there and everybodys wearing body cameras all the time, which wasnt the case until pretty late in the investigation of the gun trace taskforce. 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? Fenton commented: Every officials talking about reform, reform, reform and you think that all eyes are on the police department and everybodys behaving their best and yet this is going on. Thats a terrible fucking idea. English, Vietnam 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. 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. Looking for more? I was railing when there was nobody railing with me. He was law enforcement. 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 . On Nov. 15, 2017, Suiter was accompanying his rookie partner David Bomenka on an assignment when he allegedly spotted a suspicious figure in an alleyway in the citys Harlem Park neighborhood. In January, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh fired her police commissioner and replaced him with former Deputy Commissioner Darryl De Sousa, who promised sweeping reforms to the department. Momodu Gondo finds himself in an interrogation. Whatever Happened to Permanent Daylight Saving Time? English, Denmark Then I thought, okay, heres the possibility of actually solving the case. I feel like the city is a reflection of my own psyche. He noted that the location of the lethal gunshot indicated that it could have been a self-inflicted wound, but later remarked that if Suiter was trying to cover up a suicide, he wouldnt have shot himself in the head; instead, he would have fired at his chest, which would have made it resemble a murder. The documentary focuses on Michael Dowd, a former police officer of 10 years, who was arrested in 1992, leading to one of . She is the director of the new HBO documentary called "The Slow Hustle." HBO alum Kary Antholis also serves as executive producer; Bill Zorzi as writer/co-executive producer, and D. Watkins as writer. I believe that this film substantiates further in a different way how broken the structure of law enforcement is. 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). 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. 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. Read on for more. I didnt know how much I had been impacted by it physically until 2020 came and I saw the correlation, she says. Despite numerous complaints, Hersl is placed on the GTTF. With police reform stalled in Congress, and Republicans stoking fear of rising crime in major cities, does she believe the momentum of the Black Lives Matter protests can be sustained? But it brought back the visceral sensation of being in Baltimore for the uprising that followed the death of Gray. Next June it will be 20 years since The Wire began its sprawling Dickensian portrait of Baltimore, Maryland, as a proxy for the decline and fall of the American empire. Richard Gonzales. HBO documentary about Baltimore Police and Detective Sean Suiter's death set to debut in December By Alex Mann Baltimore Sun Nov 12, 2021 at 11:03 am A documentary film profiling. English, Philippines That is the rumour that sweeps like a wildfire through the city and the fact thats the first theory that erupts says something on a larger scale about what could happen if the police dont get their act together and regain the trust of the people., Sohn adds: To me, what Nicole [Suiters widow] and the family are going through is the microcosmic example of what is happening to all of us, that when public institutions and structures dont get their act together, the people suffer and, in this instance, the family suffers.. 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